Join the Garden Tour
We will be touring Crem’s Garden on Saturday, July 20th, 2024 from Noon to 2 pm. Members are encouraged to bring a friend and to carpool. See all of our upcoming events and register for the address on our Events Calendar.
Crem Dias’ home is located on a lovely traditional residential street in Albany. But her landscaping is anything but traditional; she would describe it as, “a free for all.” The first thing you’ll see is a “hellstrip”, buzzing with activity and filled with “mostly” native plants, many from seed dispersal by wind or birds. There is not a blade of grass in her front yard and it is filled with a combination of trees, bushes and perennials. Her backyard is filled with raised beds for the many herbs and vegetables she grows, in addition to native trees and shrubs, vines, perennials and annuals.
How it Started
In 1995, when she moved in, it was typically planted with a patch of poor growing grass, yews and junipers which they tore out, and a red maple, and a rhododendron, which they kept. The grass always looked awful. She and her husband pulled out the grass and tried replanting. Still it did not thrive and she determined that it was the poor soil and decided to get rid of it.
She started at the outside of the lawn and gradually, over many years, began planting to “shrink the lawn”. This was a process and she suggests that if anyone is interested in ridding themselves of their lawn, they start small, with one strip and go from there. Her education was through trial and error.
How it is Going
She attributes a lot of her success to Mother Nature. Plants like milkweed, goldenrod and joe pye weed just showed up, and she credits the wind, the birds and a nearby pond for these, as they have come on their own. She invites these “volunteers” to stay, if they are well behaved and stay in certain areas. As gardeners say, “Mother Nature designs and I edit.”
Crem has always liked plants. She started with houseplants and when her first apartment had a small garden she started growing vegetables. She had little experience but began reading and enjoyed her successes. Mother nature designs and I edit.
Her landscape is maintenance free. She doesn’t water. She has no grass to mow and as she lets the leaves lay in the fall, the soil improves and the garden doesn’t get weedy. Another advantage she sees is her plants multiply and she has seedlings to give others.
Lessons Learned
- Know what you have and how it behaves (or you risk battling with it to keep it under control)
- Know where to put a plant before you buy it
- Be curious and courageous
- new mantra: “it has to be edible,” in that it feeds something, be it insect, animal or humans
Wild Ones
Wild Ones Capital Region New York is a chapter of a national organization promoting the use of native plants in every garden. Membership is a great way to support this mission on both a local and national level. Check out membership.wildones.org for more details including all the great benefits you will receive as a member. Our local chapter works diligently to provide specific information about our local native plants. Even if you are a Wild One’s member, please consider donating directly to our chapter.