Wednesday, August 8 and Saturday, August 11, 2018
2015 Landscape Challenge winners Rosalie Uchanski and Terry Egan hosted two yard tours in August at their home in University City. Wednesday evening 43 members, 3 children and 15 guests attended. On Saturday morning, attendance was 23 members and 8 guests.
The gathering started with welcoming remarks by our Chapter President, Marsha Gebhardt. She asked the newcomers to our Gatherings to introduce themselves and share their reason for attending. Several were already engaged in planting new wildflower gardens and wanted more information. Also in attendance were several curious neighbors who read about our event on the neighborhood’s Nextdoor website.
Homeowner Rosalie Uchanski spoke about the native plant conversion in her front yard. She acknowledged her gratitude to Wild Ones for having awarded her, and husband Terry Egan, the Landscape Challenge front yard makeover in 2015.
When preparing the yard for the Landscape Challenge planting, old bushes were torn out and many stones were uncovered. They left the stones in place to add interest to the varied plantings. This year they groomed the front and side of their house to put in more native plants. Rosalie asked for suggestion regarding propping up tall plants. Many suggested stakes, early spring cut backs to make the plant less leggy, and others suggested decorative pots to help fill some spaces.
On Wednessay, James Faupel, our Vice-President, talked about all the plants in the bed and identified them to the group. On Saturday, Sue Leahy, our PR and Marketing Committee chairperson, filled this role. All the plants were doing very well! As we looked around the neighborhood, we could see other native plant groupings, especially in the turnaround circle on the street.
2018 is our chapter’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate, we will provide door prizes at each of our 2018 gatherings. Jane Helfers and Larry Brammer were each the winner of a great garden reference book, the 2nd edition of Garden Insects of North America
Of course there were many free plants shared! We even stopped to watch a cicada emerge from its cocoon!
Recorded by: Ginny Johnson, Secretary
Photos by: Dawn Weber
