Crack Plants ... Can Drinking Beer Save the Environment and the Forest?... Native Shrub and Tree Sale... Botany Prodigy--2021 Garden Tour

Soil: It Is Not Dirt!

Presented by Dwayne Anderson (North Cook County Master Gardener & Gemini Bhalshod (Illinois Extension Center Educator)

Sunday, August 15, 2021

2:30 - 4:30 p.m. CDT
Location: Online (Zoomtown)

Register at Eventbrite

Soil and human beings are intertwined. Humans cultivate it for subsistence, make mudpies out of it as children, dig graves in it to bury their dead. In human communication the medium is the message; for land plants, the medium is the soil and their communication is transmitted via mycorrhizae.

As animal and plant species, the soil is classified. In the USA, it has six classifications: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series. Over 20,000 types of soils exist in the United States. The state soil of Illinois is called Drummer. Formed under prairie vegetation, Drummer is the most extensive and productive soil in the state. Considering Illinois has less than a percent of its original prairie, one can assume Drummer ain’t what used to be.

Soil originates from rock, becomes soil by weathering, and time, so much time, it seems a miracle. To form an inch of topsoil requires at least a century, and despite the time immemorial required to make soil, it’s capable of recovery, a miracle compounded.

Unearth the supernatural medium of soil at Soil: It Is Not Dirt.

2021 Native Tree and Shrub Sale

The simplest, easiest, most facile, uncomplicated, efficient, economical, time-saving method to mitigate climate disruption, support birds, pollinators, and threatened species is to plant native shrubs and trees.

You don't have to wait for federal, state, or local governments, private enterprises, corporations, or foreign governments to do something about the anthrotrauma and environmental crises affecting planet Earth. You can do something now. Plant a native tree or shrub.

Unfortunately, few garden centers sell them, but Wild Ones West Cook in association with the Forest Preserves of Cook County, Conservation@Home, the Illinois Extension Center, Interfaith Green Network, and One Earth Collective does.

Purchase native shrubs and trees at Shopify. Wild Ones members (any chapter) and Conservation@Home members (in Cook County) receive discounts.

2021 Native Garden Tour a Botany Prodigy

8 Gardens ... 306 tickets sold… a tour record.

You can’t set a tour record without the will and effort from the people involved.

THANK YOU!!

Garden owners for opening their homes to hundreds of strangers
Docents for enduring the heat to showcase the beautiful landscapes
Organizers for their hours and hours of preparation
A board member family for offering up their home for a post garden tour party

When you feel cynical about the world, go on a native garden tour! A better world for everyone!

You can view photos of the tour gardens at Facebook.

A "Crack Plant" Growing in Your Patio or Sidewalk You Need to Leave Alone

Partridge Pea Chamaecrista fasciculata Photos by Byron Lanning

A "Crack Plant" Growing in Your Sidewalk
or Patio You Need to Dispatch. Think Requiem for a Wrong-Placed Plant

Yellow Sweet Clover Melilotus officinalis growing on Ridgeland Ave. near the train overpass between Lake Street and South Boulevard in Oak Park IL.

Can Drinking Beer Save the Environment? What about just a Forest Preserve?

To find out the answers to these questions attend one of these events, both if you want a definitive answer. Chin-chin salut.

14th Annual Oak Park Microbrew

Presented by Seven Generations Ahead. Registration and tickets at Eventbrite

Fifth Annual Beer in the Woods

Presented by Friends of the Forest Preserves. Registration and tickets at Eventbrite

Also of Interest

Wolf Prairie Reprieve. Nature Victorious.
VF Press

Special Access to Natural History Museum
An hour-long event will stream live from the Entomology Collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the oldest natural history museum in the U.S.A. Four million insects from around the world, representing about 100,000 species.
Atlas Obscura

Meet the Mussels
"Next to arthropods (insects, spiders, crayfish, etc.), mollusks are the largest group of animals in the world."
Dupage County Forest Preserve

Visit our Facebook page for more stories like these.

Join Wild Ones

Join our community of native plant enthusiasts - novices to experts - and support biodiversity in your yard and around town. You will receive discounts at West Cook Wild Ones sales and events while supporting our advocacy and free monthly programs. Join the Wild Ones national organization and select West Cook as your chapter.