Julie Dennewitz: Nurturing Unconventional Gardens for Us All
If you’ve ever planted even one plant native to our region, then there’s a good chance you’ve helped at least one native caterpillar survive long enough to become a butterfly or a moth. As a result, you’ve probably indirectly contributed to the creation of more caterpillars, which means you’ve probably fed several songbirds, and maybe even a bird of prey, or maybe a snake, or a fox.
Julie Dennewitz, a horticulturist at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati, understands the importance of such seemingly tiny actions – of each person’s efforts to keep the diverse cogs of our environment functioning together in concert. She knows that by working with her hands to help native plants thrive, and teaching others to do the same, she can help tend and empower our entire community.
The Civic Garden Center (CGC) is an oasis. Located on Reading Road within the Hauck Botanic Gardens, an accredited arboretum, it is an inconspicuous, ten-acre alcove of towering native trees and sloping gardens tucked into the middle of a sea of pavement. But this oasis is not an isolated island. People can feel the effects of its work in nearly every nook of the city. Visitors and volunteers come from all over, ready to work and to learn, and many come into daily contact with one of the community veggie gardens or pollinator gardens the CGC has helped install around the city.
In early October, goldenrod and New England asters are just a few of the plants that greet visitors from the wayside of the visitor center’s covered porches. On the sunny afternoon I visited, the parking lot was flanked by the warm brown of wild oats and the vibrant spires of switchgrass, the white speckles of snakeroot flowers, and the giant leaves of lanky silphium. As I sat on the CGC’s peaceful porch and talked to Julie about her life and work among plants, it wasn’t lost on me that I was surrounded by more native plants and more people who care about them than I am most days of my life. One day, because of people like Julie, perhaps this will become a more frequent reality for not just me, but for all of us.
Interview by Taylor Luken.
Photography by Chelsie Walter.
Tell me about yourself and your journey to becoming a horticulturist in Cincinnati.
I've been with the Civic Garden Center for about a year and a half now. I grew up in the creek – I have always loved nature. I had a family who – it was just part of the way I grew up: birthday parties at the nature center, learning the names of the birds, always feeding them in the backyard, out in the garden with my parents, with my grandparents. So that was just the way of life to me.
And so, I never said ‘I want to be a horticulturist when I grow up,’ but just looking for ways to feel fulfilled at work and to work with my hands and to do something a little bit different, I found horticulturists. So I went to Cincinnati State and got a degree, and worked in a nursery, worked for an urban farm for a long time, did some traveling, and just spent some time out in natural places. I was living off the grid in a van in national forests for a summer, so that was really, really fun, exposed me to some different things. And I had a job at a nursery, and people were asking me, “Can you help me design my landscape?” And I was always trying to get native plants in there. I was like, “You could try this, you could try this.” And any time I was able to sell a plant that supported wildlife or supported pollinators, it felt like such a win. So then I was like, maybe I can just do this because this is what I really love, which is educating people. And when this job opening appeared, I knew about the Civic Garden Center. I'd been here before, but I was like, no way would they hire a little old me, but I got to go talk to them at the very least. And it was just a perfect fit. Now I literally am doing my dream job every single day.
Is there any specific plant species that feels special to you, or is somehow instrumental in your journey with plants?
I think that it has to be the oak tree, right? It's just. They call it a keystone species because the oak tree in North America and in our area has such a huge impact on its environment. It supports so many life forms. There are hundreds of species that literally could not exist without an oak tree. So growing up in the woods, climbing the tree, building the treehouse in the big red oak in the backyard, picking up acorns. Just the way that, as a child, you can play with an oak tree. It gives so much.
[The Civic Garden Center] has this beautiful collection of very old oaks, and to see all the life that they support… They're so special, and they live for such a long time. And they're just so dramatic in the landscape. My family has this land in southern Kentucky. We have a cabin up on a ridge, and my grandpa, God love him, he mows this whole five acres. He mows around this tree, it's like one of the biggest oaks I've ever seen, and this thing would just bring you to tears to see it. The way that it stretches out across this field. And so I think that's got to be like, top plant, for so many reasons.
What do you feel the Civic Garden Center brings to people's lives? When you see people come through the door, when you interact with them or do educational programming, what do you see come alive within people?
