Helping Hands

Going native is easier than it used to be, thanks to the growing sources of assistance.

A mentorship program in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago is one of the best examples we’ve seen.  Paul Costoff didn’t quite know what to do about a thorny runoff problem that was digging a gully in his front yard in Crystal Lake.  But then he met H. M. Hepperlen, another Crystal Lake homeowner, who took Costoff under his wing and helped him solve the problem with a rain garden filled with native plants.  Hepplerlen belongs to a local McHenry County group that helps members get their feet wet in natural landscaping.  Hepperlen serves as one of the mentors because of his experience with native plants in his own yard.  The mentorship is the brainchild of the Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee (WPPC), whose longish name pretty much sums up its mission.  Hepperlen helped Costoff every step of the way in establishing a rain garden that features edges along with deep-rooted native grasses and forbs.   A side benefit was how well the project clicked with Costoff’s sons, Mason and Wyatt, especially 10-year-old Wyatt, who taught himself to name and identify all of the some 40 species in the garden at any stage of growth.  For more on the WPPC: http://www.thewppc.org/
  

Paul Costoff got help with his rain garden while his boys cultivated a new interest in native plants