Roses, perennials and crape myrtles cover the hillsides in full bloom. Their colorful spectacle shouts constant upkeep with water, fertilizer and pesticide.
But the research gardens at Myers Park and Event Center sprout, for the most part, without. They are Earth-Kind gardens, and horticulturists all over Texas and the country have taken notice.
“We take the best organic and traditional horticulture practices and put them to the best possible use,” said Greg Church, Collin County’s Texas AgriLife Extension agent in charge of the park’s Earth-Kind dcor. “The goal is to have a beautiful landscape with minimal maintenance and protection for the environment.”
Earth-Kind principles have been around for nearly two decades, Church said, but as eco-friendly practices gain momentum, so does the landscape and gardening trend, particularly in McKinney. The 158-acre, county-owned park is home to separate Earth-Kind research gardens for Kordez roses, crape myrtles and 111 perennial plant species — the largest Earth-Kind undertaking in the nation.
Church, a horticulturist and plant pathologist, since 2010 has headed a team of AgriLife Extension agents and Collin County Master Gardeners in developing and studying the gardens. The AgriLife Extension service, based out of Texas AM University, has extension offices in every Texas county.
“Our mission is to improve the lives of Texans any way we can,” Church said. “With the horticulture program, we’re trying to make it easier on them to landscape and garden.”
And, at least in Collin County, the preferred method for ease rests on Earth-Kind practices. The Earth-Kind Environmental Stewardship Program is an American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)-recognized educational program focused on protecting the environment and conserving natural resources through research-based landscaping, gardening and agricultural production techniques.
Research protocol for the program excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and limits supplemental irrigation, Church said. Roses were the first large-scale test subject, and an ongoing state and national effort in recent years has yielded 23 rose cultivars as Earth-Kind — able to bloom and flourish using program protocol.
Church and Steve George, leader of the AgriLife Extension team that last year named the most recent Earth-Kind rose varieties, expanded the principles to other plant species, including the herbaceous and flowering perennials that beautify the Myers Park landscape.
Phase I of the Earth-Kind study began in May 2010, but perhaps its most-telling test came last summer during the state’s intense drought. Church and his AgriLife agents and volunteers watered the research gardens once, the first week of August, and the Earth-Kind plants passed the test with flying colors — literally.
“It was a great year to test them and see how drought-tolerant they are,” Church said. “We had at least 36 plants that performed very well; some were even blooming without any rainfall for two months. That’s pretty impressive.”
Soil management is a simple key to such success, he said. Earth-Kind practices call for landscapers and gardeners to amend the soil by adding three inches of compost, tilling, planting and topping with three inches of mulch. Church said the mulch, which must be maintained over time, acts as a slow-release fertilizer.
“If we have healthy soil, we’ll have healthy plants,” he said.
The Collin County crew then installed a research garden to evaluate 25 crape myrtle varieties, replicated 25 times, and another to study 19 Kordez Rose varieties, which were developed without pesticides, a rarity for roses.
Church will present the area’s Earth-Kind findings thus far to the ASHS this summer in Miami, in an effort to stretch the program’s reach beyond Texas soil.
“We’re getting more scientists throughout the country to follow our guidelines in testing plants,” he said. “The hope is that other people will catch onto this idea.”
For now, the research gardens will at least serve as an aesthetic attraction to Myers Park visitors, many of whom take them in during monthly tours. The park’s Basic Ag Field Day events teach amateurs the basics of agriculture through demonstrations and exhibitors.
“We want everyone to benefit from these beautiful gardens, aesthetically and scientifically,” said Judy Florence, park manager.
Trials for a research vineyard, vegetable garden, fruit and pecan orchards, and a turf grass research area are all in the works, Church said. Aesthetic attraction may be nice, but that’s not the AgriLife vision.
“All the principles and practices of Earth-Kind can really be applied to all areas of agricultural production,” he said. “The extension service was created to take the research-based information and bring it to the public so they can use it.”
Myers Park and Event Center is located at 7117 County Road 166 in McKinney. For more information about the research gardens and tours, contact the AgriLife Extension office at 972-548-4233.
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