Trees support our well-being and our planet’s health. They provide shade, which cools our outdoor and indoor living areas. Trees have been proven to calm us and reduce stress levels.
Trees support wildlife and our ecosystem. An oak tree attracts and supports pollinators and beneficial insects. Trees provide birds and animals with food and nesting areas. Planting one tree can make a difference.
Attend an Arbor Day event to celebrate and learn more about trees.
Arbor Day LNK 2024 is Sunday, April 28th from 12:30 to 3:30 pm at Antelope Park.
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by Earthday.org
Here are three things you can do to celebrate Earth Day:
Attend an Earth Day event. Lincoln Earth Day 2024 is Saturday, April 20th from 10 am to 2 pm at Nebraska Innovation Campus. Learn more here: https://lincolnearthday.org/schedule/
Find a green space to enjoy. Savor the benefits of spending time outdoors! Earth Day is during National Parks Week. Saturday, April 20, 2024 – Sunday, April 28. Explore the parks around you or plan a trip to one of our amazing national parks.
Set up a compost pile. Compost is used as an organic amendment to improve the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soils. For example, adding compost to garden soil will increase the moisture holding ability and improve the drainage and aeration of clay soils. Over time, compost will create desirable soil structure making the soil easier to work. If you would like to learn more about composting, consider attending a Nebraska Extension Master Gardener composting demonstration. Dates and times are listed here: https://events.unl.edu/lancaster/search/?q=compost
It is spring in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. Get outside and see what is growing and what did not make it over the winter. Now is a good time to think about what plants you could add to your pollinator habitat. The Nebraska Pollinator Habitat Certification program has an excellent list of spring, summer and fall blooming plants that are native to Nebraska. Look over the impressive plant list and also consider certifying your pollinator habitat. Learn more at this link: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/douglas-sarpy/nebraska-pollinator-habitat-certification/
Lincoln and the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat have received over 20 inches of snow so far in January. This moisture is good news and Nebraska is no longer in the ‘exceptional drought’ range.
This was a dry year in southeast Nebraska. Watering plants and keeping the water features full was a priority this year in the Cherry Creek Habitat.
Looking at the data, we are on target to have more moisture that 2022. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Weather and Climate keeps monthly and annual precipitation totals (in inches) since 1887.
The Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat is 10 years old! In the fall of 2012, Soni Cochran and I attended “Becoming an Outdoors Woman” program in Halsey, Nebraska sponsored by Nebraska Game and Parks. One of the sessions focused on the challenges of increasing our native pollinator population. We left the session with a handmade native bee nest box and motivation to spread the message about the importance of encouraging native pollinators in our community.
In the spring of 2013, we asked our then unit leader if we could transform the underutilized space behind the Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County office into a native pollinator and wildlife habitat. The journey began and it is amazing to see how much we have accomplished and learned during this time.
A few of our accomplishments include: two educational signs, solitary bee house, two insect hotels, five water stations, over 40 native plants with name labels, over 100 stems of common milkweed for monarchs & other beneficial insects and became a Nebraska Pollinator Habitat Certification Program site member.
Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat Summer 2015
The habitat is a great place to teach youth, adults, Master Gardeners and even our own staff about the importance of pollinators. Every time I visit the habitat I see or learn something new.
In 2014, Soni planted one sawtooth sunflower (Helianthus grosseserratus) in the center of the Cherry Creek Habitat. This sunflower grows in tight colonies and reaches 3-5 feet tall. Unfortunately, it began to spread and I was afraid it would take over the whole habitat. Thankfully it has not, but it did overtake all the Liatris we had planted. I am impressed with hoary vervain (Verbena stricta) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). Both have done well and not been over taken by the sawtooth sunflower. All three plants are long bloomers and visited heavily by native bees.
Sawtooth sunflowerHoary vervainMonarda
In 2014 we also added native grasses. Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) has done very well. This prairie tallgrass forms upright clumps with blue-green foliage. The beautiful seed heads tower over me, 6 – 7 feet tall. It has spread more than I like, but mainly in an area where there was poor quality fill soil. In the late fall and winter, the deer rest in this area when it snows.
