Mae's blog archive

This is one of my most favoritest native flowers. ~.Pasque Flower.~ ( Anemone patens var. wolfgangiana) Very well suited to the soil in Northern Illinois, can be planted in full sun and dry soil.   This site sells them and has more information as well. happy spring!

Hello friends! Happy Earth Day!! Your suggested reading music to pair with this post: A little over a month ago I noticed our mailbox must have jumped off the curb and hit a snow plow over the winter. Mmmm... rusty nails...  So, I put it on a mental list of " things I should consider addressing when I'm feeling up to it, eventually ". And then a couple weeks later we had a day where we had 60 mph winds ( #Illinois ) and I came home and the situation had grown decidedly more urgent. womp womp. Luckily I had set the gears in motion earlier that week to " start to obtain required objects to replace the broken thing, eventually ". I found a mailbox on Amazon with the model name "Villager" which sold me because I already thought it looked like a house from Animal Crossing. The box it came in was human sized but not heavy like a human of the same size. <_<   >_>   O_O The reviews ...

A plant that I became acquainted with while in a sustainable landscaping class is the lovely and whimsical Mayapple. Common names: Mayapple, Indian apple, Wild mandrake, Pomme de mai, Podophylle pelt Podophyllum peltatum https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=pope Native to the entire eastern half of North America. An adorable little perennial plant that is perfect for shady areas They remind me of fairy umbrellas or Totoro Something else I also found magical and surprizing is that they bear fruit. If you have a wooded lot this would be great to add to your yard, the squirrels love the fruit too! -Maeghan

I don't think I need to explain this process to most however, to catch everyone up a butterfly life cycle is: egg > caterpillar > chrysalis > butterfly Milkweed. Native to the USA. This is not just the Monarch caterpillar's favorite food. It is the only food for them. They will only eat plants that are of the milkweed family. This is not a situation unique to the Monarch caterpillar. Certain bugs and critters will only eat certain plants that developed in the same area as them over millions of years of existence. Unfortunately, our tendency to want to control the land and tame the landscape  has resulted in humans unearthing plants native to the area  and putting down grass seed  and exotic plants to imitate English landscape gardens. Exotics (Any plant that is not native to the area you are planting it) are interesting to people and well... exotic.  They are not native to the area and therefore, stand out against the backdrop of the na...