New hort resource to help support sustainable ecological systems

From Southern SARE: University of Georgia researchers with the Center for Urban Agriculture in Griffin are developing a resource tool showcasing common plants that exhibit improved environmental adaptation, and tolerance or resistance to key diseases and pests.

Known as GardenSource, the web-based resource will allow ag professionals, Master Gardeners, homeowners, and nursery and landscape specialists to search through hundreds of herbaceous plants, ornamentals, trees and shrubs that not only showcase their aesthetic qualities, but also exhibit environmental benefits and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) characteristics -- factors important for sustainable ecological systems.

"GardenSource will be available through our county Extension offices, so when people contact the office wanting to know what they should plant for their zone, the tool will provide them with pest resistant options, as well as height and color information," said Kris Braman, UGA entomologist and director of the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture. "Or someone may have a plant in their landscape and they want to know what to expect. This tool will help them identify management challenges."

GardenSource is the product of a comprehensive, multi-state Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE)-funded project where researchers in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi evaluated hundreds of ornamental and turfgrass cultivars. The goal of the project, said Braman, was to increase production and use of low-input, pest resistant plants in the southeastern U.S.

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