Written By Eileen Graessle
Photos by Renee’ Benage, Anna Adams and Eileen Graessle
On the lovely blue-sky morning of October 7th, a crew of Wild Ones St. Louis and Wild Ones St. Charles Chapter volunteers gathered with tools, gloves and buckets, tarps and bags for debris to tackle the display gardens along the front of the educational building and river side edge of the parking lot at Riverlands. Enthusiasm abounded as volunteers recognized their favorite and not-so favorite plants which have settled into the garden beds bordered by cobblestones. A list of natives in the original planting design proved a handy guide for deciding whether a plant kept its bit of space in the garden or returned to the cycle of life as composting material. We were challenged to follow the footsteps of Scott Woodbury, the first president of our local Wild Ones chapter, and designer of this garden, as we followed the path the natives had wandered along.
By the end of the session, compost materials overflowed the designated bin, unable to restrain the pile of proof of the Wild Ones members’ efforts to craft order in the space nature had been reclaiming. Some volunteers faithfully wielded a spade to route plants hogging the resources up for grabs. Tall goldenrod, some stands taller than the volunteers, struggled to keep their cozy space as the spade insisted they move along. Weedy white asters with impressive woody girth resisted leaving their claimed spots, typically growing out of the base of a forb or sedge where a seed found shelter. Precision with the spade was needed to extract these hearty plants and leave the original one in place. Illinois bundle flower proved to be the bold forb of the day, seeming to pop up in every space we turned our back on! Little brown rosettes of seed heads dotted all the deceptively spindly branching, ready to spread a bit more.
Our volunteers consulted the plant list and each other on some native plant volunteers in the gardens, taking advantage of the vast knowledge of the different members. We questioned whether more aggressive plants would have really been selected for the area, prompting a look at the list. Would a display garden have purple top prairie grass or did a bird or wind carry it from the nearby prairie planting? Was prairie willow actually planted in this spot? Plants which seemed to have moved or volunteered nearby the mother plant were evaluated. The evening primrose seemed to have moved along an edge and was looking happy. Mark it with the Wild Ones ID tag!
Knowledge of growth patterns and mature spread of native bushes guided trimming happy, very resilient false indigo bush and frothing branches of aromatic sumac. Crowded and crisscrossed center branches were pruned away for better air flow, also improving aesthetics and encouraging new growth next season. Once in a while the crew paused, shears gaping, to see pelicans overhead, flying in queues of expansive V formations, gleaming black and white dots in the bright sunlight.
A satisfying amount of hard work yielded a pile of removed true weeds or invasives: exotic ornamental grasses, fox tail grass, white mulberry trees, and more of the most common found in our yards and parks. The collective native plant knowledge, collaborative restoration of the garden, and dedicated muscle-power made a big difference with the Wild Ones team flowing through and around the garden beds.
With great effort, the team pulled themselves away from work to wrap up and discover wee ones using the garden space and surrounding native plants at Riverlands. We rewarded ourselves by marveling at a lovely large garden spider by the entrance. (Shovel photo assist from master goldenrod remover, Kevin.) What seemed like 2 completely different caterpillars turned out to be snowberry clearwing moths at different instars, a tidbit from Kathy. A short walk led by Renee’ revealed habitat hosting the small Texas butterfly, new friend in town, a Ceraunus blue, which couldn’t stay still, a might like Wild Ones members. A trove of tiny little rewards which make a big difference, like the final effect in the Riverlands gardens through love, hard work and native know-how.
Anna Adams, Sr Center Assistant had this to say: “Thanks to the amazing Wild Ones crew who joined us in the gardens last week at The Audubon Center at Riverlands! The gardens look wonderful, our compost pile is full, and we couldn’t have done it without your expertise and enthusiasm. Want to help us grow the Riverlands Garden Club? Reach out to anna.adams@audubon.org. And wherever you are, consider connecting with your local Wild Ones chapter! Get outside and grow NATIVE!!”
