Blog
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Ode to Yellow Birch
One of my favorite trees for winter interest is Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis). The bark is not white like its brother, or even yellow like the name would suggest, but cherry which exfoliates to copper and gray, dappled with white lenticels. The bark becomes brown and platy as it gets older.
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The Birds Are Coming...
Spring is but a fridge date on the calender, but it is coming and so are the birds. All over Illinois, the landscape is changing due to homes, roads, removed wind rows and a general toppling of habitat and food sources for our welcomed feathery friends. Now for those of us that are a bit lucky and have habitat existing in our yards, a simple addition of key species and water will do the job. But those that have to start from scratch are in a tricky spot: “Where do I begin???”
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Protect Your Planting From Animals Large and Small
We often have customers and most recently, bloggers who are planning landscaping projects but wonder how they’ll keep their large breed companions from destroying all their hard work. I’m not an authority, but I would like to share some ideas that work for Lucy and me.
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Possibility Place vs Conventional Planting with H.O.P.E.
In November of 2012 we had students from the H.O.P.E. (Horticultural Occupational & Professional Experience) program visit Possibility Place. To help them understand why Possibility Place is unique in the industry, we decided to hold a tree-planting contest!
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Weather Adds to the Challenge
Some of you may have read my post last winter about collecting acorns and all the idiosyncrasies of the different types of oaks as well as the other consumers I have to contend with to get my job as propagator done. Well, here I am starting my fourth year at Possibility Place Nursery and I have another set of circumstances to make my job more challenging and interesting: a too-mild winter followed by one of the driest springs and hottest summers on record.
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Down and Dirty: Learning isn’t always tidy!
This April 14th from 8:30 AM to Noon we are having another of our hands-on learning experiences. It's not one of those mamby-pamby classes, either—we’re sticking you out in the weather under the same conditions that we work in every day! It will be dirty, possibly wet and loads of fun for those of us that love plants. You’ll even go home with two flats of plugs! So if you’re interested please CALL the office at 708-534-3988 to sign up. The flier is posted below and cost will be $60.00 per person. Not a bad price for a lot of learning and plants (and a donut or two)!
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From Acorns to Oak Trees
The process of growing trees from seed always amazes me. In the fall as I collect the different types of acorns off the ground they seem so unassuming; just the litter from oak trees that many people complain about. I have to watch the trees for that exact right day or two that I can convince the squirrels to share as they dart through the canopy chattering their annoyance with me as their movements send more acorns to the ground.
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Small Mammals at Possibility Place Nursery
Over the years we have had numerous employees, interns, clients, friends and even a couple of groupies. The amount of information, stories and studies that have come through our doors for discussion from these groups is quite staggering. We love this part of the job. I can not tell you how many times we’ve sat down with a prospective inquisitor of the natural world and shot the puck around. So to speak. Most of the time both sides come away with a better understanding of something. Then there are those times that we simply say “Huh?” We are always open to to these experiences and feel that they are crucial to a better understanding of nature. It's a big part of what we do.
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Night Life: Moths
We’ve all done it as kids. Gone out after dark and collected fireflies in a jar or watched in scared fascination as a bat picked off moths drawn to their deaths by a street light. Those of us that lived in the sticks also knew the sound of coyotes howling and the deafening clicking of thousands of katydids. The night life in and around our yards has always been an interest to most children if for no other reason than to scare ourselves by pretending that the noises were made by something far more terrifying than the right culprit. I guess I never grew out of that phase of my life.
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The Reums' House in Kankakee County, Illinois
When Ron & Sharon Reum showed up at the nursery in March of 2010 they were only looking for a handful of trees and shrubs and maybe a couple of flowers. What followed over the next 14 months I cannot characterize as anything other than a mild addiction to planting natives and affecting a massive change in their yard. They have worked harder than most in their attempts to change a landscape that was installed 15 years before they moved in. It has been an amazing transformation and I would like to share their story with you.
