… How much do I put down? When’s the best time to mulch? How often do I need to amend the mulch? Is mulch the best weed barrier? Great questions about a basic garden element. Fall is the best time to give your trees a good layer of mulch. Mulch is an important facet of your garden, and too often, its use and application are ill-informed or …
Type: Blog
… Anyone who reads the volumes of research can easily see all the reasons why a nature preschool is not just a real preschool, but should be a standard for all preschool environments to aspire … Many children spend time in preschool working on one-answer solutions. Their work is very cut and dry, limiting the amount of critical thinking or creativity needed for the answer. Play in nature allows children to try several solutions to a problem. Nature is unpredictable, and often, answers might not be what we would like, but we learn from this …
Type: Blog
… This is the story of a road trip I took with some corpse flowers, the rock stars of the plant world. One of the hallmarks of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant collection is the more than 70 species of Amorphophallus . In particular, Amorphophallus titanum , also … flowers, in 2003. There’s a worldwide conservation effort to preserve the species, as it is considered “vulnerable”—unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction …
Type: Blog
… But no—especially not in a natural woodland like this. A tree’s habit depends on where it is growing—how crowded it is by other trees and what it has to do to catch some sunlight. “Any tree will change its habit depending on what is given to it,” he said as we walked into the woods. “You can probably get 100 trees in a row, …
Type: Blog
… then fill out a book dedication form, including copy for the bookplate. After the bookplate is printed and mounted, you’ll be notified that it has taken its place on the library shelves. … Naturally, every conservation book requires a labor of love—a typical restoration time frame is three months. After conservation work is completed, you’re invited to view the restored volume before it takes its place in the Rare …
Type: Blog
… milkweed (A. verticillata) , which often can be found at the very edge of highways where there is little competition or dry pastures and degraded prairies, and swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) , which is the only species we have that grows in marshes. You are not likely to see the other 11 species … and try to deconstruct it into the parts of a flower, you may recognize the petals but that is about all. Milkweed flowers do not appear to have either sexes, but both the female part of a …
Type: Blog
… on the edge of fading away. He had discovered the treasure he set out to find. Often, this is where the story ends. But when the prize is an elusive plant sought by scientists nationwide, this is where the story begins. Andrew … bags. The murky waters that now stood between them and a successful exit from the overgrown site were deep and dangerous, and wading out was not an option. They had no choice but to leap …
Type: Blog
… a gelatinous substance that makes them slippery and difficult to handle. So the first question is, what purpose does the slimy coating serve? This is not the kind of blog post where I give you all the answers. That would not be good science … through the digestive tract of an animal and still germinate. Not all seeds can do that. It is possible that in nature, the coating protects the seeds on their journey from the mother plant …
Type: Blog
… to find the seedpod hanging below and to the right of the third blossom. Its scientific name is Impatiens capensis , and jewelweed has some interesting features that make it worth getting … You might expect a plant called “touch-me-not” to be toxic or irritating to the skin. This is not the case. The name comes from a little seedpod surprise. When they are ripe, a slight … plant was reacting negatively to his touch. Rather than a defense mechanism, shooting seeds is an effective dispersal strategy, as it sends the seeds away from the mother plant where they …
Type: Blog
… in length, with the tail being about a quarter of the length of the body and head combined. It is by far the largest of the shrews we will see here. They are generally a velvety, dark gray … dark of night. These high-energy, secretive animals are active year-round, so their presence is more noticeable when the ground is covered with snow. If a healthy population exists in good habitat, it is not unusual to spot …
Type: Blog
