Ask Kay What's Blooming #1: Poppywort Report

Here at Friends we are doubly lucky: we have lovely Native Plants Teaching Gardens, and we have master gardener, designer, educator Kay McConnell, who is responsible for much of their design, plantings and yearly maintenance. See this post for more on the Native Plants Teaching Gardens. But here's our news today: Kay has offered to identify and describe what's blooming now. Here's how it works: I send her a photo of something pretty on campus, and she tells us what it is. So, time for a poppywort report:

Dear Kay, What's this?

Kay says: 

This cheerful wildflower is Stylophorum diphyllum.  The common names are Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy, and Poppywort.  It loves to grow in moist woodlands and freely seeds where it is happy.  It is planted in front of the Lower School by the bridge. 

Thanks Kay! 

MS Earth Day: Sweat, Sunblock and Seedlings at the Boone Street Farm

Scott Harrington, Middle School Principal, writes in to tell us about the group of MS students busy at Boone Street Farm last Friday:

It was quite a surprise to be worrying about sunburns while gardening on April 17, the Friends School version of Earth Day.  It was supposed to be cold and rainy.  But a group of 12 Friends Middle School students spent the day weeding, preparing beds, mulching, and planting seedlings at Boone Street Farm an urban garden that's part of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore City, and many of us turned a shade of red from the hot sun. 

We not only helped four of the Boone Street Farm staff prepare the beds for the summer crop, but also gave the place a bit of a shine for their own Earth Day celebration on April 22.  One special treat of the day was our partnering, unexpectedly, with some neighborhood children who have taken interest in the farm, and decided to help out and join us for lunch.  If you are interested in supporting Boone Street Farm, you can purchase their produce at the Waverly Farmers Market (under the Farm Alliance of Baltimore's tent), or you can contact them to join their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  

Proper Puddles Prevent Pollution

Now that's a good-looking puddle. Actually, that's the new rain garden significantly reducing parking-lot runoff by the new Little Friends building. As a Quaker school, stewardship of the local environment is a core value, and this puddle is doing its part. After a recent heavy rain, all of this water ends up here instead of flowing directly into the storm drains. Too much rainwater (especially when it comes off of hot asphalt and is contaminated by engine oil and other pollutants that accumulate on impervious parking lot surfaces) can cause severe damage to local waterways. That puddle will drain over the next day or so, and the plants in this swale will filter and dilute the pollutants, keeping them out of Stony Run.

Rain Garden by Little Friends

Time to Cheer for Amelanchier (Native Trees Aflower on Campus Now!)

It must be spring: we've got redbud and serviceberry trees blooming all over the place!

Cercis Canadensis (Redbud) by Admissions:

Serviceberry (also known as Shadbush and Juneberry) produces a delicious edible berry in, yupp, June. These are an important food source for native birds too, but sneak a few yourself if you can (and only if you're sure you know it's not something else--remember lots of berries only look edible.)

Amelanchier Canadensis (Serviceberry) by Lower school and adjacent to the community garden:

Meanwhile, in 9th grade English, we're about to start Shipwrecks, a book about medieval Japan in which seasonal change and "mono no aware" (the bittersweetness of ephemeral beauty and bounty) are key concepts. See 'em while you can!