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This is the third fall that we are offering our DIY Pollinator Palooza program to help you add a pollinator garden to your yard. In the first year, we signed up 46 yards. Last year, we signed up 105.
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This year, how about 210?
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If you have been thinking about adding native plants to your yard, this is a great way to get started. If you planted one set, you can sign up to get another. If you have enjoyed your garden, please share this newsletter with friends and neighbors (and send us pictures of your garden!). If you don't have a yard, please share this with someone who does. I think you get the idea--everyone can be part of the Palooza! Let's grow lots of pollinator habitat--yard by yard!
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The photos below show the plants that you get in the dry shade and full sun sets. The full sun set is deer resistant, and the dry shade set is mostly deer resistant. Where the deer have nibbled on my white wood asters, I have sprayed Deer Out.
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If you signed up in the spring for the fall Pollinator Palooza pick-up, that is Saturday, September 13 from 9:30-11 at Gwynedd Friends Meeting.
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Email me if you have any questions: paige@journeywork.org.
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Thanks for supporting pollinators!
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Sweet Home Alabama
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During the first weekend in August, I attended Alabama Audubon's fifth Black Belt Birding Festival in the Black Belt region of Alabama. This event drew participants from 14 states this year, and I think I travelled the greatest distance. When I wasn't looking up at birds, I was looking down at plants. I also stopped by the Birmingham Botanical Gardens to see what was in bloom in the Kaul Wildflower Garden.
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The photo above was taken at Wild Horse Prairie in Sumter County, where Mitchell and Hazel Bell have restored prairie to 600 of their 12,000 acres. Their goal is 3,000. They opened their tree canopy and do regular prescribed burns to maintain the native prairie plants that once covered the Black Belt region. They have also started a native seed and plant nursery and provided plants to the Kaul Wildflower Garden.
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left: swallowtail kite at the Joe Farm middle: Wild Horse Prairie liatris right: hackberry emperor butterfly
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at Kaul Wildflower Garden, left: sticky rosinweed middle: wax mallow right: green tree frog
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at Kaul Wildflower garden, left: longleaf pine middle: woodland spider lily right: wild strawberry
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Get your tickets for this tour!
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Gwynedd Friends Meeting is a stop on this tour, and Journeywork will have a table there, along with the Liberty Bird Alliance. Chat with homeowners, buy some native plants from the MagiK Garden, and get ideas for your yard. Hope to see you there!
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- plant in Upper Dublin, Friday, 9/5, 5:30-7:00 sign up to volunteer here
- speaking at Norristown Garden Club, Wednesday, 9/10, 1:00
- seed sowers' plant swap at Gwynedd Friends Meeting, Friday, 9/12, 5:00
- Pollinator Palooza pick up, Saturday, 9/13, Gwynedd Friends Meeting 9:30-11:00
- planting a pollinator garden at Salford Mennonite Church, Saturday, 9/13, 2:00-4:00
- plant in North Wales, Sunday, 9/14, 2:00-6:00 sign up to volunteer here
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- table at Mt. Airy Village Fair, Sunday, 9/21, 11:00-4:00 sign up to help here
- table at Whitpain Community Festival, Saturday, 9/27, 12:00-4:00 sign up to help here
- table at Montgomery Township Autumn Festival, Saturday, 10/18, 12:00-5:00 sign up to help here
- Weavers Way Healthy Habitat Fall Wrap-Up workshop, Plymouth Friends Meeting, Sunday, 10/19, 3:00-4:30 sign up here
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We had great weather and delightful company to enjoy Dennis and Susan's new pollinator garden in Lansdale. Their garden includes purple lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis), calico beardtongue (Penstemon calycosus), showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), and butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). During our party, it also included a monarch butterfly.
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As we discussed every gardener's favorite mammal (the deer), we enjoyed Susan's snacks made with veggies from their garden and Dennis's homemade wine. Many thanks to our hosts and to everyone who came out!
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Bees with Grace
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Grace McMackin from Bryn Athyn College led a fantastic bee walk on August 16 at Gwynedd Friends Meeting. We spotted carpenter bees, masked bees, bumble bees, and longhorn bees, as well as a few different species of wasps, moths, and butterflies. We scanned ironweed flowers in the hopes of seeing the denticulate longhorn bee that specializes in pollinating ironweed (which has white pollen!). We didn't see it, but we saw the ligated furrow bee, which is a generalist. Lots of great exploring and learning!
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This Earthen Door at Brandywine Museum until 9/7
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Artists Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey spent five years growing, pressing, and creating works of art from the plant species that Emily Dickinson included in her herbarium. This gorgeous exhibit links the plants to Dickinson's poetry and to our current context of climate resilience. It pairs well with the beautiful native garden surrounding the museum, tended by volunteers who save and package seeds for sale in the gift shop.
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Every so often, someone tells me that they are allergic to goldenrod. When I was at Peace Valley Park a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a small stand of goldenrod almost levitating with pollinator activity and growing among those lovely yellow blossoms, the true culprit: common ragweed (in the red frame).
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Goldenrod has dense, sticky pollen that is not carried on the wind. Ragweed, on the other hand, is wind-pollinated and can produce a billion pollen grains on each plant!
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Goldenrod is considered a keystone species because it supports so much wildlife. There are over 120 species of goldenrod, including several that you can see on the 9/21 garden tour. One goldenrod for shade is included in our Pollinator Palooza shade set. You can't go wrong adding some to your habitat!
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Fall is the time to plant!
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Fall is a wonderful time to add native perennials, shrubs, and trees to your yard. Plants can get established without the heat of summer. There is still a little time for us to help you with that, and we can also help you remove invasive plants to make room for spring planting.
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And get a yard sign!
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Pennsylvania Audubon Council, Bird Town PA, and Liberty Bird Alliance have a new bird-friendly habitat sign that makes a great addition to the habitat you are creating! Signs are $30, and the application is easy to complete. The signs are free for schools and religious institutions. For more information, go here.
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and if you can't get enough of us, follow us
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Find more information about native plants and the wildlife they attract, and watch cute videos of bees on our Instagram and Facebook pages!
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and become a member!
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If Journeywork inspires you to sheet mulch, start seeds, or plant some native plants in your yard, please send us a picture! Or a donation! Let's celebrate and support each other!
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