Persimmon and wild plum in the Graduate Grove

Each year we plant native trees or shrubs to honor our new high school graduates. This year, we planted wild plums and persimmons.

Here's a persimmon seedling.

With financial support from the Wildflower Assn. of Michigan, we hope to plant more native shrubs in September, including blueberries.

Berries are Ripe

Wild raspberries are ripening! There are many growing in and around the Palace of Nature, on the west side of WM II.

Also, the serviceberries (aka juneberries, Amelancier spp.) planted last year are ripe. The ripe berries are purple, not red. Most have a single large seed. I hear that you can make a great-tasting jelly with these.

Thanks to Mike Levine at Nature and Nurture for healthy stock and reliable advice.

Here's a photo.

WM III rides out the big storm

The recently-planted wet meadow basin at the northwest part of Buhr Park appears to have functioned as designed during last night's big storm. You can see that a considerable volume of water flowed from Essex Street into the northwest part of the basin.













You can see water standing in the basin at about noon today (Sunday). This view is looking North, towards Allan School.

















On the downhill (southeast) side, towards the gravel parking lot, it's clear that water flowed through the spillway, as it is designed to do in heavy downpours.

Wet Meadow Planting Photo Stream

Planting Wildflowers in the Sunshine

The planting celebration on Sunday, May 23, was a family affair! Kids, parents, and grandparents from near and far planted wildflowers at Buhr Park.


Kids of all ages had fun while learning to work together on a project that will catch rainwater and add beauty to the park.

Wet Meadow III - Planting Day Details

Come help plant Buhr Park's latest environmentally-friendly, stormwater-drinking, critter habitat-building, wet meadow.

Sunday May 23, 2010
10AM to 4PM

Feel free to come for the whole day or just a few minutes or hours. We've got 3,000 plants coming, but many hands makes light work.

Please Bring

Required:

• Yourselves

Optional:

• Your children, parents, friends and neighbors
• Small trowel or shovel for digging
• Water bottle (free refills!)
• Sun protection

And please leave pets at home.

Schedule for Planting Day activities

• 10am - 4pm
  PLANTING!!
  
  
• 10am
  Sun Salutation with Victoria Cendrowski, neighbor and yoga instructor
  Seed dance
• 11:30
  Milkweed Puppet Show with Leah and Rachel White
• 11:30 - 1pm
  Pilar’s Tamale Cart open for food purchases (bring your own dishes so we don’t make waste)
• 1pm
  Welcome ceremony
• 2pm
  Tunes with Dale Petty
• 3pm
  Games
• 4pm
  Celebration parade

For more information, check out the Wet Meadow III - Overview.

Earth Day All Species Parade - Come Join the Milkweed Ecosystem

Super Swampers and other members of the wet meadow community will once again be participating in the All Species Parade at Ann Arbor's Earth Day Festival.

The earth day festival will be held on Sunday, April 25, 2010 Noon to 4 p.m. at Washtenaw Community College's Morris Lawrence building.

The wet meadow team will be there with our display focusing on recruiting people to come to the Wet Meadow III planting.

As usual, we'll be participating in the all species parade. We encourage people to come dressed as a milkweed or a member of the milkweed ecosystem. See the list of possibilities below, or check out the Milkweed Web of Life document.

Plant:

• Common Milkweed
• Butterfly weed
• Swamp Milkweed

Insects:

• bees (pollinators)
• bumblebees
• honey bees
• green metallic bee
• carpenter bees
• gray striped "leaf-cutter" bees
• wasps
• Pompillid
• spiders
• Crab
• butterflies/moths
• Monarch
• Milkweed Tussock Moth
• Clear-wing hawkmoth
• caterpillars
• Monarch
• Tussock
• beetles
• Long horned milkweed
• Lady bug
• bugs
• Small milkweed bug- nymph
• Small milkweed bug- adult
• Large milkweed bug- nymph
• Large milkweed bug- adult
• Milkweed assassin bug
• flies
• Tachinid flies
• ants
• aphids

Birds:

• Orioles
• Goldfinches