236. Earth First Gardening with Melanie Cotillo of Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm

Spring has a way of pulling us back to the soil — and this season, Mary sat down with someone who has made the health of the soil and the well being of the pollinators and wildlife in her local ecosystem her first priority. Melanie Cutillo is the self-described Plant Wrangler in Chief at Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm in Mexico, New York, a backyard nursery nestled just east of Lake Ontario, where she grows native and wildflower plants entirely without plastic, peat, or synthetic inputs of any kind.

It was a cold January morning walk to the mailbox and a chance encounter with a dried circle of New England aster in the snow that sent Melanie on a quest to grow native plants. The result is a farm, a philosophy, and a way of tending the earth that she calls "Earth First Gardening."

This conversation is for every gardener who has ever come home from the nursery with a carload of beauty and a pile of plastic waste—wondering if there's a better way.

Melanie and Mary talk about what it really means to be not just a gardener, but a guardian of the earth’s abundance. Whether you have many acres or simply a front porch, a city window or a community garden plot, this episode will remind you that what matters is how we tend to the land we have.

In this episode, Mary and Melanie talk about:

What makes Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm different from a conventional nursery — small scale, field-grown plants, zero plastic, and a focus on local ecotype native speciesThe January morning that started it all: a circle of New England aster in the snow and a pair of tracks that changed everythingWhy Melanie ditched plastic entirely — and how a 10-by-25-foot barn full of collected pots finally pushed her over the edgeThe alternatives she found and invented: soil blocking, wool pots, burlap wrapping, and growing in native soil without bagged amendments or peatWhy avoiding peat matters and what's lost when we use it: carbon sequestration, living soil, and a non-renewable resource extracted from ancient bogsThe difference between a native plant and a nativar — and why it matters enormously to the pollinators and wildlife that depend on themHow to ask better questions at your local nursery: Where does the seed come from? Can I bring back my plastic pots? Do you grow from seed on site?The concept of "tending" — and why you don't need land to do it. A street tree, a park path, a porch container can all be a place of care and relationshipNative hydrangeas, dahlias, echinacea, monarda, jewel wee