A Fearsome Quartet

Today I worked six hours on my capstone project again from my latest Master Naturalist Class. Three women and I drove to Richfield for the free mulch. We're getting almost all free things to spruce up the entry garden at the Wildlife Science Center. We planted free native wild plants. Lets see how many plants I can remember: anise hyssop (see photo), false lily of the valley, Solomon's seal, lady fern, sensitive fern, pagoda dogwood, violets, zigzag goldenrod, Pennsylvania sedge, jack-in-the-pulpit, large leafed aster, wild sunflower, and I know we had more, I just can't remember the names. We laid down three ply of newspapers, wet it down, and shoveled mulch on top. A veery (bird from the thrush family) sang it's pretty flute -like sound while we worked. I just learned that bird song and was happy to share it with the others. The veery sang and sang until we all learned the sound. We labeled the plants with pretty rocks one woman found. We wrote the names of the wild plants on the rocks with a paint pen and sprayed them with a clear sealer. The garden really turned out pretty. We have more to do. We might paint the propane tank brown or hunter green. We might make some wolf cutouts to disguise the fence. We might work more on the other side of the path. We might make a sign explaining the garden. We will probably bring in another load of mulch too. It is so fun to garden with other women. One of us would have a question. We'd offer our opinions and solve it as a group. We make a fearsome quartet! One woman took pictures. I'll try to get one to post here.