Indiangrass
We struggle to provide spring blooming plants for our early pollinators. Spring flowering bulbs do not do well in our poor quality clay soil and wildlife like to feed on them. Thankfully, we have spring flowering trees that provide early blooms: Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), wild plum (Prunus americana) and peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides).
Wild plum
Several volunteer trees and shrubs try to get established in our habitat. It is important to remove them when they are young seedlings and not allow them to get established in our native flower area. Gray dogwood (Cornus racemose), autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), red mulberry (Morus rubra), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoids) have been removed from the habitat.
Soni and I attended a workshop by Dr. Ted Burk with the Department of Biology at Creighton University. He and his students have done butterfly and plant species research for eight years at Allwine and Bauermeister Prairies. They developed a list of plants found in Nebraska that attract butterflies. At the top of the list was tall thistle. We immediately decided we needed to add this plant to the Cherry Creek habitat. We had learned tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum) is a native plant and biennial. Not a noxious weed menace like musk thistle (Carduus nutans). We knew we would be criticized for this selection. Soni and I understood, we were both former farm kids and spent our summers rogueing out thistles and other weeds. We transplanted one plant and waited for it to bloom. When that day arrived we were in awe of the insects that were visiting the flowers. Swallowtails, bumblebees and native bees we had never seen before. It did not take long for others to notice the blooming thistle and they were not happy. One fellow staff member, who was a former farm kid too, showed up at my office door with a spade and said they were on their way to dig it out. I was ready and calmly explained the difference between tall and musk thistle. I explained tall thistle was a native thistle and was not on the noxious weed list. I showed them how to tell the difference and explained we had all been mislead growing up that ALL thistles were bad. Thankfully they backed down and today many tall thistles are growing in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat.
Black swallowtail butterfly on tall thistle.
It has been a rewarding and educational experience for me to help create and manage the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. I am happy to share what I learn.
Beautiful fall day in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat! It is a perfect day to collect seeds from native plants. Our common milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca) are going to seed, so it is important to collect some before they all go poof in the wind. Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) and Partridge pea pods (Chamaecrista fasciculata) are also ready to be harvested. After collecting the seeds, you can replant them in a new location as soon as possible. They will germinate next spring. If you are saving the seeds, be sure to give them time to dry out completely before you store them. They will rot if not dried properly. Be sure to label the envelope or container you store them in. Consider sharing seeds with others and help promote native plants.
Goldenrod is blooming in the Cherry Creek pollinator habitat. This late summer and fall blooming perennial of the Compositae family, is native to North America, where there is well over 50 species. They have mostly wand like stems, variously shaped leaves and heads of small yellow flowers. Because they are such common plants in rural areas, some people may think of goldenrods as weedy and unsuitable for the flower garden. Most of these plants are striking in appearance.
These low maintenance, nearly pest free plants deserve a place in your pollinator habitat. This time of year you can find bees, bumblebees, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles and flies all visiting the flowers on this beautiful plant. Goldenrods make nice border plants or do well in a wildflower or prairie garden setting. Goldenrods do not cause hayfever. Their pollen is too heavy to be carried by the wind. Ragweed, which inconspicuously blooms at the same time, is the culprit.
Excited to see so many wonderful summer blooming plants in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat this month. The butterflies and bees are in large numbers and it is great to be in the habitat watching all the activity. Rosinweed, tall thistle, chicory, brown-eyed Susan, pitcher’s sage, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, cup plant and Joe-Pye weed are all blooming now. All these plants are fairly easy to start from seed.
Hoary vervain (Verbena stricta) is blooming in the habitat now. This perennial, native plant has beautiful purple-blue flowers and blooms for at least 6 weeks. It gets 2-3 feet tall and prefers drier soil conditions. I always see bumblebees visiting the flowers, as well as butterflies and solitary bees.
The Buzz at Cherry Creek 