I think what the Civic Garden Center really brings to people is the opportunity to find community in nature in the city. We have kids who come here on field trips, and they've never seen a butterfly before, and now suddenly they and their friends are running after them in the garden. We have older people who have been volunteering here for literally decades, who have built these really deep friendships outside of even just their volunteering. People come to our classes, and they make connections and have conversations with each other. They come to a volunteer day, and they might befriend someone that they never would have met in normal life. And it's all united by this love of nature and by this want to be out in it and be a steward of nature.
It's not just learning how to garden or whatever. It's not just growing things. It's community building around that shared love.
Could you run me through a part of a recent day here?
Just last weekend, I had the privilege of partnering with another non-profit organization in the community. We worked with the Talbert House to install a native plant pollinator garden in front of their new building. I'm so proud of it. It's right there by their sign for anyone to drive past and see nine different species of native plants that are going to support pollinators from spring into late autumn.
And we brought some of our volunteers, some of our really dedicated volunteers from the CGC, whom I already knew, and then they also provided some youth volunteers from their job training program. And these kids were sleepy and not dressed for gardening, but they were so ready to work, and they were ready to learn. And we just had so much fun getting down in the dirt and exploring these plants and doing something we had never done before. And when I was speaking to one woman from the Talbert House, she said, “Well, you know, Alicia started the day, and she was like, well, at least I learned what I don't want to do. And then by the end of it, she said, actually, this was pretty fun.” So it's days like that where I'm somebody's first contact point with gardening and with plants, and take them from this place where they're sort of reluctant, they're being dragged along, and we move them into some interest, some curiosity, and some excitement from it.
This Community Mix series is also about birds. You said that you're also a backyard birdwatcher, so could you talk a little bit about how this place and how native plant gardens support populations of Ohio birds?
You cannot have native birds without native plants, and all of the backyard bird feeders in the world, although I have like – hang on, let me count – six bird feeders and hummingbird feeders. I love my bird feeders, and we have a couple here as well, but all the bird feeders in the world are not going to support our bird populations because even our seed-eating, nesting songbirds need caterpillars, specifically caterpillars to raise their babies on.
Baby birds cannot eat seeds, so we have to support insects, and we only support insects by providing what they eat, which is native plants. So it's really, really important to understand which plants host native insects, which is another reason I love oaks and sunflowers as well, so much because they provide a ton of those services. We have to give these animals space to exist.
There is a very famous entomologist named Douglas Tallamy, and he has been a big advocate for native plants in support of birds. And his research showed that a nesting pair of chickadees needed 6,000 caterpillars to raise their babies to adulthood. 6,000! And that's just one pair of chickadees. I have a whole flock of chickadees in my yard, so that's telling me that the caterpillars are there, and that makes me feel really, really proud. So when we're growing things in our backyard, every little bit counts so much. If we're only planting things that don't support any other life forms, then we might as well just have statues out there, because we're not building into that ecosystem, and we're not going to be able to support those birds.
There are many people who think that the scale of the issues that the planet faces is too large. What would you tell someone who thinks we are facing, with the climate crisis, invasive species, and so on, too monumental a problem?
I would tell them it's never too late. It's not. And these animals are so resilient. It's never too late.
We have so many case studies. Bald eagles were about to go extinct, and then we banned DDT, and now I see them on the Miami River. Monarch populations last winter were the lowest ever recorded, and there's a sinking feeling in my stomach when I read a statistic like that, but this summer I had five milkweed plants in my yard, and they're eaten down to the stem by monarch caterpillars. These caterpillars were going crazy, and everyone I've talked to about it is saying, “Oh, I saw so many monarchs this year!” People are hearing about this [problem], so they're planting milkweed. I'm only one person; I can only plant one milkweed, but if you're a monarch caterpillar, that's literally the only food you can eat. You'll be really grateful for that milkweed. And isn't making the difference in one caterpillar's life something? Because maybe she grows up and then she lays more eggs and then we have more. It's this ripple effect. The moment we say, “Oh, it's too late, it's not worth trying” – that's the really scary moment, because I think our world is so resilient and we're resilient and these plants are resilient, and we can come out on the other side.
Do you have any other stories about wildlife in your backyard?
Watching the goldfinches just brings me so much joy. Goldfinches love seeds: we put nyre seed in our feeders for them, but as far as native plants go, they love oxeye sunflower, they love purple coneflower, gray-head coneflower; they love cup plant and prairie dock, and these are tall plants – they dry out and then the seeds are up there. I have all this purple coneflower in my front yard and a long driveway up a hill to get to my house, and every single day I came home this summer, a flock of goldfinches would disperse from the coneflower, and it was just like, “Yay, you're home!” It's just so much fun, and you see them here, too, even out along the sidewalk; they go crazy for these plants. I think there's something so joyful about pulling up to a place to be met with goldfinches. They're my favorite – they're so beautiful. And they're so easy, please! I really appreciate that about them.
