IF YOU GO
What: "Meadowscaping: A Recipe for Healthy Urban and Suburban Landscapes" seminar.
When: 7 p.m. Monday.
Where: Chattanooga State Community College's Humanities Auditorium, 4501 Amnicola Highway.
Admission: $10 adults, $5 students and seniors over 65. Advance registration not required.
Website: www.chattanooganatives.blogspot.com/p/meeting-schedule.html.
Documentary filmmaker and organic landscaper designer Catherine Zimmerman of Washington, D.C., is coming to Chattanooga on Monday to teach area residents how to make meadows in their yards.
Sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones, Zimmerman will present "Meadowscaping: A Recipe for Healthy Urban and Suburban Landscapes." Area residents will be given step-by-step instructions on how to transform any size of land into a meadow.
Meadowscaping helps people to eliminate pesticides on their lawns while returning land to a natural habitat for native plants and wildlife.
The presentation will cover why meadow and prairie habitats are beneficial economically and environmentally, according to a news release.
"Catherine's point with meadowscaping is anyone can install a meadow, large or small, to replace turf grass sections of your yard," said Sally Wencel, a local member of Wild Ones. "If there is enough sun for grass, there is enough sun for a meadow."
Wencel said meadows do not harbor rats and vermin; they don't harbor mosquitoes (meadow plants are often drought-resistant and therefore do not create or thrive in standing water), and meadows aren't responsible for generating allergy-inducing pollen.
Feature writer Karen Nazor Hill covers fashion, design, home and gardening, pets, entertainment, human interest features and more. She also is an occasional news reporter and the Town Talk columnist. She previously worked for the Catholic newspaper Tennessee Register and was a reporter at the Chattanooga Free Press from 1985 to 1999, when the newspaper merged with the Chattanooga Times. She won a Society of Professional Journalists Golden Press third-place award in feature writing for ...
