Monthly Archives: July 2015

Nature Horoscopes for Summer 2015

Virgo – Delicate and refined, shy and beautiful, you, like the leaves of Asarum Canadense, will look great throughout the summer and well into the fall, long after your first flower is gone. This summer, Virgo, befriend the barely noticeable ants that adore you, and practice some myrmecophory of your own: find the biggest watermelon… Read more »

Beyond Tomatoes and Poinsettias: Growing TRE Plants in the School Greenhouse

I worked for the Forest Preserves of Cook County before coming to Niles North High School and working as a Hort Club Sponsor. You wouldn’t imagine that the the Chicago area would be a hub for the ecological restoration community, but “Chicago Wilderness” is home to many passionate groups like the North Branch Restoration Project and other… Read more »

In Search of the Inconspicuous

I was walking through a floodplain woods with a friend recently when we happened on a typical resident of that habitat’s ground layer. I joked that we were seeing one of the showiest members of the floodplain flora, than pointed out the humble Honewort. We wondered a bit about the curious common name, and I… Read more »

20 or 30 Things “2030” Could Mean

The year we will take over the world. The year we will be unnecessary because every citizen is a steward of nature. The year we will finally get hoverboards. Habitat restoration as a field is only 20 to 30 years old. It can take 20 to 30 years for a habitat to begin to be… Read more »

VANISHING FOOTSTEPS

The abundant yet minute pasture grasses spring underfoot. Woodcock silhouette flies by once, twice, as I walk away from the plum patch below the inter-aged tree planting. I walk towards the call of frogs after first finding the woodcock caller on the wing in a triangle of corn stubble, brome, and prairie burned into the… Read more »

From the Suburban Farm: 5/24

5/24 I’m about a month and a half into my first season working on an organic farm in one of Chicago’s well-heeled western suburbs. For a while, it seemed as if the sky was falling. For a week it seemed like it rained straight through, keeping us out of the fields. The tomatoes and leeks… Read more »

From the Suburban Farm: 7/1 & 7/4

7/1 Thank God, it’s July now. The month of June brought us blessings; it brought us two new employees that have been wonderful matches with the crew. Mostly, though, the month of July brought rain. At one point we got 5 inches in 5 days. We learned, though, that it could always be worse, when… Read more »