Is there anything that you really hope to achieve here, or hope that the whole of the CGC achieves in the coming years?
Yeah! The Civic Garden Center always has a ton of different projects ongoing, and it's all to support our mission, which is building community through gardening, education, and environmental stewardship.
I think the partnerships that we've been doing with other organizations, like the Talbert House – [and] we did one last year with the Community Action Agency, where we put in a pollinator garden on their campus – more things like that, because this place is beautiful and we've spent decades tending it. Anyone who comes here falls in love. They're like, “Wow, this is the nicest garden, I had no idea it was here!”
For me, I look around at the rest of Cincinnati, especially neighborhoods like Bond Hill, Rose Lawn, Avondale, and Walnut Hills that maybe don't have that many native plants in them, that don't have a lot of wildlife, and that don't have ways for the community to access those things. I want to put more gardens into those places. We're working on a park in Price Hill later this season, on a residential street in Price Hill, but it's a vacant lot where people let their dogs poop. And we're going to plant oak trees and pollinator plants and put a picnic table in it so that people can gather there and say, “Hey, you're invited, this isn't like a walled-off garden, come and be in it.” And I want to do more of that. I want to see our name around the city, and I want people to know about us and support us in the work we're doing, and come on this amazing journey with us.
Do you have a pretty regular team of volunteers, or a lot of new people who come in and join you at any time?
Both. We get a lot of volunteers. I have to say, people are ready to get dirty. We have regular work days every Wednesday and every Friday.
On Wednesday, it's a group of older women named The Dirt Crew – they've literally been coming for as long as we've been alive. And then on Fridays, that's our Hands On At Hauck, which is an educational volunteer experience where you can also learn how to garden, which is what people are looking for, you know? They're like, “I have a yard, but I don't really know what to do.” I'm like, “Well, come practice on mine!” So we have regulars, and then we get some new folks every season. And then we have school groups and corporate groups and church groups and just all types of folks. Sometimes they don't know what they're in for. I don't always take it easy on them.
As we head into the winter months, do you slow down at all?
I wish! I have a houseplant series, so we will do some indoor gardening in the wintertime. [Winter is] when we do a lot of planning. Planning for your garden for next year, getting your seed catalog. And winter is super important to our birds as well. Making sure there's something in your garden for them to eat. Again, a bird feeder is great, but what they really want is native shrubs that have berries on them. Because those berries have the fats and the carbohydrates that they need to survive the winter.
What would some of those native shrubs be?
Spicebush is a really, really nice one. Winterberry, too – easy to remember that name.
Our native viburnums, like Blackhaw and Arrowwood, are just wonderful. Again, the berries are super nutrient-dense dense so whether you're migrating or you're sticking around, you're going to be able to pack on the calories if you're a songbird. Honeysuckle, which is the invasive shrub that has conquered a lot of our city, is covered in berries [but they’re] completely empty calories – void of nutrients that our songbirds need. So having nothing but honeysuckle to eat means that they're really going to be struggling through the winter. Providing those other food sources is critical.
Do you have any go-to spots for birdwatching, especially as the winter months are approaching?
If I tell people my favorite spot, will it blow up? But listen, we're going to need a distraction this winter, I think, so we need Fernald Preserve. No questions there, it's my favorite place in Cincinnati, and it's close to my house, so I'm a little bit biased. When I say it's never too late, I mean, Fernald, what an incredible story of restoration. To go from a uranium refining factory that poisoned everyone in the community to this beautiful wetland and nature preserve. I also got married at Fernald.
It was this horrible place that was degrading the environment, poisoning the groundwater, and giving people cancer. And the community came together, and the environmental lawyers got it shut down and then restored. And it's still owned by the Department of Energy, which is kind of interesting, but it's this huge wetland preserve, and it's so beautiful.
If somebody is at the beginning of their native plant journey, where would you send them to source native plants or to get started?
I would invite them to come and take a class here at the Civic Garden Center. We teach native plants for all kinds of different situations, from a 101 to very site-specific solutions. In September, we have our Fall Native Plant Festival, which is this really cool event where we – first of all, we spent the season growing 4,000 native plants this year, different Ohio species from seed. And so we had those for sale, but we also invited all of these other vendors to join us and to sell their stuff as well, and to be experts here on the property so that you can go to one place and talk to those experts.
