October 5, 2025

At our last session, Kriselle, Mario, our toddler Elie (our youngest steward) and I had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and walking our site in the less frequented areas to ID plants and spread native seeds. Kriselle brought milkweed seeds that we spread in the sunnier areas. We only have a few plants at the entrance of our site, so it will be interesting to see whether any will grow.

We came upon some yellow feathers which an ornithologist has confirmed to be goldfinch feathers. (see above). We also saw the giant turtle again basking, and we thought it would be time to name this new friend. Kriselle suggested Franklin which seems fitting! We'd love to hear any other suggestions!

Kriselle also shared such an interesting learning and observation about our site. We have quite a few Eastern Black Walnut trees, and I never noticed it until she pointed it out, that most of the patches of native plants seem to grow around these trees. This is not a coincidence - it turns out that these trees produce a chemical called Juglone that makes it difficult for most plants to grow, except for native plants that tolerate it. This may explain why our site has so many healthy patches of native plants. If you want to learn more, check out the link Krieselle shared on Discord (email to get link).