Pollinator Oasis and Last Day of school...

Last day of school for teachers today.  I was able to get nearly all the lab equipment from the last month put away and my room is order for the summer.  Second Law of Thermodynamics is always an issue in my classroom.

I was able to plant seven pollinator oasis plots today.  These areas are scattered across our farm.  Most are about 15' by 15'.  I killed off the existing vegetation about three weeks ago with Roundup.  Existing vegetation was mostly blackberry briars and fescue.  I was able to transplant a few common milkweed plants, big blue stem, butterfly weed and purple coneflower at each site.  In addition, I seeded each site with bee balm, grey-headed coneflower, illinois bundle flower, cup plant and partridge peas.  It is suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow which should help.

We have several patches of milkweed on the farm.  I have bush-hogged around them for the last three years and they have spread out by rhizomes to form large colonies.  I saw a couple of the milkweed plants that have flower buds.

I have yet to see a monarch butterfly migrating ... but, now that school is out I will have more time for observations.  

Prairie cup flower below is one of the seeds planted in our pollinator oasis today ... www.illinoiswildflowers.info