It was a relatively “quiet” morning working in the annex cleaning seed.  Conversation was lively thanks to Ray, Gail, Dick, Lana and Susan.  🙂  We actually did make a small dent in the seed bags….even if the bags don’t show it!  🙂

Our crew was split into two groups….the Planters went out to Pond 17 and got about 300 plants into the ground (Junucs effusus and Rhynchospora corniculata) in the areas formerly treated for vassey’s grass. Our seeders worked in the annex on the pounds and pounds of seed.  Ray did venture out to collect some Basketflower–as we will want the seed for phase 4 prairie.

While Ray collected the Rhynchospora and Penstemon seed, Dick was working on cleaning more Juncus seed.  We (Lana, Gail and I) focused on getting the buckets sprigged and counted.  We ended up with 363 Rhynchospora sprigs and 139 Juncus sprigs that were collected by the guys last week.  Meanwhile, the guys “cleaned” out Pond 1 at the Park and we now have lots of Hydrolea and other sundry plants to count next week!

    Today was about sprigging some Spiderwort for Mary’s upcoming project.  Lana, Gail and I guessed we had maybe 15 sprigs….well, we were wrong! 49 pots later in the grow-out ponds, we were done and heading in to help Ray and Dick with the Juncus mix seed.  Diggers (Chatt, John E, John H, Glenn) went off-site with Cullen to gather some intermediate zone plants for the “dead” zones treated for vasey’s grass.  Great Job, y’all!

The crew met for our normal workday despite the pending holiday.  It sure feels like summer out there now–with the un-relenting sun and the humidity.  Whew!  But our crew worked on tending the cattails in Ponds B and C and the Seed Crew (Lana, Gail, and Ray) gathered ripe Juncus, Rhynchospora and Cyperus.  Thanks to everyone for coming out in the heat!

We were expecting some heavy rains today but they never showed up during the workday.  So the small crew was able to get out to Ponds B and C and work on the cattails and the encroaching vasey’s grass.  It was a good, productive day.  Thanks to Glenn, John and Chatt for coming out.  🙂 (Sorry that Cullen and I were semi-absentee, but we did complete our tractor training).

Check out the sexy Mud Daubers!!!  Our digger crew (which also included Chatt who apparently refused to pose) headed to pond Bittern to get more plants in the ground.  Meanwhile the seed crew worked on organizing the grow out pond area (getting rid of dead pots and consolidating).  Seed cleaning continues as we have pounds and pounds to process and more to collect.  🙂  Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

This week we (Gail, Diane, Lana and Ray) took the time to collect some ripe seed.  We had been watching the Juncus seed to see if it was ripe enough to collect and Wednesday was as good a day as any to collect.  We also found some ripe Cyperus virens and Rhynchospora caduca.  Lucky us!!  We need all the seed for inoculating the pond edges in phase 2 through the future phase 4.  Meanwhile, the diggers (or should I start calling them the Mud Daubers) planted the last… Read More →

It was a lovely day out at the Park (Sheldon Lake State Park, that is), and the crew had a wonderful opportunity to work in wet conditions (makes the planting 10x easier).  Pond Bittern is looking amazing….so much so, that Chatt took the Seed crew out on a tour.  The Coreopsis in bloom with the Juncus makes for a picturesque scene.  For some of the Seeders, it had been months since they had a chance to see the ponds.  The seed(y) crew prepped the roughly  1300 seeds of… Read More →

This week the crew (Chatt, Diane, Mary and Cullen) ventured out to collect Iris virginica at San Bernard NWR–permits and permission in hand.  This collection benefits the Stormwater Wetland project primarily but we (the WRT) also get some material to propagate.  Our Iris virginica stock was kinda low.  Meanwhile, the seeders (Dick, Gail, John H, Glenn and Ray)  travelled out to Sheldon to pick up on the seed cleaning that needed more work.