Ecological Gardening

When You Go Outdoors, What Room Do You Enter?

2013-05-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tennessee warbler Recently a colleague and I led a workday in Adena Woods. In attendance was a group of students, mostly present in the interest of extra credit. They seemed to be having a pretty good time--floundering around, crossing the creek on some logs, picking up trash--chilly and muddy though it was. As we explained a few things about the plants and hydrology of the area, I

For Earth Day I Wrote a Letter about the Keystone XL Pipeline (Instead of Signing a Petition)

2013-04-26T11:17:00.002-07:00

A Little about American Quakers "You mean you folks are still around?"…"Aren't you like those people that dress in old-time clothes and have horses and buggies? Yeah, the Amish, that's right." Every so often I encounter this kind of reaction when I let it be known that I am a member of the Religious Society of Friends, in other words, a Quaker. Yes we are still around, no we are not the

Read "Cranes and Kenosis" at City Creatures Blog

2013-04-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day! I’m pleased to say my piece about whooping cranes, "Cranes and Kenosis” has been posted today at City Creatures, a blog published by the

Walt Whitman, Deep Ecologist

2013-04-19T16:09:00.001-07:00

Poetry Month 2013 My respiration and inspiration....the beating of my heart....the passing of blood and air through my lungs, The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and darkcolored sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn, The sound of the belched words of my voice....words loosed to the eddies of the wind, A few light kisses....a few embraces...

Creating a Hummingbird Habitat

2013-03-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hummingbird and columbine (Josh Haas, Auduban Guides) According to Journey North's map, the ruby-throated hummingbirds are pretty far south, held up by cold weather--but they'll be in the Chicago region soon. I wrote the following short piece for a start-up magazine that never got going. *** In summer, I love to sit outside and watch the resident hummer. She might perch in the pagoda

Backyard Phenology

2013-03-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

From Susan Clotfelter, The Denver Post One day snow all over the ground, the next day muddy grass sprinkled with snowdrops shining in the morning gloom. Rain. A solitary robin appears, nearly black among the flowers and flies to a tree branch where it sits, silhouetted among the leafless tangle. This is phenology. I know by these signs that it's time, past time, to start paying attention,

In Praise of Miserable Weather

2013-03-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Any person who has lived in the Chicago region for any length of time knows miserable weather. The temperature hovers at around 32 degrees, a damp wind angles right in your face the mix of snow/sleet/rain/ice pellets descending from the flat, dull-aluminum-colored sky, and slushy snow slumps on the ground. Our winters are famous for this. Residents moan and complain. People migrate south to

Two Books that Shed Light on Our Present Predicament: Arcadia and The Dog Stars

2013-02-15T21:47:00.000-08:00

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Diary of a Dry Summer

2012-10-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

From Illinois State Climatologist From Illinois State Climatologist Here are a few journal entries from this summer. Today it is 48 degrees, damp, gray; small chance for late green tomatoes to ripen. Was the summer really so extreme?April 1 -- Cloudy, 50s. Weeded for 2 1/2 hours -- bindweed, creeping Charlie, dandelions, quackgrass, the occasional ginkgo seedling. So many plants

A Short Journey by Bicycle

2012-07-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

One fine June day I get on my bike and ride up the street to where a pedestrian bridge goes over the highway. While approaching the ramp, I check on the baby bur oak someone has planted there; stealth gardening by the same person, I guess, who has in previous years planted other young oaks in the parkway of this street bordering the expressway. Who does this? Where did they collect the

Barn Swallows under the Bridge

2012-06-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I went to a workday in Thatcher woods, but was a little late, so no one was at the usual meeting place. I headed towards the main north-south path and walked north, but no dice, so walked back south to Washington Avenue. It was technically a beautiful morning--bright, sunny, and warm, with fairly low humidity. Another in a string of sunny days, part of the sunniest, driest

Tikkun Olam: Mending the World

2012-04-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Green Circle Fractal (Wikimedia Commons) Some acquaintances were discussing shirts. "It's so aggravating," one said, "the fold at the collar gets frayed, and then you can't wear the shirt to work, even though the rest of it is perfectly good." The other pointed out that at one time people wore collarless shirts with separate collars, and at another time people would unpick the stitches, flip

Sandhill Cranes!

