Have you seen the plants take off? Purple Coneflower, New England Aster, Brown Eyed Susans, Swamp Milkweed, Little Bluestem, Canada Rye, Showy Goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed, and Bergamot are filling in nicely.

How about that Free Library adorned with the Budlong spirit?

“No Dig” Gardening is the approach I’ve taken with starting new plants over hardened turf. Leaving the Carbon in the soil is ideal to actually help curb climate change, and it’s kinder to your back.

For Budlong, the land is prepped with soil and leaf coverage to smother the grass and soften the ground for Spring plantings. The straw was bonus materials leftover on school grounds.

Seeds harvested from my personal garden as well as the native plantings along the Chicago River are now sown into milk jug greenhouses to stratify over the winter. Further seeds were purchased from Prairie Moon Nursery.

Applying to the Garden for Nature Grant from West Cook Wild Ones. Native plant gardens take years to look their best. Help with supplies like mature plants and fencing to protect the seedlings can keep public interest and momentum going while the garden takes shape.

We were awarded $300 in native plants by West Cook Wild Ones for their Garden For Nature Grant. Thank you West Cook Wild Ones! Those plants were ordered from Possibility Place and will soon be delivered.

I am also adding a lot of seedlings from my wildly successful first year Winter Sowing seeds.

Molly is the best scout on FB’s Lincoln Square Free Box! She alerted me to a listing by Zoelle in Bowmanville, and I promptly it picked up, and many weeks later sanded and painted it. Molly and Katie also helped install the amazing gift of engineering that we inherited - a metal cork screw at the bottom really spoiled us, but we placed concrete there too just to make sure our kiddos and families are safe. <3

Soon, we will adorn the box with the Budlong Spirit! Jenny found these perfect 5”x5” round wood cut outs of bulldogs, so we of course have to install those next in a suitable shade of burgundy-ish. :D

Such a proud mama to thousands of seedlings. Winter Sowing is a real thing y’all - I’ve got the impressive hours logged onto FB’s Winter Sowers to prove it! I had so much success thanks to all their helpful advice in that forum.

Now, I’m in a flux trying to figure out what to do with them all. Happily, I am sharing with neighbors who have interest, some are going in our front and back yards, and many many more are going into Budlong Native Garden!

Possibility Place Order:8 Asclepias tuberosa  -Butterfly Weed 9 Echinacea purpurea  - Purple Coneflower 9 Symphyotrichum novae-angliae - New England Aster 9 Elymus virginicus - Virginia Wild Rye 9 Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Blue Stem 5 Monarda fistulosa - Bergamot (Bee Balm) 5 Rudbeckia hirta - Black Eyed Susan  

Winter Sown Seedlings:__. Joe Pye Weed__  Iron Weed__  Stiff Goldenrod__  Purple Coneflower__  Big Blue Stem__  Common Milkweed - for the islands?__  Swamp Milkweed__  False Aster