Hudson County Chapter News & Events | |
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The Hudson County Chapter will host its first plant sale on Sunday, September 26th from 11:00am - 4:00pm at Canco Park Conservancy (70 Dey St. in Jersey City, NJ). David Hyde of Well-Sweep Herb Farm will be on hand with a variety of native plants just in time for fall planting. At 3:00pm David will give a presentation on perennial natives and nativars. Learn about the benefits of these beauties, ways to introduce them into the garden and how to keep them happy. David will cover selecting, transplanting, growing and maintaining them. Those new to natives will discover how they can support our indigenous bird, butterfly, and insect populations.
If you know a passionate naturalist, horticulturalist, botanist or native plant educator who would like to speak at our event and is able to donate an hour of their time, please email [email protected]
This will be a fun-filled day to discuss native plants in a beautiful setting, and an opportunity to take some home and bring natural magic to your yard!
This event is open to all.
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Well-Sweep Herb Farm Comes
to Jersey City with Natives!
Sunday, September 26th 11am - 4pm
at Canco Park Conservancy
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Marnie Fylling (above) will join us at the plant sale to sign copies of her new book, Fylling's Illustrated Guide to Nature in Your Neighborhood.
This portable guidebook reveals the splendidly strange animals and plants just outside your door. Marni's full color illustrations make species identification a snap, and her descriptions include fascinating factoids about frequently encountered plants, insects, arachnids, birds and mammals.
Fylling's Illustrated Guide to Nature in Your Neighborhood is available at Little City Books in Hoboken and on Amazon.
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Julie Zickefoose, Owen Wormser, Mary Reynolds, Charlotte Lorick, Mary Anne Borge and Becky Laboy lined up to launch the Hudson fall Webinar Series Nature & Gardeners. | |
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This month the Hudson County Chapter will kick off a six-part fall webinar series, Nature & Gardeners, with renowned bird enthusiast Julie Zickefoose, Tuesday, September 21st from 7:00pm-8:30pm on Zoom.
Julie is author and illustrator of Natural Gardening for Birds, Letters from Eden, The Bluebird Effect, and Baby Birds: An Artist Looks Into the Nest. Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay followed in 2019. She is an avid gardener and slayer of invasive exotic plants. Awakening readers to the astonishing things birds think and do is her job. Julie writes and paints from Indigo Hill, an 80-acre sanctuary in Appalachian Ohio.
Topic: Personal Habitat: The Bird-friendly Backyard This is the story of an artist's love affair with a piece of land, and the birds, animals, and plants that inhabit it. Simple habitat enhancements can take a back yard from bland to bustling with wildlife. In this slide talk, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose shows how she has transformed an 80-acre abandoned farm into a wildlife sanctuary and observatory -- a perfect personal habitat.
Register here
Other conversations this fall include Owen Wormser (Lawns Into Meadows, Oct. 12th), Mary Reynolds (On Designing your Ark, Oct. 19th), Mary Anne Borge (Editor of Butterfly Gardener Magazine Nov. 9th), Charlotte Lorick (Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Virginia Working Landscapes Nov. 23rd) and Becky Laboy (Jersey Friendly Yards Dec. 7th)
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Julie Zickefoose (above smelling Sabatia Angularis) and two images of her farm. | |
Meet Owen Wormser, author of Lawns Into Meadows: Growing A Regenerative Landscape, in which he makes a case for the power and generosity of meadows. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution: They establish wildlife and pollinator habitats. They’re low-maintenance and low-cost. They have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and they can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn. It is garden landscaping that is beautiful, all year round. | |
Photos above were sent in by Bayonne resident Donna Marie Ostrowski-Tomczak and can be found on the NPSNJ Instagram page. | |
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This beautiful goldfinch photo is courtesy of photographer Jill Weiss. See more of her photos on Facebook at Bird Photography of New Jersey (And Beyond).
Have a photo showing the magic of native plants? We'd love to feature it on the @NPSNJ Instagram. Email photos, along with ideas for events and nature walks, to [email protected].
Join us for our upcoming chapter meetings! Email [email protected] for a Zoom link.
Tuesday, Oct. 18th at 7pm
Tuesday, Nov. 16th at 7pm
Tuesday, Dec. 14th at 7pm
Become a member of NPSNJ by visiting the website. The cost is $20 per year. Members receive invitations to special events, regular newsletters and updates about the growing national native plant movement.
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Even now, September evokes a touch of the back-to-school blues. Summer's over, days grow shorter, but as compensation, our Facebook group Jersey City Birds (Facebook.com/groups/JerseyCityBirds)
has resumed regular bird walks around our parks, and the garden still thrums with life.
When we first moved to this house in the middle of Jersey City, our backyard was a mostly empty rectangle of lawn. As we gradually replace lawn with native plants, it’s turning into a kind of urban wildlife habitat—complete with groundhog/skunk skirmishes in the middle of the afternoon.
Now we have serviceberry (that the groundhog has thankfully stopped eating) and spice bushes that loved the rain Ida brought. Swamp milkweed still brings in monarch butterflies trying to beat the odds with late-season eggs, and the goldenrod is blazing yellow and bustling with bees. The bird feeders are getting colorful again too, with daily visits from downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, and our scruffy molting cardinals and blue jays. But it’s away from the feeders that things are getting interesting.
Sitting out this afternoon, I saw a red-eyed vireo and a common yellowthroat—new sightings for our yard—both scouting for insects. Yesterday, the ruby-throated hummingbird visited the great blue lobelia (my favorite flower these days) rather than the nectar feeder. Gradually, the birds and insects seem to be making themselves at home, just as we hoped. With luck we'll see more of it as fall unfolds…
Lorraine Freeney
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