Barbara Federlin loves to get up close and personal with plants.
She thinks of paintings by the renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who was known for her depictions of flowers. Federlin said she appreciates how O’Keeffe would enlarge flowers in her paintings to show what’s inside.
Similarly, Federlin, said she enjoys seeing how plants connect with the rest of the environment. The resident of Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, and member of Congregation Shir Hadash and Congregation Sinai, is known around town as a native plant guru. She would be truly pleased if you would share her enthusiasm, too.
Native plants, Federlin said, evolve in a specific location naturally, without human introduction, over generations. They develop alongside plants, animals and insects as part of an interconnected system.
“If we plant a native plant, we can provide food for insects, including our native bees, our butterflies, our birds,” Federlin said. “If we plant a non-native plant, and we’re taking up real estate, we’re taking up space, but we’re not providing food for other critters.”
Federlin cites the example of creeping bellflower, which the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has identified as an invasive species. The herbaceous perennial, which bears blue-purple flowers, spreads aggressively, Federlin said, and it uses up water and nutrition in soil that could be used by a native plant.
She said better options for gardens in Wisconsin include native plants such as milkweeds, a host plant for monarch butterflies.
Federlin has long had an interest in nature, dating back to her childhood. As an adult, Federlin said she began learning about different types of ecological habitats as a student at Douglass College, part of Rutgers University in New Jersey. Taking trips to the American Northeast, she connected with cross-country skiing, hiking and the White Mountains.
Federlin moved to Ohio after college and later to Wisconsin. In both places, she said, she connected with environmental organizations. She began taking a close look at native plants and compared them with non-native plants.
She began teaching herself about what plants grow near each other, the soils they prefer, the water they need, and whether they grow better in sunshine or in shade.
Now, she’s sharing that knowledge with Milwaukee by engaging people who participate in the Riverwest Secret Garden Tour and giving away native plants. She said she gifts them to people to educate them about native plants, native insects and pollinators and their connection to food security.
“Wherever I’ve lived, it’s been my goal to make the space healthier and to help people learn about making their spaces healthier,” Federlin said.
Since retiring from working in admissions at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Federlin said her focus has been social, climate and environmental justice. Growing native plants and teaching others about them fits squarely within those areas, she said.
It also connects with the Jewish value of tikkun olam – to repair the world – she said.
“(I want) to save our native spaces, make them available for people in the future, to help people recognize the beauty in things that are different from whatever they were introduced to before,” Federlin said.
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