by Jean Larson
May 25, 2012
On March 30, 2012 Bill and I went to the Native Plant sale at Morningside Nature Center and purchase some plants for
the meeting. We planted Fakahatchee grass (Tripsacum dactyloides) and river oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) along the edge of the ditch.
These plants were replacements for ones we had planted earlier that washed away. This time we used landscape cloth to help them stay in place long enough to grow strong roots that will allow them to withstand the water that washed over the edge of the ditch.
We discovered that two river oats planted earlier and thought lost came up with a spate of rain. They responded well to being fluffed up to unburden them from a flood of leaves brought by the rain. Bill scythed the weeds in the bed bordering the back retention basin and we added some newly purchased Garberia heterophylla to the bed.
We bought some additional Conradina canescens to fill a gap on the slope in front of the meetinghouse to supplement the ones we bought in the fall, and I planted a few
blackeyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta) above the slope as well. Along the back fence in the children’s yard I planted narrowleaf yellowtops (Flaveria linearis) which are reputed to attract butterflies. Nearby I planted a climbing aster (Symphyotrichum carolinianum) which is also a butterfly plant. The aster would like a wetter place than in the children’s yard, but I hope it will work where I have planted it.
Many plants have flowered since the end of March including the swamp dogwood (Cornus foemina) near the old meeting for worship in nature area and Bart’s roses behind the meetinghouse. The oakleaf hydrangea at the end of the split rail fence has had numerous blooms. I have especially enjoyed the blue-eyed grass, power puff mimosa strigliossa and conradina on the slope in front of the meetinghouse which is prospering with water from the sprinklers Bud installed. When I examine it for weeds to pull I see butterflies visiting the flowers there.
This past week at the master gardener sale I purchase some blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), Elliott’s aster (Symphyotrichum elliottii) and a pair of coonties, but I have yet to put them in the ground. Instead I have pulled up cherry laurel suckers, smilax vines and dewberries from the bed near the bike rack with an eye to putting the mistflowers in next to the red-flowered tropical salvia.
Bill has sighted turtles many times in the last two months. He saw snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina osceola) in three different sizes. The largest one he saw multiple times, but alas, it has died. He speculated that it may have been killed for its meat. There was a medium size one that we watched bury himself in a slurry of sand and water in the creek near where the ditch enters it. We saw a small snapping turtle in the creek where it enters the meeting property. Bill has also seen Florida box turtles near the intersection of the creek and the ditch.
We talked about the turtles and raccoons with the children in First Day School and Bill showed his video of a night-time appearance of a raccoon on the property. We see the tracks of the raccoons in the dry creek bed where they walk to find water, but we don’t see them since they are active at night. We walked with the children in the woods on that rainy day. The water flowing from the ditch across the path we usually take to the creek was so wide where it crossed our path that some of us could not jump over it.
We checked on the flow in the ditch at the north border of the land, then walked to the old meeting for worship in nature area to see where the water was going.
We were able to walk to the front edge of the flow and stay ahead of it for awhile as it made its way to the pond area.
Weeks later when I went walking in the woods, the creek was dry nearly to the northwest corner where it enters the Quaker woods. That is the driest I have seen it in the years I have been walking these woods, and makes the woods a less comfortable place for the turtles. The woods are full of changes that make them interesting to visit again and again like a good friend with new stories to share.