I walked up to my first prairie smoke plants last summer in Allerton Park outside Monticello IL, and it was love at first site. The Wisconisn Master Gardener Program has a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated page that will tell you everything you need to know about this gorgeous prairie gem […]
I don’t even want to know how much chemical fertilizer, pesticide, fuel for hot houses and refrigerated air transport goes into “saying it with flowers.” My favorite option these days is just walking around my land, which is a constant profusion of flowering plants. When I have a minute, I […]
I like to spend Mothers Day communing with Mother Nature and planting. I used to content myself with converting our lawn into flower beds, but now Doug and I focus on plants that recreate the diversity of a natural community on our 44 acres. For Mothers day, we got 54 […]
Our prairie remnant on a sunny, south-facing slope just off the top of a ridge had been farmed for years and then planted by the owner before us in rows of pine and spruce. Some of the trees were 5 years old. Some were nearer 15. The older trees were […]
By now, five years into the relationship, I no longer feel it necessary to call my land Ms. Forty-four Acres. Sometimes I feel it’s perfectly appropriate to call her Forty-four, or even Dear old Double F – but that doesn’t mean I actually know her really well yet. Whenever I […]
People say sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s even more true that you can’t see the prairie for the grasses. But we really should see those grasses. Ornamental grasses are gaining respect in landscaping, and truly, what is more beautiful than a sea of grass flowing […]
When we first walked our land, it was a week before Labor Day 2003. I’m sure there were wild flowers everywhere, but I can’t remember them. I was trying to feel the whole 44 acres at once. What is too big? Was it too little? Was it too flat? Was […]
Last Sunday, the sun was shining. The birds were singing. Doug and I were dipping buckets of water from our tiny pond and hauling them in our Powerwagon (learn about the tool that has turned us into superman and wonderwoman here) to all the places we started new plants this […]
I’ve read that pioneers called their wagons prairie schooners. If they crossed my acre and a half of restored remnant prairie today, they would be sailing over a sea of flowers. I can totally relate to the bees. I am drawn to this blooming bounty and am fueled by it. […]
I first walked my land on Labor Day Weekend 2004. I was responding with a pounding heart to the topographical nuance of a protected hollow where a ravine and another, wider valley meet under a big bowl of sky. I was already bonding to the rows of toddler pine, spruce […]
Digging in the Driftless 