And also: quality outdoor time!
Month: April 2020
The colorful lawn
A lawn never subjected to chemicals can exhibit a broad and attractive range of plants, here featuring purple and white wild violets (and, in the middle distance, an area of meadow hyacinths that will soon bloom in purple and white):
Finding a toad is also a good sign, as amphibians like toads and salamanders are very sensitive to chemical poisoning. From the base of a tree just off the above photo, this is a well-camouflaged Eastern American toad:
Toads breed in water and that one must have hopped safely across 500 feet and 2 streets to get here, some time in the past 30 years (their life span, under good circumstances.
Here is a salamander from about 25 feet away in the same back yard, found under a flat stone (which, here pictured on the left side, of course was carefully replaced so as not to disturb the wildlife, which if you look carefully includes 2 snails near the salamander’s tail). Although only about an inch long, it must be a northern slimy salamander (which grows up to 8 inches long!) lives in just this environment and breeds on land.
Sow the Seeds of Victory
We all can do this, or more:
The Victory Garden movement: be part of it!
During World Wars I and II, Americans pitched in to grow a lot of their vegetables at home or in shared gardens. Now we are faced with a similar need, because people hesitate to go shopping, delivery is slow, store-bought products can come bearing viruses (to say nothing of pesticides and herbicides), growing our own food saves money, and it is healthful and educational to get outdoors and plant!
Photo: Kale (which you can plant outside now) and wild onions (which you can gather any time), from West Chester Green Team Courtney Bodle’s Instagram page.
To get your own organic veggie garden started, see Courtney’s regular series of videos on how to plant seeds indoors under grow lights and, as the season develops, further steps in growing, harvesting, and eating.
And let’s not forget composting. Why buy soil when you can make it at home? For tips, see West Chester resident and Borough Council member Denise Polk’s TED talk on YouTube.
Professor Polk has also founded the Public Seed Library of West Chester, an exchange modality for you to get and donate seeds.
Please note that we plan on starting up our “kid gardening program” as soon as feasible this summer. For last year’s program, see photos on the West Chester Green Team site.
The Victory Garden movement is gaining prominence in the news; see for example an interesting historical perspective in “Food Supply Anxiety Brings Back Victory Gardens” by Tejal Rao in The New York Times, 3/25/20.
For seasonal information on edible wild plants, please see here and links from there. What’s not to like: you just go outside, gather, and eat!
So, once again in the current “war” on the virus: On To Victory!
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