Events

The property owner bought their 2+-acre property and home nearly 20 years ago. Two creeks and a wetland area bordered their property on the south and west sides, within small, wooded areas full of large amur honeysuckle and covered with wintercreeper; the rest of the property was vast lawn, a few shrubs, and no flowering plants (other than white snakeroot along the woods’ edges). Soon after she purchased their property, a sewer project tore up large parts of the lawn, so she took the opportunity to create a prairie/meadow on an unused section of lawn near the street. (She had fallen in love with the prairie ecosystem when she worked on a prairie reconstruction many years before.) She also discontinued mowing a shaded area of their property, where succession eventually turned lawn to woods. The biggest transformations of their property began during the pandemic, however, when native gardening forums on Facebook and Doug Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope inspired her to begin restoring more lawn to native ecosystem. Since that time, she has planted dozens of species of native plants, shrubs, and trees; converted large portions of lawn to native plant habitat and gardens; removed most of the large honeysuckle; removed nearly an acre of wintercreeper; and seeded and planted the woods with native grasses, forbs, and small trees and shrubs. This year, a giant swallowtail butterfly showed its gratitude by laying 24 eggs on one of the wafer ash trees.
 
Attendees who want to extend their day can also visit the Donnybrook Fen before or after the tour. https://www.cwpd.org/parks/donnybrook/