WEBVTT 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 [Gary Cocke] Hello, my name is Gary Cocke. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 I'm our Director of Sustainability at UTD 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.000 and I'm coming to you from my modest home garden, 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 and I wanted to speak to everybody a little bit 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 about native plants and water conservation. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 I think that this is one of the biggest things and one of the simplest things 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 that we can be talking about as a region. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.500 We live in an area where we have a water system 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.000 that was essentially built to support a couple 100,000 people, 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:33.000 and we now have a couple million people living in our region, 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 and we have an increasingly unpredictable climate. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.000 So with climate change upon us, we know that we're going to probably get less rain 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000 and it's going to be more variable in nature. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.000 So one of the things that we can be doing is using less of that water outdoors. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000 We use as much as 2/3 of our water outside 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.000 to grow grass that is not native and provides no real ecological value. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 So one of the big things that I think we can be doing 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 is planting native plants and using less water, 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.000 only using the rainfall to provide the water that they need, 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:13.000 and we can also be providing habitat for our native pollinators. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Hopefully we'll see monarchs or a hummingbird during this video. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.000 It is the monarch migration, and I've seen a few out here. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 One of the big things that I tell everybody 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.500 is that it doesn't need to be intimidating. 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:34.000 My garden is not the best garden, but it's something that I've been able to do. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.500 It brings some joy to me. 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:40.000 I put some plants into the ground and everybody can be doing this type of thing. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 If you're interested in what the right plants would be, 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000 a good resource is the Texas SmartScape. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 It's an initiative by the North Central Texas Council of Governments 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.000 and they've brought together a team of experts. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:59.000 They've identified native and adaptive plants that will work well in our environment, 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.000 they'll support pollinators, and they'll help with water conservation. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.000 So if you go to TXSmartScape.com 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.000 you can sort by -- if you want a shade-tolerant plant, 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.000 if you're looking for a ground cover, 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.000 if you're looking for a perennial shrub, 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.000 if you're looking for a particular bloom color, 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 or if you know you want to be attracting butterflies -- 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.500 you can put all of that in there 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:23.000 and it'll just give you the plants that will work well for your landscape. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Pick some plants, go out there, do your best, and enjoy the gardening. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.000 So what I've done is I have Shasta Daisy here. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:37.000 You can actually see --if we were able to get in tight-- 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:41.000 we have some some pollinators on the yellow blooms there already. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 This is something that I picked up this year, 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 so this was a transplant that I put into the garden. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.000 It is a perennial, so that means it should come back year after year. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:59.000 This is a Salvia. I planted it last year and it has already begun to come back. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:03.000 This is going to probably get a couple feet taller and probably a couple feet wider 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.000 and I've actually got a few volunteers that have come up right next to it too, 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.000 So it's not only thriving, but it's reproducing in the garden. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:17.000 It will have colorful blooms and it will also provide a nectar source for pollinators 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 once it starts to bloom. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.000 I have a Coreopsis flower here. We have Lyreleaf Sage 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 --This is something we picked because I've got a huge Maple tree here 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000 and this does really well in the shade, 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000 so I've got it planted more close to the tree. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.000 We have a different variety of Shasta Daisy. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 This one is not doing so well, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 so it kind of goes to goes back to go out there, give it a try. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:45.000 If it not, everything's going to work. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.000 If it doesn't work, we'll get rid of it. We'll try something else. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:55.000 We've got a couple other Salvias, a couple other Coreopsis, another Lyreleaf Sage. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.000 These are actually really interesting 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.000 because last year they weren't doing very well, 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.000 but they've come back and they seem to be thriving this year. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.000 We have Lamb's Ear here. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:08.000 It's called Lamb's Ear because it's very soft 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:11.000 and if you close your eyes you can almost envision 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 that you're petting a lamb's ear there. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:18.000 We have a Honeysuckle that will be coming back 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 and then back here there's the shade gets real dense, 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.000 so I've got a couple Oakleaf Hydrangeas. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.000 These are going to do well in the shade. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 They're going to provide a pretty large backdrop. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 Once these are mature, they'll be probably 6ft tall 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 and they have very interesting white blooms. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 So this will be a bloom. All of these will be blooms. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.000 So they really do a good job 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.000 providing an anchor to the garden 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.000 and providing an interesting bloom as well. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:51.000 All of these are native plants. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:52.500 They are all going to conserve water. 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:56.000 They should all do well with the rainfall that we've received. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 They should bring in the butterflies, the hummingbirds, 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.000 -- we've got a bee house here -- and it just brings enjoyment to my life. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:04.500 I enjoy the gardening. 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.000 I enjoy looking out the window 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.000 and looking at the bees and the butterflies, and it's easy to do. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.000 It's something everybody can do and it really has a big impact. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.000 Like I said, we're going to need to be changing our relationship with water 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.000 and this is a great way to do it, 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.000 so I encourage everybody to get out there and start gardening.