Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 749, now it's FLX Morning, it's the Wednesday Guest-O-Rama edition, and we've got a native plant sale coming up this weekend, and joining us in studio, we have Richard Cox, he is with the City, Town, School District, Green Committee, good morning.
Richard Cox: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: And one of our plant suppliers is here, that's Jim Norwalk, good morning to you.
Jim Norwalk: Hi everyone.
Paul Szmal: So we're hoping that we'll also get Ellen Foltz in, she tried to zoom in, and we still had the other interview going on, so Richard, just remind us about date, place, and time, and the purpose behind this sale.
Richard Cox: Okay, this Saturday is our sixth native plant sale since 19, uh, 2022, and it will be at the Visitor Center in the middle of the Farmer's Market.
Paul Szmal: And so, remind us the importance of native plants, one of the things they can do is help crowd out the invasive ones that we don't want.
Richard Cox: Yeah, well Jim is probably better equipped to tell you about all of them since he grows them.
Paul Szmal: Alright, and tell us about your business.
Jim Norwalk: Well, so I run a small native plant nursery here in Geneva up on Route 14, just north of the City, and I've been in business for a couple years, and my business model is to grow only plants that are locally native to the Finger Lakes region, and I get that data from the government, you know, mapping and stuff like that.
So yeah, as far as native plants go, you know, we need to kind of keep the relationship going between plants, landscape, and insects, and other animals that have evolved to be here. So that's why we want people to kind of, where they can, choose to use native plants in their landscape, in their home, or in their business, in their yard, on their farms, any place where they're not actively using the grounds for something else.
So you know, we're trying to promote the idea of a different kind of aesthetic around landscaping, where it's not necessarily just decorative, it has habitat values as well. And so, you know, I think for the most part, you know, the scale we're working, it's mainly insects and birds that are benefiting from this type of work, but we want them integrated into our built environment.
Paul Szmal: So how has that educational process been going for you? Are people buying into it and saying, okay, I'm with you, and give me all natives?
Jim Norwalk: I mean, on a personal level, yes. I mean, I get a lot of positive feedback, but you know, I think it's sometimes a challenging sell to people who think of, especially in the home landscape, they think of tulips, and forsythia, and, you know, some of the other plants that look cool and kind of have a decorative value, but don't necessarily host pollinators, or, you know, moths and butterfly larvae that feed birds and things like that. So they're kind of, non-native plants tend to be sterile, decorative items that don't serve it.
Paul Szmal: Now, see, I didn't realize that. I was thinking more in terms of, you know, we hear about, for example, water chestnuts are invasive and they grow everywhere, but you're saying one of the bigger threats here is that just with these non-native plants, you don't get your bees and your helpful insects that are good for the whole environment, your whole yard.
Jim Norwalk: Correct.
Richard Cox: So, actually, Geneva Bid has been helping in that educational process with their lakefront native gardens, and then supporting those gardens on Seneca this last year and redesigning them, and they now have a map for a tour of the downtown area with the different plants in it that you can pick up at the Bid office.
Paul Szmal: Oh, wow, that's neat.
Richard Cox: And, you know, we have, right down at the Visitor Center, our Rotary Club has a patch down there that we maintain as well.
Paul Szmal: So it's been a while since we've talked. Remind us about the Green Committee and the work it's doing.
Richard Cox: Well, the Green Committee was commissioned when the last big plan for the city of Geneva was created to help advise the city and its organizations on how to develop, continue to develop in community with the rest of nature, not just each other.
And it's interesting, all the different things that we can do, low-tech, high-tech. I talk to a Supervisor Vernuti every month, and I've been talking about the effort to build a reuse center in Geneva, and just to get those things out of the waste stream that would normally get thrown away.
Paul Szmal: That's right. Since you mentioned that, I'll give them a plug. This Sunday, there is a free stuff day at Geneva, and also a fix-it day.
Richard Cox: Ah, that's right, yeah. This coming Sunday.
Paul Szmal: And it's interesting, because they always talk about the free stuff day, the early part of the day is the drop-off, the second part's the pick-up, and it always comes out in the wash at the end. Whatever people bring, someone takes home. So the trash and treasure analogy is really true.
And if you want to have more information about that, if you go to their website, Town of Geneva website, there's a pop-up at the bottom right that will tell you what they can take and what you can take. And of course, the fix-it day, if you have a lamp that has a bad cord, somebody that knows how to rewire rewires it, and it just keeps those things out of the waste stream.
It's not all high-tech, sometimes it's just really simple solutions.
Richard Cox: Yes, yeah, that's right.
Paul Szmal: So remind us again, the date, place, and time for the fall native plant sale.
Richard Cox: The date is this coming Saturday, the time is 8 to 1.
Paul Szmal: So it's a great opportunity to extend your native plantings, or to start your native plantings in your garden, and to fix what you can, share what you don't need anymore, and take what you can use.
All right, and a couple of websites to check out, ButterflyEffectPlants.com. And I'm sorry that we were not able to get our third guest in on the Zoom. She tried and probably gave up on us. That is AmandasNativePlants.com.
Jim Norwalk: It's actually Amanda's Garden.
Paul Szmal: Okay, well it says here AmandasNativePlants.com, but Amanda's Garden is the business. So are you going to have a sale in the spring as well?
Jim Norwalk: Oh, of course.
Paul Szmal: All right. We'll talk about that. And come back any time, because I'm a big fan of what the Green Committee is doing, and I'd love to hear the latest.
Richard Cox: Okay. Thank you so much for having us.
Paul Szmal: Thank you both for your time.
Richard Cox, Jim Norwalk: Thanks. Appreciate it.
Paul Szmal: It's 7.56 now. It's the Wednesday edition of FLX Morning here on Finger Lakes Newsradio.
