Native Plants

/

I took a short road trip to the Lebanon Laclede County Library for a program about native plants – and to see a native plant garden installed by 2 people in my 2024 Master Naturalist core training class. The garden had suffered a bit from the drought and very hot days, but the plants had survived and will probably come back strong next year. The American Beautyberry had lost most of its leaves already, but it has berries!

The presentation was done by a person from the Wild Ones chapter in St. Louis. I enjoyed her perspective and the pictures of what she had done with her urban yard. She emphasized techniques for formalizing native plantings: clumping, cutting asters and goldenrods in June/July to shorten them before they bloom, and leaving the leaves/standing stalks for winter interest.

The session was sponsored by Master Gardeners (in the county) and a garden club. They gave out pots of  aloe and New England Aster. I got two New England Aster pots and planted them in my front yard garden; they’ll make a nice addition that will bloom next fall!

Training and Volunteering in Lebanon MO

/

I had responded to a request from a fellow Missouri Master Naturalist for a program last weekend – a little bit of training and volunteering about an hour from where I live. There was heavy rain for the drive there – but it was weekend and the traffic was not as heavy as usual on the interstate. Fortunately, the first part was training so I could destress after the drive. I wandered around the Route 66 museum that is housed in the same building with the library. It was interesting – lots of items specific to Lebanon and then more broadly to Route 66. Much was before my memories began so I would have appreciated a few more dates for the pictures and newspaper articles. I enjoyed seeing the displays….glad I don’t have to drive over any ‘bone-jarring Ozark rock roads’!

I do vaguely remember one of my grandmothers having a wringer washing machine in the barn in the early 60s so that was something in the museum that looked familiar.

Then I had a brief training on the nature touch tables set up in the foyer of the library/museum. There were skulls and rocks and pelts and snake models/skins/id puzzles and pictures of caves and wildlife there – a bat preserved in acrylic. Handouts for each topic from Missouri Department of Conservation were available and many people took at least one. The snake booklets were probably the most popular.

I’m learning a lot about different parts of Missouri through Missouri Master Naturalist volunteering…I like feeling more familiar with the state where I now live and interacting with people!