I think we all weren’t expecting the extra chill in the air, but nonetheless, it was chilly and every little bit of sunshine helped the Diggers (John, Chatt and Diane) stay warm.  Spriggers (Gail, Ray, Lana, John H, and Susan C) divided up the material gathered locally and ended up with a huge variety of plants:  Arrowhead, Rush, Sedge, Spikerushes, and Water primrose.  Nice job everyone….work is paying off as the ponds are really growing!

Truly a messy week, but our diggers (Alan, John and Chatt) manage to dig up some great specimens including lots of pickerel weed and arrowhead.  The spriggers (Gail, John H, Ray and Lana) also slogged through the mud–albeit to count and sort the material by species.  Thanks to all for tolerating the mud!  I walked out to Ponds Anhinga, Bittern, Cormorant and Dowitcher….and was impressed with the plant coverage.  We could do more work but the plants we have installed are becoming more established.  It was also heartening… Read More →

Seeding crew welcomed guest Anna (chatting with Ray above) and we weeded our Iris, Plumegrass and Cordgrass pots today.  Messy work, but very necessary as the pots were getting choked by weeds.  The planting crew took the extra time to supplement ponds Anhinga to Dowitcher with some necessary Sagittaria and miscellaneous wetland plants.  Thanks all for your hard work!

Well, we didn’t make it out to Pond Egret, but nonetheless, plants were planted in Pond Dowitcher, including Spartina, Panicum, Juncus, and Carex.  Our seeding crew worked on all the narrow plumegrass seedings–which seemed endless–but manage to get 630 seedlings transplanted to slots in trays.  Assuming we don’t lose too many seedlings, we will be ready for planting once Phase 4 is ready to go!  

Today, the Seeding Crew began the long process of transplanting the Narrowleaf Plumegrass sprouts into trays to continue their development.  The sprouts were so thick in the original tray we ended up with almost 500 transplants and only went through about 1/3 of the original tray. The Planting Crew headed out to Pond Dowitcher to get more plants in the ground–615 plants specifically of mixed species.

The Seeding Crew worked furiously on weeding the Lizard Tail for the day. It was still pretty cool temperature-wise, I was told, but the work was worthy as the Saururus sprigs are really shooting up now (as of 3-21-14). Mr. John Egan was the planting crew this week and got about 150 Juncus effusus in the ground at Pond Dowitcher. Thanks to all for coming out–despite the weather and it being Spring Break.

Today was simply put, a yucky day with the drizzly rain UNTIL I happen upon our little snakey friend shown here.  The precious little guy was under about 8 inches of water, cold and rather slow until he warmed enough in Chatt’s hand to take the picture.  We let him go back into the water a little ways further down from where we were digging. We did manage to collect more material for Ponds Dowitcher and Egret, and for my class on Thursday.  Thanks to the Planting Crew… Read More →

The first thing we all noticed today was the large amount of rain we got at the park!  The prairie team’s pots were close to being inundated.  At least there won’t be any watering for either restoration team.  🙂  Planting team (me, Chatt and John) headed out to Pond Duck and got 180 pots of mixed wetland plants into the nicely soft mucky ground.  Meanwhile, the Seedy Crew (John H, Dick, Diane, Lana, and Ray) worked on cleaning more bushy bluestem seed.

Our Seedy crew were sprigging kings and queens this week, plus they potted up all the collected Thalia dealbata to be added to the grow-out ponds. Planting crew manage to make it to Pond Dowitcher with guest Mary and Paul to join in the muddy maylay.  🙂  The weather was lovely and about perfect for being outside.  I did a short presentation on our current project to update the Team–hopefully it helped.

This week we hosted YES Prep North Central students.  It was still a little cold but definitely bearable.  To be prepared, however, we had seedball work available for the students.  And as the students were new to the park, the Rangers gave them a short walk and talk about the Park.  The die-hard Planting crew “skated” out to Pond Dowitcher and got those supremely lovely Juncus sprigs into the ground.  Thanks to all for your efforts.