June meeting minutes

PROGRAM Dave and Karen Tylka hosted this month’s yard tour at their 3-acre rural property outside of Imperial, MO. Fifty-plus Wild Ones members and guests attended to learn from the passionate, natural-born teacher. Dave is the author of Native Landscaping for Wildlife and People and teaches a class of the same…

Read More

Spring discoveries, anxieties, and lessons

By Marsha Gebhardt I am the lucky caregiver for a seven-month-old Missouri natives garden. As with children, seven-month-olds bring wonder, worry, and a need for much education and effort. It is not easy to walk the Missouri Evening Primrose path, but it is a walk filled with pleasure and purpose….

Read More

St. Louis on the Air (KWMU) features native plant discussion

By Marsha Gebhardt On June 4th, local radio station KWMU’s program St. Louis on the Air had an excellent discussion of the benefits of using native plants. “Using native plants is environmentally friendly because it works within the existing ecosystem,” explained Jean Ponzi, Green Resources Manager at the EarthWays Center of the Missouri Botanical…

Read More

Photos from the June meeting

Our June meeting was at the home of author and college professor, Dave Tylka and his wife, Karen. Their yard includes shade and prairie gardens, glade habitat, a rain garden, and a water feature. Dave’s book, Native Landscaping for Wildlife and People, is a “must read” for native gardeners in the Midwest. If…

Read More

Fran Glass’ yard gets Platinum certification from STL Audubon

By Mitch Leachman The St. Louis Audubon Society’s Bring Conservation Home program was created in 2012. It gives individual landowners in the St. Louis region specific advice on how to create bird- and pollinator-friendly habitat in their own yards. A number of the program’s volunteer Habitat Advisors are Wild Ones members,…

Read More

Squaw weed — friend or foe?

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…

Read More

Watch out for this pest on indigo plants

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…

Read More

Restoration field day – Matson Hill Park

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…

Read More