Native Plant Purchase Opportunities 2016

The Friends of Menominee Shore will have native plants for purchase the next three Saturdays, helping to raise funds for programming and helping to spread the use of natives in the community.  

The plant list includes:  Sky Blue Aster, Bergamot, Royal Catchfly, Blue Flag Iris, Ohio Spiderwort, Marsh Blazing Star, Nodding Pink Onion, Pale Purple Coneflower, and Purple Coneflower.  Plant prices are $3-$5, with every purchase of $20 receiving a free Bergamot grown at the shoreland restoration site.

A large poster with plant photos and descriptions can be accessed here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n9l1k3uhy6m4905/plant%20sale%202016.jpg?dl=0  (zoom in to read descriptions and see photo details)

All sales benefit shoreland restoration and native prairie planting in Oshkosh.  The annual plant sales are the main source of funds for the group, which does not receive financial support from the city.

Sale dates and locations are:

- Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 9am - noon at 652 Monroe Street, Oshkosh (Justin's house)

- Saturday, June 4, 2016 from 8am - noon with the Growing Oshkosh booth at the Oshkosh Farmers Market

- Saturday, June 11, 2016 from 8am - noon with the Growing Oshkosh booth at the Oshkosh Farmers Market

Getting To Work 2016

I hope this lovely spring day finds you all well! After our opening day on Saturday, I would like to share with you all the progress we have made and new events coming up.

Low growth plants such as this Prairie Smoke were added

The cleanup day on Saturday was a gorgeous day, literally humming with life. The Daisy Scouts from St. Francis Cabrini joined us with their mothers for our opening day at the shoreland sites at Ames Point and behind the pump house. We had some stand-up volunteers who worked alongside our young helpers to teach and guide them to do the following tasks:

-- Remove woody growth and weeds

-- Remove 150+ taller species for transplant, including 25 for the Daisy Scouts to take to St. Francis to start a new native garden themselves

-- Plant some low-growth plants, such as Prairie Smoke donated by a generous member, replacing some of the taller species removed

-- Add a path through the site by the tree stump, starting to be cleaned out for the upcoming viewing area

-- Clean up and lay wood chips to and around the memorial tree

-- Lay fresh wood chips on the trails

Brownie Troop getting their hands dirty, planting natives in Menominee Park

A very large and sincere thank you to the 15 adults and 10 children volunteers, including members of the Miller's Bay Neighborhood Association and members of the Menominee South Neighborhood Association, who joined us for this productive day. I have attached some pictures of the progress we made.

For this of you who could not make it this weekend, or who would love to come back out, we will be continuing our cleanup, thinning of taller species, and laying wood chips on trails next Sunday, May 29th, from 8am to 11am at the site by Ames Point. If you can make a brief stop out, we could use your help.

Justin will also be sending out information about a native plant sale happening this Saturday, May 28th, at 652 Monroe Street. We have received a lot of interest in purchasing plants before our sale with Growing Oshkosh at the Saturday Farmers Market on June 4th. On that note, we could use 1-2 more volunteers to help with the sale on June 4th, just taking money for native plants at the Growing Oshkosh booth. Who doesn't love that? ;) Let me know if you would like to help that day. - michelle.bogden@gmail.com

See you out there,

Michelle