Freedom Park Bird and Butterfly Garden Summer/Fall, Almost Winter Update 12-01-09

　
The garden stands alone! The garden made it through this summer and fall without much help from me. I’ll explain but first, apologies for this late and abbreviated update. Please accept my cupful of excuses and my explanation: on June 18, the day after the last update, I tripped while out walking and broke my kneecap. My own fault, I confess. I was busy looking towards a beautiful St. John’s Wort hoping to see some wildlife fluttering among the yellow blooms when an uneven pavement got me. Since that time I’ve been pretty such in recovery mode and was not able to get over to the garden myself until recently.

Thanks! In the meantime MANY THANKS to the volunteers who helped the garden get by: Tom Painter, who kept the birdbath full, Dorothy Dabbs, who watered the garden in its time of need, Lauren Sandoval, who watered our drooping new trees, Cecilia Marrero, who took photo’s of a still unidentified plant (we know its native since Meta Larson, who donated the plant, bought it at the Native Plant Garden at Georgia Perimeter College), and to Tom Painter, again, Martha Treadwell Justice and Diana Shellack who helped clean up the garden on a recent work day.

December 1 at the garden: The garden is looking pretty good! Even at this time of year. Zinnias are still in bloom The seed pods on the Wild Sienna are almost ready to be picked. The Stokes’ Asters, Blueberry plants, Florida Anise, Waxmyrtle, Crossvine, Celandine Poppy, Cumberland Rosemary, Passionflower, Thrift and Hawkweed continue to sport their greenery. The Eastern Red Cedar has grown about a foot. The bird bath is brimming with water thanks to all the recent rain-and Tom Painter. There are no more berries on the American Beautyberry nor any seed heads on the Purple Coneflowers-hopefully the birds made a meal of these.

So, all in all, the garden made it through the season without much help, as it is meant to do. For this, thanks to Phil Edwards, garden co-coordinator, and the DeKalb Master Gardeners’ Association who planned and planted the garden and, without whom, the garden would have never come to be.

Things on hold: Many things have been on hold for the last few months and for this I point the finger of blame at my knee-ouch! Still to be accomplished: a Power Point presentation, a pathway through the garden, a grant application and completion of markers for all the plants. Also we weren't able to connect with Mary Lin School students this year, very disappointing, but wait til next year! Again, I wasn't able to coordinate things in time.

Help re email addresses: To add insult to knee injury, my computer crashed in early September so I’ve lost some of the Update email addresses. So if you know anybody who might be interested in receiving the Update please send me their email address. Anyone not wishing to receive Updates, please hit reply/send.

Soapbox: Yes, even with a broken knee cap I can perch upon it! Just want to add a link to the "Save Jekyll Island" site - www.savejekyllisland.org - there's a "Keep Jekyll Affordable" petition there if you'd like to sign it. The possible commercial development of Jekyll is scary and, as far as I'm concerned, just a foot in the door for developers to move on to other parts of the lovely Georgia coast. And if they do, we'll lose all that beauty and all those birds and become a replica of my home state, New Jersey (much as I love it). So here’s a chance to keep an established native plant wildlife habitat in place.

Well, I'm stepping off my soapbox-cautiously.

Thanks for listening and

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
　
Carol Vanderschaaf
Co-coordinator
Cvanderschaaf@bellsouth.net