Eleanore Milardo's Eco-Friendly Yard

My career as an operating room nurse ended in 1970 when I decided to open a natural food store, hoping to help people take charge of their health. I also went back to college and earned a master’s degree in clinical nutrition. I like to think of myself as one of the early pioneer nurses who started the holistic movement.

In the 1990s, however, I realized that eating the proper foods and taking supplements, without looking after the Earth, was not going to work. We needed to address the chemicals in our soil, water, and air. Knowing the story of the universe, I believed, would help people appreciate the interconnectedness of everyone and everything. I started a spiral garden in 1999 to tell the Sacred Story of the Universe, our story, to anyone who visited the garden. The labels in the final spiral describe what we are doing to the earth and what we can do to help. (See photo below)

I had always been an organic vegetable gardener but found I knew little about shrubs and perennials. To learn more, I entered the master gardener program, and planting with sustainability in mind became my focus. Although I had never used chemicals on my lawn, the front and side of the house were all grass. To break up the large areas of lawn, I planted native shrubs and flowers and kept some grass to serve as walkways. In choosing the plants, it was important to me to consider the needs of wildlife for food and shelter and how best to live with my fellow creatures.

A rock garden struck me as another way to reduce the size of my lawn and introduce variety into the yard.

In 1980 we retrofitted our house to create a passive solar room, and we were surprised to find our heating bill was cut in half. The sand and brick used in the construction of the room absorb heat from the sun and keep the room warm, even on cloudy days when the temperature is below freezing. A southern exposure, free of evergreen trees, is ideal for this type of approach. I take plants that have summered outdoors into this room in the winter, and they thrive. At the time we built this room, few contractors were familiar with a passive solar concept, but today there are many who can do this. PACE (People’s Action for Clean Energy) can also give helpful advice.

There is a rain garden at the edge of our back deck. Rain from the roof is directed into this raised bed, planted with plants that like being wet. Some of those visible in the photo are Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium), turtle head (Chelone), red cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis), sweet pepperbush (Clethra), pagoda dogwood (cornus alternifolia), sand highbush blueberry (vaccinium).

In Connecticut, we live in a watershed, and all of us need to take more responsibility for the condition of our water. With so many impervious surfaces in our environment, rain water runs off of roofs, patios, and driveways and picks up debris, oils, etc., that goes into our waterways. This rain garden allows water from the roof to slowly percolate through the soil and helps purify it before it reaches our streams and rivers.

In my spiral garden, I planted a variety of native shrubs and flowers. Some provide food for wildlife; others, nectar for insects. Invasive plants are killing Connecticut’s native shrubs and trees and eliminating much wildlife habitat. It is important to learn to identify invasive species and eliminate them from our gardens and landscapes. Many nurseries still sell these invasive plants, but hopefully most will eventually no longer be available.

There are too many plants in my spiral garden to include a complete list, but among those I used are mapleleaf (viburnum acerifolium), bayberry (Myrica), and trumpet honeysuckle (lonicera semperverins). This is the only native honeysuckle; all other varieties are invasive species. There are also tall grasses that are native to New England--big blue stem (androgpagnon gerardi) and switch grass (panicum virginium). When you witness birds on migration stopping to eat the seeds and swing from these grasses, you will be pleased you planted them.

This is a peace circle with the Earth in the center, painted as if you were seeing it from the Apollo spacecraft. The Earth is surrounded by stone formations like the Inui Indians use as markers for a shelter or a good fishing spot. Benches surround these stones, and at intervals in this outer circle are love letters to the Earth for each month of the year. These were written by a nun who lived in the woods for a year and wrote one letter each month. These are fun to read, particularly for the month of your birthday. Soon I will also display flags from all the world’s countries.