Ask Kay #3 Chrysogonum virginianum

In Ask Kay #3, we learn about:

chrysogonum virginianum

Chrysogonum virginianum (Green and Gold or Goldstar) is a compact, lush groundcover that grows in partly sunny to shady sites.  It has clean, green foliage and abundant bright golden yellow flowers.  Chrysoganum blooms heavily in mid spring and sporadically throughout the rest of the growing season.  Look for it in the Staircase Garden around the boulders at the top.

More details here at Missouri Botanical Garden page about this flower. This is a great resource for anyone interested in North American plants.

Ask Kay What's Blooming #2: Fringe Tree

Hi Kay,

what do we have here? 

Fringe Tree and Wild Geranium

Kay Says: 

On the north side of the Middle School, on the south side of the Dining Hall/Gym, and in the Picnic Glade, and by Admissions, Chionanthus virginicus, (common names: Fringe Tree, Grancy Greybeard, Old Man's Beard) is blooming.  "Chionanthus" comes from combining  the Greek words "chion" and "anthus" to make "snowflower".
 A spine of Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium) runs up the slope beneath the Fringe trees next to the Middle School--the geranium is a shade loving plant that will be happy in the shelter of the taller perennials and shrubs that will fill out and bloom later in the summer and fall.  If you look closely, you will also see some tiny iris--Iris cristata--intermingled with the Geranium.
 Look for the peacock blue of  Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice' (Blue-star) under the trees against the wall of the Dining Hall/Gym, another fun color combination for this tree.

 Thanks Kay! So: next time you find yourself serenading someone with Oklahoma lyrics, try this variant: "When I take you out in a surrey with the fringe Chionanthus virginicus on top." Pro tip: If you're serenading, probably best not to call anyone on your Oklahoma-themed date "Grancy Greybeard."

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!

Watch this Space: Sq Ft Gardening With Mr. Spawn

Square Foot Garden by the Middle School

See that nifty grid, the smiling student, and the ever-moving Mr. Spawn? Thanks to Mr. Spawn, the students in his gardening club and the (mostly future) efforts of students in his classes, these will soon be "square foot gardens," in which all students in his class will plant and care for vegetables in their individual gridded square foot. We'll post again when the grids turn green!

Long Live Sustainability (Friendsbalt page is LIVE!)

Woohoo! Our webpage is live!


We're proud that sustainability now has a home on the "About" section of the Friendsbalt.org website. This means that current and prospective students, parents, and employees can search for and learn about what we're doing at Friends. (I know that personally it was one of the things I looked for when I was applying for a job).

Thanks again to everyone who was involved--Jane Huth Walsh, Stephanie McLoughlin, Heidi Blalock, Danielle Keeney, Scott Harrington, Katherine Jenkins, Joshua Ratner, and the Sustainability Council.

Our webpage and our blog are linked, with excerpts from all new posts to this blog automatically appearing on the webpage, so you can now stay up-to-date by checking either location. Go ahead and try it now, following this link to your webpage, and then the link back to the blog, and then back to the webpage....in an endlessly sustainable loop of sustainability. Actually, don't do that; instead you should email us and come help us think about what work to do next on the Green Schools MD application!

Talking Squawk: Friends Alum on Maryland Poultry Pollution

Time for another Guest Post! Recent alum involved in Maryland environmental work emailed sustainability@friendsbalt.org to tell us about her work on poultry pollution:

Hi everyone! I'm Lindsey Sellman, Friends Class of 2014. This summer I worked as a canvasser for a non-profit organization that you may have heard of called Food and Water Watch. It is located right on Hopkins campus in a building right across from the shopping center with Chipotle, Potbelly, and Starbucks.

This summer we worked to pass a bill called the Poultry Fair Share Act-- a bill in which would hold the large, corporate poultry producers of Maryland's eastern shore accountable for their own mess in the Bay, as they dump millions of pounds of chicken waste into the Bay each year. This summer, I knocked on doors and encouraged people to donate to our organization and write letters to their senators and O'Malley supporting the Poultry Fair Share Act. 

Food and Water Watch has offices in other cities around the U.S. including Cincinnati (only about 40 minutes from my college, Miami University), Austin, TX, East Lansing, Michigan, and New Brunswick, NJ. This summer, I had the opportunity to work with people from the other offices. The office in Austin recently banned the distribution of plastic bags in stores throughout the city. The office in Michigan is working to clean up the Great Lakes and follow the Clean Water Act. The Baltimore office has worked to ban fracking in Maryland. I hope you guys can take a look at my blog, as it explains how passionate I am for this awesome organization!

Feb 10 Swap Shop = Green (even when the dresses are black or the shorts are scarlet and gray)

Sustainability: not just for treehuggers anymore.

Time for another Swap Shop!

Swap shop events encourage reuse, save people money, and reduce or eliminate the need for new raw materials. So when you donate gently used scarlet and gray shorts, your black bow ties or party dresses, you turn those colors green. Check it out:

The Parents Association and Diversity Council are hosting a 2nd Swap Shop event on Tuesday, February 10th from 3-6 pm in the MS lobby. Please donate gently-used party dresses or sports equipment, as well as clothing with the Friends School logo and music performance attire. Donations will be accepted in front of the ZAC on Friday 2/6 from 7:30-8:00 am. Drop-off boxes will also be located outside all divisional offices. You don't have to donate to participate in the swap on February 10th. For questions, please contact Rebecca Murphy at rmurphyjones66@yahoo.com