By Ed Schmidt Squaw weed, also known as round-leaved ragwort, has beautiful yellow flowers in the spring, and the leaves make an attractive ground cover. It thrives in shade, and tolerates fairly dry conditions. On the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Plantfinder, it gets 4 stars. Originally designated as Senecio obovatus, the…
By Nellie Brown It’s not because the tree is in the holiday spirit. The “ornaments” are actually bagworms. The caterpillars eat an extremely wide range of plants (128 species), from arborvitae to maples. They can be devastating on many woody ornamentals, including many plants in your yard. The eggs hatch…
By Marsha Gebhardt I highly recommend attending one or more of the Friday Greener Gardens series at Shaw Nature Reserve. This is a new series for SNR; they call it an “experiment.” I attended the first one on a beautiful April evening. After sharing food and drink and a bit…
By Scott Barnes At the June yard tour, Dave Tylka talked about a caterpillar that ate all the leaves on his Indigo plant last year. I had the same problem, and was surprised to learn I wasn’t alone. The caterpillar belongs to the Broom Moth. I looked them up and learned…
By Kathryn Jepsen A free, informative field day for land managers, land owners and other resource professionals interested in woodland restoration. See first-hand what Missouri Master Naturalists, St. Charles County Parks and Recreation, and their partners are doing to restore the county’s woodland and prairie communities. Learn about the resources…
By Susan Lanigan See first-hand how other St. Louisans have integrated sustainable practices and beauty into their little piece of Earth. The 2014 Sustainable Backyard Tour is a self-guided, open-house-style tour of over 40 yards. This is a great opportunity to see examples of outdoor sustainable living—from organic gardening to rain gardens and mud ovens. Read descriptions…
By Kate Lovelady Earlier this year, St. Louis Wild Ones gave the Dogtown Eco-Village group a grant for a landscape design for the well-traveled intersection of Clayton and Tamm Avenues. There are several popular restaurants and bars nearby. Jeanne Cablish designed an all-native garden for the area, which is dry…
By Nellie Brown At this time of year, as the trees are leafing out, insects that feed on them are showing up as well. One of these is the eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum). The adult moth is rarely seen, but the larval caterpillars create webs in the limb crotches of…
PROGRAM Sue and Andy Leahy’s suburban native yard, which includes two water features, has attracted abundant wildlife. On May 7, it also attracted 53 Wild Ones members and guests. The Leahy’s landscaping adventure started five years ago with a butterfly garden that immediately attracted butterflies. Sue quickly learned that the…
By Nellie Brown One of the comments on my earlier post about possible effects of our recent winter on Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) stated: “A recent study in Minnesota exposed emerald ash borer larvae to extremely cold temperatures, and they died. However, the larvae in this experiment were exposed to…