As far as other nurseries in the city, Keystone Flora is great. They are appointment only. And then there is Natives In Harmony, which is out of Cincinnati, a little bit, but another really knowledgeable grower. The [Cincinnati Zoo’s] Bowyer Farm has been growing a ton of stuff, and I think they only have a few sales a year.
The problem with buying native plants is that it is a hunt. You've got to hunt them down, and that's where I think that consumer demand is going to play such a big role. I already see it at more conventional nurseries, people going in and saying, I want to plant natives. The industry is going to have to respond to that demand, and so you're starting to see pollinator-friendly Ohio native plants at places like White Oak Garden Center.
Why is fall a good time to plant native plants?
Spring is okay, too. Honestly, you can plant any time the ground is not frozen. The best time to plant is when you’ve got a shovel and a couple of hours of free time.
But fall is really, really good because our plants are starting to go dormant right now. So they're putting a lot of energy out of their stems and back into their roots. And that root establishment is key for the long-term health of trees and of perennials. So if you're planting in the fall, hopefully the ground is a little bit softer, a little bit moister. We haven't gotten a lot of rain this fall, but the temperatures are a little milder, so the plants aren't going to be under a lot of stress. That predator pressure has kind of decreased a little bit. So, not that I have any problem with aphids, but it can be stressful to be a brand new plant and then be immediately attacked by aphids or some other kind of predator. So fall is a really good time for lessening those pressures and just letting plants dig those roots really nice and deep.
Then in the spring, they can come back really, really strong.
Do you have any tips and tricks for people who have decided they’re going to put native plants in their front yard, but they're the only ones on their street? Tips for keeping a native plant garden maintained and managed, and thinking about the neighbors?
When you are the pioneer and you're the first one planting native on your street, there's something called “cues to care” that are things that we can do to demonstrate that, yes, this looks unconventional, but obviously someone is taking care of it. Having clean edges, having borders on your beds rather than letting the grass grow into the garden, and you don't know where one ends and one begins. Having a nice clean edge with some woodchip mulch down is gonna show people, I know it looks crazy in there, but it's obviously on purpose. Leaving a little bit of lawn and keeping that well-maintained to prove that there's somebody home taking care of the property, especially around the sidewalk.
I think native gardeners are exuberant, and they want to get as much biodiversity in as they can, but you don't want plants reaching out to get in people's way when they're walking down the road, or you don't want them impeding somebody who might have some mobility limitations. That can be really off-putting. So, keeping the plants back a little bit, keeping your really tall stuff towards the back or towards the house, so it doesn't get in anyone's way. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can maybe leave your seed heads up for the birds in some areas, but trim them down in others.
We have a hybrid management strategy here where some of the really front-facing areas we do keep a little bit more manicured, and that is almost tricking people into feeling comfortable coming in. They're like, “Oh, this is a garden, I know what a garden looks like, I recognize this.” And then they get back here and they're like, “Whoa!” but it's too late – they're already here. Finding a way to ease people in and then having conversations with your neighbors. Be out there in the front yard taking care of those plants so that when they walk by and they're like, “Are you going to mow that?” You can say, “Actually, I'm not, and here's why.” Be that first person – because you don't know who you might inspire.
Is there an influential woman or gender expansive person in your life who's shaped who you are?
I gotta say my mom, right? When she was in college, she spent a summer in Maine volunteering with the Audubon Society, taking care of birds. She is a lifelong birder and a lover of nature, and I think that story of her being in Maine for Audubon and then growing up, always naming the birds to me and naming the plants and the flowers, and valuing the little wild flowers that nobody even thinks about. I really appreciate that.
And even today, she has this incredible native plant meadow in her front yard. She lives in Westwood on a little pocket lot, but she's totally transformed the front yard into a meadow and the backyard into a woodland, and it's so inspiring and it's so artfully done. She has inspired other people in her community. She created this native plant society in Westwood, and they do this garden tour every summer – they go visit other people's yards. She had 70 people come on the tour this year. It's amazing. And she had owls nesting in her pine tree last year – I think it was a screech owl.
And she's always doing community stuff, and she's always complaining about it, “Oh, I'm such an introvert. I don't like people, I just want to be with my plants.” But I'm like, you are a liar – the plants are this inroad for you to build community in your neighborhood. She's lived in Westwood for over 20 years, so everybody knows her. She's so cool.