Greetings. This is a message from the Arrowhead Chapter of Wild Ones Natural Landscapers. Welcome to those of you that are new to our list of 'interested persons.' The purpose of this e-mail is to provide details regarding our May event and a few other developments.

MAY OUTING

On Thursday May 17 Hartley Nature Center is hosting a "Webber Walk" at Jay Cooke State Park with Larry Webber (host of "Back Yard Almanac" Friday mornings on KUMD and a local teacher) to look for Spring blooming flowers. Hartley staff has agreed to let us make this our Wild Ones outing for this month as well. It should be a great chance to learn more about native plants in this area. We’ll meet at the main building by 6:00 PM. Let me know if you want to carpool from the Duluth area (I can take 3 people in my car that has a park pass). There is a cost of $5 per person (free for members of Hartley), plus the cost of a 1-day vehicle pass per car for cars lacking an annual park pass. If you think it's likely that you'll join us, please let me know so I can have a rough head count.

PLANTING AT STOWE ELEMENTARY MAY 18 AND 21 – HELP NEEDED

As Amy reported at our April meeting, they are looking for adults with some planting experience to help oversee planting at Stowe Elementary this month to make sure plants don’t get planted to deep or shallow, etc. If should be a lot of fun. IF YOU CAN HELP OUT ON ONE OR BOTH OF THOSE DAYS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I will send a message out soon to those planning to help out with details on time, location, etc.. The native plant bird and butterfly garden at Stowe was funded in part by a Wild Ones grant from the Lori Otto Seeds for Education Foundation.

COMMUNITY GARDEN

One of the projects that our group has talked about pursuing is creating a community garden landscaped with native plants as a demo and advertisement for the native plant landscaping idea (and Wild Ones). The really exciting news is that the City of Duluth said that Wild Ones can create a community garden at the site formerly occupied by the Leif Erickson boat, right on the Lake Walk (score!). Ruth and I met with Tom Kasper, City Parks on May 7. The City can provide $500 for plants/trees/shrubs, will provide mulch and re-grade if necessary, and will create a sign that credits Wild Ones. They’ll even do the soils tests (the top few feet is a mix of compost and road sweepings). Our next step is to create a plan to review with Tom later this month. So far my list of people who are willing to help with this includes Carol A. (me), Candice R., Amy S., Erica H. and Ruth L. If others are interested in helping with any phases of the project (planning, planting, maintenance…), please let me know. (Thanks also to the others that expressed support for the project too, even if you can't add this to your laundry lists of Summer projects. Feel free to continue sending suggestions by e-mail)

OTHER

Other projects for this Summer will include some buckthorn removal projects, presenting another workshop through community ed on June 20 at Woodland, and (hopefully!) landscaping at our own houses. WE NEED MORE PICTURES OF "BEFORE AND AFTER" native landscaping projects in Northeastern MN, so if you're undertaking a project please take pictures or slides that we perhaps could add to our collection to use at future workshops and presentations.

If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call or try e-mailing me (although my e-mail has been a bit flaky lately, so call if you don’t get a response by e-mail). 727-9340 (w) or 730-9954 (home).

Carol

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