Host Jessica Leigh Lebos is in the Ship Watch Loft at Tybee Island Marine Science Center with artist and landscape architect Lisa D. Watson of Planet Green Design LLC, who uses salvaged materials in her art and promotes sustainable landscaping with native plants.

Watson shares her early connection to nature, how suburban lawn culture and retail nurseries contributed to invasive species, and defines invasives as exotics that harm native ecosystems, citing nandina (heavenly bamboo) and its toxic berries linked to eastern waxwing deaths. She recommends native alternatives such as wax myrtle, yaupon holly, inkberry, and chokeberry, and discusses conserving pollinators by avoiding leaf blowers and keeping fallen leaves as mulch to protect overwintering insects like fireflies and swallowtails.

The conversation also covers her exhibitions (including “Fur, Feathers, and Familiars”), pitcher plant–inspired work from protected South Carolina sites, her in-progress book “Wild for Wildscapes,” and her advice to convert 10% of a yard into native habitat.

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Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:48 Meet Lisa Watson

01:49 Eco Hero Origins

03:50 Native Plant Basics

04:15 Invasives Explained

06:09 Better Plant Choices

08:13 Leaves Not Blowers

11:11 Pollinator Garden Talk

12:23 Milkweed And More

14:45 Pivot To Artwork

15:12 Fur Feathers Show

17:14 Fragile Habitats Inspo

18:36 Roadside Ecosystems

19:05 Mosquito Control Debate

19:56 Roadside Ditch Exhibit

20:35 Wild for Wildscapes Book

22:09 Why Plant Natives

24:13 Native Plants in Public Spaces

24:52 Tybee Berm Success Story

26:59 Propagation and Where to See Natives

28:12 Art vs Gardening Balance

30:21 Seed Packet Greeting Cards

31:05 Easy Steps to Start Today

32:10 Marine Science Center Closing