We were able to plant in the Cherry Creek habitat area today. Planting seeds later this week. More mulch will be brought in and then we can work on the specific insect habitat (area with the pallets to the left).
Fall! This is the best time of year. We’ve been taking care of the plants for the Cherry Creek project at our homes and now we can finally start getting them into the ground. The utility companies were contacted and the area has been flagged again so we don’t dig into something important!
Here are some of the plants we’re starting with – I know there are more and I’ll update when I see what MJ brings from home!
- Butterfly Milkweed
- Swamp Milkweed
- Common Milkweed
- Dotted Gayfeather
- Rough Gayfeather
- Pitchers Sage
- Tick Trefoil
- Plains Coreopsis
- Goldenrod
- Purple Coneflower
- Ironweed
- Hoary Vervain
- Black-eyed Susan – Rudebeckia
- Blanket Flower
- Purple Poppy Mallow
- Pussytoes
- Sunflower
- Yarrow
- White Clover
- Asters
- Common Blue Violet
- Big Bluestem
- Little Bluestem
- Indiangrass
- Switchgrass
- Serviceberry
- Elderberry
- Tall Thistle (1st year rosette)
One of our staff members donated a young spruce (black hills) for the project and MJ ordered some “snowdrops” for early, early blooms. We also have seeds from compass plant, yellow coneflower, biennial gaura, whorled milkweed, tall thistle and partridge pea ready to start. Sedum and some herbs from our home gardens will also help encourage pollinators. Why do we have a thistle on our list? Not all thistles are bad. Tall thistle is an important plant – http://www.nps.gov/home/naturescience/tall-thistle.htm
More updates on the project: The erosion is nearly controlled – we only have a few places that keep causing us problems when we get a heavy rain. The rain barrel is in place and no problem keeping that filled the past week. We have secured the base of our insect hotel and have started collecting materials.
I’ll post a photo this week once we get planting!
Here’s to Sharing the Buzz!
Soni
UNL Extension provides research-based information to help you make informed decisions any time, any place, anywhere – http://lancaster.unl.edu
The Buzz at Cherry Creek 