New app guides Texans in growing native plants

Julie Shaddox of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation shares details about the Wild Thumb app developed for Texas to assist users who want to build out their own landscapes with native plants.

Transcript

Marshall Hinsley:

An app to help you grow Texas Natives in this episode of the Texas Green Report, a production of The Memnosyne Institute and Green Source Texas.

I'm Marshall Hinsley.

Joining us in this episode is Julie Shaddox, director of Development and Conservation Programs for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Julie, what is this new app that the foundation has produced?

Julie Shaddox:

We developed an app called Wild Thumb and the app aims to help everyday Texans learn how to use more native plants in their yards and gardens, towards the ultimate goal of benefiting pollinators and increasing available pollinator habitat in the state.

Marshall Hinsley:

Why was this app dreamed up? What was the problem you were solving?

Julie Shaddox:

The app is part of our Pollinators and Prairies program, and Pollinators and Prairies seeks to increase the quality and quantity of pollinator habitat in the State of Texas. A lot of people don't realize that grasslands -- which are also called prairies and are the primary habitat for pollinators -- grasslands are actually the number one most endangered habitat type in North America, and we've also seen a lot of declines in various pollinator species, such as the Monarch butterfly and the American bumblebee. And so the app helps everyday Texans take little actions like using native plants in their yards and gardens to help pollinators.

Marshall Hinsley:

Can you, as if taking a look at the app right now, sort of walk me through what I would see and what I can do on the app?

Julie Shaddox:

Yeah, when you download the app, the first thing that you do is you enter your zip code and the app, uh, from your zip code. It tells you what eco region you're in. And then once you know what eco region you're in, you tell the app what kind of space you wanna plant in. 

You can plant in a landscaping bed; you can plant a, a pocket prairie, which is sort of a bigger section of your yard with an assemblage of different species.

Or you can actually plant in potted plants on your porch or your balcony, whatever space you have. 

So you tell the app what kind of space you wanna plant -- what kind of project you wanna do. You answer some very basic questions about how much light you have in your space. And once the app knows your eco region and your space and the light that you have available, the app gives you a list of plants that you can select from and you can, there's a really neat tool you can drag and drop the plants onto your, your space that you're planting and design your garden.

And the app takes you through all of that, gives you tips on how to buy your plants, where to buy your plants, and then following through to help you be successful. The app gives you ongoing maintenance, watering tips, and freeze alerts to help you keep your plants alive.

Marshall Hinsley: 

So this is much more sophisticated than just a text-based presentation.

Julie Shaddox: 

Correct. Yeah. We wanted to make the app really engaging and we wanted to help, especially people that don't have a lot of experience or a lot of expertise, get started and be successful.

Some people do have tons of knowledge about gardening and native plants, but you don't have to have that knowledge just to get started.

Marshall Hinsley: 

This app was developed in partnership with other organizations. Is that right?

Julie Shaddox:

So HEB is the presenting sponsor of our Pollinators and Prairies program. Phillips 66 is a contributing sponsor. Outside is the app development company that we worked with, and we also received a lot of really valuable input from Native Plant Society of Texas in helping build the custom native plant database that makes up the sort of backbone of the app.

Marshall Hinsley: 

And what is the bigger vision behind the app?

Julie Shaddox: 

The goal is for all of us to come together and take these small steps like planning native plants to help increase the available habitat for pollinators and do our own little small part in protecting and conserving grassland species and pollinators.

Marshall Hinsley: 

So have you used the app

Julie Shaddox: 

Yes, I have used the app. Yeah. I have created a project -- there's a little area of my yard where I wan to plant some Turks cap and another spot I wan to put some little blue stem in. So I'm kind of planning that out and, and getting ready for when it's time to get out in my garden and buy my plants.

Marshall Hinsley: 

What categories of plants will be found in this app? We're talking about, I'm sure, flowers and shrubs. Are we also talking about trees?

Julie Shaddox:

So the app has flower species, grasses, shrubs, some plants that you might say they're a smaller tree, but not any like big trees, as it were.

Some of the native plant species that people might have heard of are Turks cap, which have really, really beautiful pink and red flowers on them.

Or, native grasses, like little blue stem. But there's a, a lot of other plants that I hadn't heard of before we started the app or that other people may not have heard of. And we have over 50 plants in the app database.

Marshall Hinsley: 

I don't want to say anything disparaging about trees. I love trees, but. I think that oftentimes when people think about bringing benefit to an area, especially even in Texas, they think about planting a tree.  And open land is just seen as kind of barren. But, what we actually find is that open land is prime for grassland or prairies, right?

Julie Shaddox: 

Yeah, absolutely. I'm so glad you brought that up, because grasslands, a prairie can have as much or more biodiversity as a rainforest actually. 

And grassland habitat is the number one most endangered habitat type in North America. And as much as 98% of Texas's historic tall grass prairie no longer exists.

And I think that that is part of it, right? We just see an empty field. It's not empty, right? It looks empty, but it's teaming with life and biodiversity. And that is a lot of what's native to Texas for big parts of the state, right. 

And I think that's one message we want people to learn, that these prairies -- they may look humble, but they're hugely important and they're full of life.

Native grasses have huge root systems and so they help the landscape, absorb water and hold water a lot better than the kind of turf grasses that we might see in a lot of our yards.

Marshall Hinsley:

And of course additionally in a planned planting area in a yard, they require much less in terms of resources.

Julie Shaddox:

Correct. Yeah. That's a huge benefit of using native plants -- is they use a lot less water. They're drought tolerant. They can more easily withstand the extreme heat that we see in the summers here, and so that's also another benefit.

Marshall Hinsley:

Thank you, Julie. 

The Wild Thumb app is available in the App Store and Google Play.

For the Texas Green Report. I'm Marshall Hinsley. 

Discover more about the people keeping Texas beautiful and wild at GreenSourceTexas.org.