Happy Holidays!

Picnic Table

This winter I cleared one corner of the Butterfly Meadow of invasive bush honeysuckle, euonymus, English Ivy, and privet. Underneath the vines and brush I found the remains of raised beds and pathways lined in black plastic. This corner is always shady in the summer, underneath the arching branches of a mulberry tree.

I bought this slightly damaged concrete picnic table with benches at Architectural Antics, a wonderful salvage shop on North Broadway. Now there is a civilized place to sit, just like a real park. Imagine yourself drinking coffee in the mornings, writing in your journal, thinking things over.

Violet Pickles

Too edible to mow, I picked a bowlful of these wild violets growing in the Butterfly Meadow, and made pickled violets, a thing I made up. If violets are good in salads, and so is vinegar, little vinegary violets should be no problem.

I used a recipe for pickled onions and added some other yard herbs, including some volunteer spring onions I found. In some batches I used white vinegar and in some I used apple cider.

Snow Day!

The Holly and the Ivy

70 degree temperatures led to bare feet in the meadow on Christmas Eve. On the western edge of the clearing grow two American holly trees, native evergreens festooned with bright red berries this time of year. The leaves are prickly and the berries are poisonous to humans, but the smooth bark of the trunk and branches make this tree perfectly climbable, with a little boost.

Holly berries are a favorite wintertime feast for birds, and we've spotted many different species perched in the branches of these two trees. What species are these?

English ivy grows profusely on this side of the meadow in the shade of the trees.  English ivy is an invasive species from Europe. Left unchecked, it can eventually smother a tree under thick woody vines and a blanket of dark green leaves. In the woods and meadows of the American South, English ivy chokes out vast areas preventing other plants from growing and creating an "ivy desert." Like its invasive cohort, privet, English ivy easily escapes gardens and should not be planted or cultivated in places where it is invasive.

A few years ago, a friend and neighbor took it on herself to save the life of a Magnolia tree growing in the yard of her rented apartment, and sawed through an English ivy vine as big around as a tree sapling. The tree in the far corner in the photo below, a hackberry I think, needs similar rescuing.

2015: The Year in Blooms

From February's purple crocuses to the rudbeckia still blooming in December, the meadow is nearly always in bloom. 

Spring!

Spring is coming to the Parkridge Butterfly Meadow!

If you look closely at this picture, you can see an early honey bee buzzing around the crocus.