Water Water Everywhere and a lovely place to think: New fallen tree gardens

Here's a note from Bonnie Hearn about work happening on campus right now:

We have tried many times to obtain grants to fund the “fallen tree garden” near the Lower School playground.  One of our top priorities with all of our native plant teaching gardens is to mitigate runoff that is so detrimental to our campus.  The Lower School playground has been eroding for years due to runoff from heavy storms.  Please stop by and see the progress.  We ‘recycled’ the two large oak trees that we needed to remove for safety reasons.
                Once again, the Guilford Garden Club has stepped in with their efforts and designs in collaboration with European Landscapes to get this work completed.  Additionally, with the resources of the Native Plant Garden Fund, we should abate the runoff! 

You should really see it yourself. It's remarkable to see the work they've done, splitting logs, creating areas for the water to move, etc... And I can't wait to see what it looks like once it's planted! It's going to be another great place to sit and think on campus (except in the middle of or just after a rainstorm).

Introducing Aquaponics and the Maker Space

The Aquaponics club met this summer in the new Makerspace to get started, thanks to a generous grant from the Parents Association. Thanks also to Katherine Jenkins, club advisor and to Ramsay Antonio-Barnes, Makerspace advisor and powertool master!

What started with this:

became this:

which necessitated this:

 which made possible this:

Oh what's that? You want to see the final finished product and the sustainably raised fish? Yes, well it turns out this is, you know, kindacomplicatedlike.

Aquaponics Club is going to keep working on the design this Fall and we'll let you know when there are fish and grow beds to see!

Reading, Writing, and Arugula

9th Grade environmental science students taking notes, trying the radishes, and learning about Real Foods Farms in May 2015.

We were studying the nitrogen cycle and agriculture at the time. On the farm we focused on their nitrogen management practices ( composting, legume cover crops, and a bioswale ) and then planted the Native American trio of the 3 Sisters ( corn, beans and squash) which is both nutritionally and ecologically sustainable. ( FS donated the seeds and seedlings )

What Blooms: Beardtongue and Bluestar

Another early summer post:

Kay says:

This white and blue combination is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'--Beardtongue--and Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice'--Bluestar--, a cultivar of Amsonia tabernaemontana that has been selected for its dwarf size and peacock blue flowers as well as its brilliant yellow and maroon fall foliage.  

Amsonias are a very useful, carefree garden plant that tolerate many conditions--wet, dry, sun, shade.  They have various leaf shapes and heights, and are a wonderful plant for massing and texture.

You can find these in gym beds, beautiful anytime of year, blooming in early June. 

Ask Kay What's Blooming? #5 Sweetspire and Beardtongue

The summer got away, so these posts aren't about what's blooming now--these are from early June.

Kay says:

Virginia Sweetspire--in this case Itea virginica 'Merlot'--is a wonderful four season shrub that is an important design element in the Staircase Garden.  It forms colonies and prefers moist conditions, so we have placed it on the uphill side of the sitting walls and near boulders where water will collect.  This generous plant offers dense red twigging in winter, lustrous green leaves that turn brilliant red in fall, and fragrant creamy white flower racemes--"spires"--in spring is a wonderful nectar plant for butterflies and a great plant for massing and stabilizing banks in the garden.

The second plant in this white and white color pairing is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'--Beardtongue--a signature plant throughout the Native Plant Teaching Gardens.  Its burgundy basal leaves are semi-evergreen, and in late May, clouds of white flower spikes can be seen in many gardens.  Allowing these spikes to form seedheads and drop seed has created great drifts of plants that form a sturdy groundcover. 
By covering as much soil as possible with plants, there is less space available for weeds so that less mulch is necessary in the beds, conserving labor, money, and all of the fossil fuels necessary to transport mulch. It also reduces the opportunity for weed seeds that may travel within the mulch to be brought into the gardens. 

Ask Kay: What's Blooming #4 Columbine

...in which we ask Kay, what's this?

The harlequin red/orange and yellow flowers are Aquilegia canadensis--Columbine.  They are a great hummingbird and butterfly attractor and have large reservoirs of nectar.  They are also the only food source for the larvae for the Columbine Duskywing butterfly, Erynnis lucilius, a little green caterpillar that will eat the lovely fine-textured blue green leaves but not the flowers; Columbine leaf miners will also eat the foliage, and you can sometimes see their tracks across the leaves.  Columbine will set seed and spread itself around in gardens in a charming, unpredictable way.  The plants go semi-dormant in the summer.


Columbine grows in woodland ledges and rocky outcrops in nature and enjoys moisture in the spring and dry conditions in the summer.  It is not easy to transplant, but can be planted from the dried seed capsule in mid-summer.  I let it grow wherever it wants to be!

Editor's notes:
That's Penstemon digitalis blooming behind it. You can find both of these flowers around campus but especially on the US step beds and in the MS beds. I posted this in August, but they bloom in late May and June.