Category: Native Plants | Accent on Natural Landscaping

Gathering, Cleaning and Sharing Prairie Seed

September 29, 2020

White Wild Indigo (*Baptisia alba*) seed. The stratified (chilled) seeds must then be scarified, which means the seed coat should be sluffed by sandpaper or nicked with a knife point. Photo by Joan Rudoph

GATHERING

This is the time of year when we plan to gather seed from most of the prairie plants. It’s a pretty easy task to accomplish and is an excellent opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy the fall. Most grass seeds can be easily stripped from the stalk, but not all forbs species are as easy. Some have pods, some have heads that cling tightly to the seed, while others have parachutes that help them fly away.

You can gather the seeds into empty plastic milk jugs that have had their tops cut off, with their handles attached to your waist by a belt. Or, you can gather them into paper grocery bags. Plan to store them in the garage, but up off the floor until they are completely dry.

CLEANING

Then, when the plants are dry enough to start cleaning, while wearing gloves, start breaking the seeds free from the heads and pods that haven’t loosened the seed on their own. Some you can just strip off on your own. Others, such as the Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), you’ll need to roll off on a screen.

RESOURCES

Here are some resources to help you find the best way to gather seed. Enjoy!

Seed Collecting provided by Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, Ltd.

Collecting Advice by Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter.

Germination Instructions by Prairie Moon Nursery.

Pods: Wildflowers and Weeds in Their Final Beauty, a book by Jane Embertson.

SHARING

If you have extra seed, plan to share with your fellow Wild Ones at your local chapter’s Seed Exchange, with your extended family or friends, or with your next door neighbors.

And, as you gather milkweed seed this fall and find you have extra, plan to send the pods on to Monarch Watch. Be sure to read the guidelines on how to handle the seed. If you live in Ohio, you can share your milkweed seed through the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative. See also Milkweed for Monarchs ’19.

Symphony of the Soil

September 22, 2020

Reference my blog post “S” is for Soil. The book reviewed in that post explores the importance of soil to all life on Earth.

But there is a new take on the soil – a documentary video named Symphony of the Soil – which artfully leads us through the formation of the soil, describes what we have done to the soil, and explains how, with the help of environmentalists, the soil is leading us back to the beginning.

Do you know what soil is? It’s the living skin of the Earth. The soil is an ecosystem of living things.

Do you know why food tastes good? Because the soil is an ecosystem of living things.

Symphony of the Soil
(see it for free)

Note from the Hudson Valley Writers Center and the Teatown Lake Reservation Preserve and Education Center:
Thank you for helping to make Deborah Koons Garcia‘s talk and screening of Symphony of the Soil such a success on Thursday, September 17, 2020. She had a wonderful time and asked that we send you a link and password to share the film with all our members at no charge until the end of October! I am sending it first to all the people who reserved tickets to Thursday’s event, but it will also be available on our websites.

The link and password below will allow people to view the film for free until they change the password at the end of next month (end of October).

https://vimeo.com/300413588

PW: hudsonvalley

It’s on our YouTube also.

From my friend Kristin Kauth: Good morning. I did watch the Soil of the Symphony last night and enjoyed it, very interesting.

Some Recommendations

September 14, 2020

I want to share with you two resources I am most grateful for. The first one is a Facebook page, and the second is a newsletter.

Dave Crawford
August 23 at 10:21 PM ·
You don’t have to visit Africa’s Serengeti to experience predator-prey interactions. This orbweaver (probably genus Araneus) snared a grasshopper using a three-foot-wide web constructed about 6 to 8 feet off the ground.

The Dave Crawford Facebook page

I am intrigued by Dave Crawford’s Facebook page. I have known Dave since 2005 when he was a Wild Ones member. With his great photos and the information he provides, he touches just about everything related to natural landscaping – and nothing seems to escape him. From pollinators to frogs to native plants to what pollen does, he describes it all so well.

Roaming around his land, the Como Park Neighborhood, and in his adventures, Dave snaps photos of intriguing subjects and researches the subjects of his photos to show what he experienced.

To subscribe, like him as a friend.

The Wisconsin Native Pollinators

The Wisconsin Native Pollinators website is a comprehensive resource filled with information on Wisconsin’s native pollinators including bees, butterflies, and birds. Pollinators such as bees and butterflies are in decline, and their losses threaten Wisconsin wildflowers, ecosystems, agricultural crops, and natural areas. One purpose of Wisconsin Pollinators is to raise public awareness and concern regarding this issue. We depend on pollinators to transfer pollen and help plants produce fruits and seeds. Many native plants, as well as many food crops, rely on pollinators.

The Wisconsin Pollinators newsletter shares information about pollinators.

The website is dedicated to individuals looking for information on native pollinators as well as information on how to support those pollinators. Even a small yard can make a difference.

To subscribe to the Wisconsin Pollinators newsletter, fill out this form. You will get one or two information-filled newsletters a month. Read the current newsletter. Read about the 7 Ways To Use Fall Leaves, the Ant Quiz, Tips On Fall Leaf Mulching, or How to Provide Shelter for Overwintering Bees & Butterflies.

Lorrie Otto’s Birthday Anniversary September 9th

September 8, 2020

Queen of the Prairie (*Filipendula rubra*) grows in sunlight or shade, preferably in moist soils, but will grow in any soil. Its flowers are hermaphroditic, but the plant is also pollinated by many other insects. This is a tall, sturdy plant, and its spray-like pink flowers give it a regal appearance. Photo by Steve Maassen

September 9th would have been Lorrie Otto’s 101st birthday. Lorrie Otto – Queen of the Prairie. Lorrie Otto – the inspiration for Wild Ones. Lorrie Otto – an American Hero.

LORRIE’S STORY

Lorraine “Lorrie” Stoeber was born in 1919 near Madison, Wisconsin. She lived on a farm where she learned to love the soil and the biodiversity of the landscape. As a young woman who was tall and smart, she got involved in many things – from modeling evening gowns for wholesale houses to preparing to be a pilot in the World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin and married her six foot, four inch tall boyfriend, Owen Otto, son of Max Otto who was a pioneer of contemporary humanism. They moved to a north Milwaukee suburb near Lake Michigan and a twenty-acre ravine called Prairie Chasm. In the 1950s when the chasm was to be sold for development, Lorrie worked with The Nature Conservancy to save the ravine.

In the 1960s, she took on DDT, and by now you know the rest of the story. See also Banning DDT.

After that, “Otto began encouraging suburban homeowners to maintain biological diversity and wildlife habitat. She taught natural landscaping classes at nature centers, colleges and technical schools, businesses and museums in the Milwaukee area. After hearing an Otto lecture in 1977, a group of nine women began meeting monthly to share information about natural landscaping. They called themselves the Wild Ones. Otto became their philosophical compass.” (WCHF)

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a collection of all her writings.

THE LORRIE OTTO SEEDS FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

In 1996, Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, Ltd. honored Lorrie with a celebration and a program in her name – The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program. Such an honor was so fitting. In all her efforts to save the natural landscape, her desire to save it for the children was the greatest and most important to her.

As part of that education program, grants are offered each year to non-profit organizations planning to develop an outdoor learning area. Applications for the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2020, due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please revisit this Wild Ones site in 2021 for a grant application and for information on the new deadline.

Lorrie became the heart and soul of the natural-landscaping movement, and many of us remember her each year by donating to the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program administered by Wild Ones.