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.

A Righteous Pile of Mulch

This week Brenna Wright, the farm manager of Abbey Fields urban farm in Parkridge, facilitated the drop-off of a dump truck load of mulch at the Butterfly Meadow. Mulch is useful to amend the clay soil in part of the meadow, lock in moisture around a few special trees planted last year, and smother weeds in the beds outside the fence. I am truly grateful for such an enormous gift! Now to the business of spreading it around...

Hope in the Meadow

Today the Parkridge Butterfly Meadow got some much-needed help from a neighborhood service group.

Members of the church New Hope Family of God, in partnership with Hope Central, a Christian community center located on Woodbine Avenue, created an outreach program to perform community service and neighborhood improvement projects in Parkridge. The team of five worked in the Meadow for two hours clearing invasive weeds, mowing paths, and prepping flowerbeds for planting.

New Hope Family of God meets every Sunday 3pm-5pm at the old Tribe One Building on Magnolia Avenue.

Rikki's Butterfly Weed

When Rikki Hall died of brain cancer in March, packets of butterfly weed seeds were given away at his memorial service. Butterfly weed is native to eastern North America, and an important source of nectar for pollinators, especially the Monarch butterfly.

Rikki Hall, who studied ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee, wrote the political column "Sideways Glance" for the Metro Pulse, often exploring environmental issues. Before that, he wrote the Metro Pulse nature column "That's Wild," and was one of the editors of the environmental newspaper The Hellbender Press.  His columns were inspiring--full of passion and poetry. You can read some excepts here.

On March 16th, he published his last blog post: 

A couple weeks ago I pruned the saucer magnolia in the front yard. The pruned branches now bear defiant flowers. Life is powerful and spirited.

Though doomed, these branches retain water and even draw some in when humid air sits over these hills. Death can be sudden, but only after taking its time. We all get a fair allotment of life to use wisely. I can not keep the spirit down when I see a cut branch make a few final blossoms, laughing a pink punchline. What a wonderful world.

A neighbor who attended the memorial service gave me some of Rikki's butterfly weed seeds. I propagated them on my front porch, then transplanted them to the flower beds surrounding the Butterfly Meadow. They are blooming now.

The Meadow in June