This year our committee selected the front yard of Jeff and Terri Ilten, who live in Lake St. Louis, in St Charles County. Terri was a Master Gardener in their previous state of Iowa, and she is a member of the Jardin do Lac Garden Club in Lake St Louis. As a former middle school teacher, after completing a prairie unit in the classroom, she and her students
planted a native prairie garden on the school property.
Jeff and Terri have a large front yard, with a Little Free Library which get visited by children and adults, and the school bus stop is at their corner, providing the opportunity to expose many to the value of planting with native Missouri plants. They also removed an invasive pear tree from their front yard and were looking for a native replacement along with the new
garden. They installed a redbud tree in one end of the plot, and a metal deer sculpture in the other end. They prepped the area with cardboard and mulch, and Jeff installed a stone border. They also added steppingstones from the library to the garden to welcome folks to
come in to see what is growing.
With full sun, our designer and member Jim Stellern picked prairie plants, and we were able to plant 92 plants, 16 species. We purchased all the plants through Missouri Wildflower Nursery. The Iltens were consulted at each stage of the process and were active participants throughout.
The plants were picked up at the fall plant sale at Shaw Nature reserve, and the installation was the next morning.
The St Charles chapter of Wildones appreciates Grow Native’s financial support in this endeavor.
If you would like a front yard native garden and install, look for the 2025 contest which will begin in January 2025.
A Thank You from the Itens: Your group was fabulous from the application, to the design and planning, and finally the planting. People have loved the plant tags, especially with the pictures of how the plants will look when grown. We were gone for two weeks but the irrigation did the job. With the heavy rain, water drained well. I’ve included a couple pictures showing how well the garden is doing. Lots of butterflies coming through and stopping at my other gardens. I’m sure this new garden will attract even more. Can you pass on our thanks to the rest of the group for us.
Planting, September 7, 2024
Thanks to Jim Stellern, Patty and Steve Berry, Mike Wreath, Charlie Schmidt, Michael and Sara Gysbers and to Terri and Jeff Ilten for all the help!