2012-03-16T13:59:00.008-07:00

It's better in real life! Last Saturday, en route to a work session in Thatcher Woods, I heard that familiar, fluttering call echo over the woods and my heart leaped, as it always does at that moment. I stopped my bike by the side of the road and tilted my head back to watch a large group heading north by northwest, and then went on, happy for the sight: a good sign, I thought, fitting the day’

Chicago Gardens: The Early History

2012-02-20T10:50:00.001-08:00

The Story of the Transformation of a Landscape OK, the snowdrops were up a month early; the butterfly bush did not die back to the ground (something that helps it avoid the "invasive" label and thus avoid banishment); the chickadees are akkk-akkk-akk-ing all around. On Saturday, one sat three feet above me on a branch telling me what for as I pulled out the poor, tired, remnant chard. Who

Creeping Charlie Love

2012-01-31T07:31:00.000-08:00

I wrote this post in November, just before I got my new sustainability coordinator position. Then I was swamped, doing two jobs for a bit. Now work is a little more under control, so I hope to start posting regularly again. I've missed writing and interacting with my online friends! * * * Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) Late fall (and early

The Last Tomatoes

2011-11-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Though we've had a slow, warm, La Nina fall, this weekend I finally pulled up the tomato vines. After a couple of nights of below freezing temperatures one must accept there really will be be no more tomatoes this year. Everything went into the compost heap: withered stalks, green tomatoes and all. Green tomatoes that have frozen develop an odd translucency and squishy texture when they thaw.

Samhain, Halloween, Day of the Dead, All Saints/Souls Days

2011-11-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

What a lot of names there are for this time between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. It is the time in the northern hemisphere when we gather in the harvest, say goodby to growth and prepare for winter's rest, the time when the barriers between the worlds of the living and dead become momentarily thinner, and we remember friends and relatives no longer with us. It is a time of bittersweet

An Absence of Some Months

2011-11-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

The past few months I've been involved in helping develop a sustainability center at Triton College. The process is not yet complete. More news to come regarding this exciting development.

A Small Prairie Garden

2011-09-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a piece I wrote for a Triton College email newsletter for faculty and staff: Triton College Prairie Garden in Bloom Triton College is known for its neat, manicured landscape featuring acres of carefully tended lawns, trim bushes, and bright annuals and perennials. However, something a little wilder is going on in an area in back of the science building, where Triton’s Greening the Campus

On Summer Break, Back Soon

2011-08-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

During the month of August I'll be on a blogging break; I plan to be back the first week of September. Until then, dear reader, happy gardening to you.

All Kinds of Nightshade

2011-07-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

"Deadly nightshade:" a name that makes me glad for Latin nomenclature Purple flower Easy post, I thought. Just write about the deadly nightshade. I happened to be thinking about the perennial, semi-woody, weedy vine that lurks along my property boundaries, and climbs up through the links of the fence. It can grow to six feet and the leaves have distinctive “ears” at the base. Its purple

Guest Post at Beautiful Wildlife Garden

2011-07-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Carole Brown, at Beautiful Wildlife Garden, has put up a guest post I wrote about giving away native plants to unsuspecting gardeners. You can find "Stealth Native Plant Gardening" here. Previous Guest Post at BWG: Reconciliation Ecology and the Beautiful Wildlife Garden

Problematic Pokeweed

2011-07-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

I was of three minds Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds --Wallace Stevens Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) is one of those plants about which it is possible to be of two or three or maybe even four or five minds. On the one hand, it is native, kind of pretty, and birds love the berries. On the other, as a food, it is so famous that songs have been written about it, and some

Beware the Dreadful Bindweed

2011-07-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just don’t show off! Over the July 4th weekend, I had some of the extended family over for a cookout, in the best Midwestern tradition. One of my family-centered pleasures is cooking with my brother while my resolutely non-cooking sister kibitzes. I am a vegetarian, my brother is not. He brought some homebrew and manned the grill, I made fresh salsa, salad and desert. Between us, we put out a

A Date with Some Turtles

2011-06-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Engraving by Karl Bodmer, 1865 On Saturday it dawned sunny and not raining, for once, in a season in which rain has been a major feature of life. In mid-afternoon, right in the middle of weekend chores, I realized I had an appointment with some turtles in Thatcher Woods, so biked the two and a half miles, locked up at Trailside Nature Museum and walked down to the pond. The pond is on