Category: Uncategorized
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Sargent’s Gardens Article!
This week, SARGENT’S posted an article that Annika wrote. It includes why it is necessary to cultivate native prairies and details what Midwestern Rewilding has accomplished so far. To read more, visit this link. Hopefully as Midwestern Rewilding expands and begins new projects, there will be more articles to write and to publish!
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Midwestern Rewilding is officially a nonprofit!
After toiling away at tax forms, we finally received notice that our organization qualifies for non-profit status! We have received our 501c3 document and are working on setting up a donations page.
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Places to collect native seeds
Finding native wildflowers can be as easy as looking up where the nearest native prairie is. Visiting a local nature center or park can be a great way to find free seeds; however, if there isn’t one near by, stop by a garden center to buy a few seed packets of your favorite native flowers.…
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Fall? Time to collect seeds!
Today is the first day of fall! Let’s embrace the outdoors and help our local ecosystems thrive. Get outside, collect those seeds, and sow the love! Seeds are ready to be harvested when they are brown and dry, often 2-5 weeks after blooming. When the seeds are ready, usually they fall out quite easily. For…
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Walk at Quarry Hill
Quarry Hill had some great native flowers blooming today. The seed pods of this yellow flower are quite jumpy! Jewelweed is known for its explosive dispersal method as they try to spread their seeds over a wider area.
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Native seed stand was a huge success!
Today’s native plant stand was an astounding success! Over 40 packets were handed out, which is 1,200 seeds total! Many thanks goes to Sargent’s gardens for letting me use their space and to various coffee shops for hanging up the flyers! Hopefully more stands will come soon, once we restock the seeds. One lesson learned…
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Touring Sargent’s Prairie
We wanted to learn more about native plants and hear about creating a native prairie. The kind tour guide led us around a mowed path. Pointing out flowers both seeded by Sargent’s and that grew naturally. Some examples of plants they seeded include Black-eyed Susan’s and Blue Vervain. However, native flowers such as Wild Bergamot…
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Seeds at Sargent’s: Take two!
Midwestern Rewilding had another opportunity to hand out seeds at Sargent’s Gardens! While we didn’t reach as many people this time, we still handed out hundreds of seeds and talked to many friendly customers. However, we learned the importance of publicizing events and will be making our efforts known more online and through posters around…
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Handing out seeds at Sargent’s Gardens
Annika came prepared to give out seeds and information about native gardening. With many people stopping by, she gave out over thirty packets (900+ seeds!). It was very enjoyable to talk to the wonderfully curious people visiting the shop and we are excited to be able to have a table at Sargent’s again!
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Putting seeds into labeled packets for distribution
Each packet was stamped with a label specifying the seed type, the date collected, and where the plant was collected. Then around 30 seeds were put in each packet. Today, we made 3 packets of Bee Balm, Joe Pye Weed, Purple Coneflower, and Yellow Coneflower.
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Gathering some Rattlesnake Master seeds
One of the last days of fall—the perfect time to collect the last of the seeds in the backyard. Since the seeds were damp, it was hard to collect them individually, so I broke off the entire flower to let dry inside.
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Different seed collecting techniques
It might seem daunting to figure out how to collect native seeds. Here I have posted (and will continue to post!) videos of seed collection along with the plant’s species.
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Second Seed Harvest
Yesterday, we collected native plant seeds from my house in Rochester, MN. We had been planting seeds and plants here for a few years and there was plenty of options to collect from. We are hoping to be able to package them and give them out to be distributed throughout Midwestern backyards. Yesterday we collected…
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First Seed Harvest of the Season
A few weeks ago, we took a trip to the Milwaukee Urban Ecology Center to collect native plant seeds. We are hoping to be able to package them and give them out to be distributed throughout Midwestern backyards. This day we collected seeds that included Yellow Cone Flowers, Bee Balm, Joe Pye Weed, a variety…
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Third try (Sort of)
Once it was clear the plants were dead, my mother tried replanting the seeds while I was gone. So far, it remains to see how well this worked. There have been two small sprouts so far.
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Second Try update
While this round seemed to work much better (everything sprouted besides the Joe pie weed and there was no mold), I left home for a week. This put my mother in charge of watering and, without proper care instructions, the plants did not survive.
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Seeds in the pots!
Top left is Wild Bergamot which is also known as Bee Bomb. Like it is mentioned in it’s name—bees love this flower! Top right is Culver’s Root, the flowers of which all pollinators love. Bottom left is a purple cone flower, also a pollinator favorite. Easy to grow from seed and has a beautiful flower.…
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Second try late June
Learning from the first round, the self watering aspect of the system was removed. Instead, the plants were watered by using a the spritzing function of the watering can.
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First try update
While some of the plants sprouted, the bottom waterer caused the pots to mold. Eventually, this spread to the soil as well. So we will have to restart.
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Planting native seeds
Planting native seeds using compostable pots, seeds from Prairie Moon, my mother’s old seed starters, and potting soil.
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Native Plants Project
I am going to grow native plants from seed to help naturalize areas around Rochester, MN.
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My backyard after planting natives in the spring
This is the result of our work this spring. Earlier this year, we planted a Cardinal Flower, mini Joe-Pye Weeds, Blue Lobelia, and spread seeds of some Yellow Coneflowers.
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Prairie Blazing Star vs 11 year old Annika
Andy’s garden is what inspired me most for this project. He naturalized his back yard from seeds he collected and grew. I would help out and he taught me how to grow seeds and plant them.
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Andy’s first plants
Starting a native garden in his own backyard, Andy planted some native flowers he grew himself