Sheldon and Kim Karnes of Jeffersonville, IN, were awarded first place in the Homeowner's Division of the 2005 Metro Louisville Air Pollution Control Districts's "Lawn Care for Cleaner Air" Landscaping Awards Program. We decided to visit with Kim when we launched the "Mow Less - Mow Green" initiative to hear her thoughts on low maintenance landscaping. Here are highlights of our visit to Kim's home.

Kim is a school librarian by day and a plant "hobbyist" the rest of the time. She spends a lot of time reading up on plants, utilizing various seed and plant catalogs, and the internet. She's a member of Jeffersonville Main Street and oversees their plant sales each year.

According to Kim, when she and Sheldon bought their house, it took over an hour to mow the grass, plant beds along the sides of the house were in disarray, and the remains of a small vegetable garden could be found in the back. Seven years later, little of the original landscape plan remains, the vegetable garden has become a nursery for young plants to grow in, and the mowing is down to 1/2 an hour.

Much of the Sheldon's current landscape plan is the result of trial and error. Kim says she has spent a lot of time laying out the location of plants on graph paper, taking into account their height, color, shape, and light requirements, and then things would happen - seeds wouldn't sprout, some over-produced, or Kim would find plants on sale - and her plan would change.

She also makes changes if a plant doesn't seem to be doing well in a certain location. For instance, plants in the southwest beds roasted and shriveled until she found the current selection of beautyberries, daylilies, lavender, and artemisia that thrive there; and, plants in the northwest bed sat there looking miserable and didn't grow until Kim finally replaced them with hostas and ferns that would. Kim selects plants based on their color and shape, but also on their value for wildlife. The plants Kim has now have proven to be consistent good performers in this respect.

Kim spends approximately three hours a week tending to her plants in the spring, and about 2 hours a week in the summer and fall seasons. She is busier in the spring because she is pruning back dead plant material, pulling weeds, laying down mulch, and planting flowers. Mulching also takes a great deal of time. Kim puts down a 6 inch layer of mulch around her plants. This may sound like an excessive amount, but the mulch holds moisture well, thereby cutting down on water usage. Summer and fall yard-work consists mainly of mowing, hoeing up weed seedlings, deadheading flowers, and controlling pest and disease problems.

Before leaving the Sheldon home, Kim supplied us with some of her plant catalogs to peruse, and told us of some of the web sites she frequents. Listed below are those resources:

Shooting Star Nursery - http://www.shootingstarnursery.com/

Mountain Crest Garden Gifts - http://www.mc-garden-gifts.com/

Prairie Moon Nursery - http://www.prairiemoon.com/

Prairie Nursery - http://www.prairienursery.com

Dave's Garden - http://davesgarden.com/
An excellent source for all things garden related. Get answers to your questions,
see how other people have rated plants, participate in discussion forums

Pictures around the Sheldon's yard

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