The park had to close indefinitely. Donations and volunteers were requested, to help with the clean-up and restoration. Now, two years later, the park is about to open. And since I donated some money, I was invited to a pre-opening hike last month.
The bulletin board in the nature center tells the story. The company that removed the trees did so in exchange for the wood. New trees have been planted, and the park is starting to heal. But it will be generations before it fully recovers.
Where there was once countless trees there is now next to nothing.
The sandy soil did little to keep trees upright.
I have a bit of history with the park. While self-employed (many, many years ago!), I participated in a ground water study, hiking through the preserve to measure the depth of the water in strategically placed wells. Those wells cannot even be found now. I have cross country skied at the park, surrounded by winter-bare trees that are no longer there. It's all very sad.
While we are catching up, here is a photo of my Christmas cactus blooming in April. The plant was a gift, and the year after receiving it, I did manage to force some winter blooms from it. But I haven't been a very good plant owner to this thing, have debated over whether I should put it out of its misery, when it creates this rather large blossom. Go figure.
I don't think I mentioned my attempt to overseed a swath of quack grass in the backyard with grass seed and clover last month. It's really hard to tell if it is working, and I have been remiss in keeping the patch watered. I'm going to mow the area today, and we'll just have to wait and see.
As promised, here is a pic of a spiderwort blossom. It is recovering from being transplanted quite nicely.
Yesterday I planted the impulse purchases from Riverview Native Nursery. These include Queen of the Prairie, Michigan Lily, Purple Meadow Rue, Spotted Joe Pye. They all went in next to the rain garden. I hope they tolerate my heavy clay soil. I also picked up a couple of butterfly weed plants at the nursery, to round out the ones out front. Those are now installed as well. Now all that is left are the rattle snake master plants, which was what I went to the nursery to purchase in the first place.
1 comment:
I have a Christmas cactus that's more than 40 years old. It belonged to my boss at my first office job in the mid-80s. I knew that his previous secretary had taken care of it and so I dubiously asked him if I had to water his plant, and I remember his reply was, "I would like you to think of it as OUR plant." A couple of years later he left for another job and the cactus ended up being entirely mine. I left it at my parents house where my mother watered it once a week and did nothing else for it, and it bloomed regularly twice a year, in April and November. It won't bloom unless it's kept next to a window where it gets natural light year round, but as long as it gets more or less adequate water, it is immortal evidently.
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