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 »
Monthly Archives: July 2015
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 »
ON WHETHER OR NOT IT WILL RAIN TOMORROW, AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU WANT IT TO HAPPEN
Do we need the rain? This year we happen to be in a drought with below average precipitation since last July. We need the rain, though it may spoil your plans for a bike ride, beach visit, or dirty the car you just washed. It will rain or not, whether or not you want it… 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 »
Bees Knees
You are the knees of bees which is to say you are the joints that connect the top part of the leg of a bee to the bottom part of the
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: 6/20
6/20 My boss has frequently cited an inch of rain a week as a rough ideal for a vegetable farm. This past Thursday, we’d gotten six inches in the previous six days. The small prairie stream half a mile from our farm had flooded, hard, bright orange caution tape fencing off all paddling put-ins. Riding… 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 »
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