The Berm

We finally started on the Berm. 

The Berm after planting irises at the top - 31 July 2017

We planted iris corms at the top of the Berm, then added a thin layer of chipper/shredder mulch on top. The idea is that when the irises sprout, then we will weed between them and add more mulch around the irises. This is an alternative to when we planted irises around the outside of the Entrance Area. In that case, we dug out the existing sod, added 5-way soil and planted iris corms with their leaves and then mulched around them. It was a lot of work. 

In the case of the Berm, we did not want to disturb the grass as it is on a slope and we have become quite sensitive to erosion issues. The bottom of the Berm will be planted with day lilies that we can retrieve from other areas and, of course, mulched immediately.

Notice the virginia creeper and its stakes next to the cement wall. The vines have been thriving since the first day we planted them.

The Berm will become another area that the Parks Canada staff will no longer need to maintain.

Here's a photograph of our volunteers taken during the planting:

Planting irises at the top of the Berm

The photograph reminds me of a Georges Seurat painting from 1884 "Un dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte". Georges Seurat was a French impressionist painter known for the style of pointillism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image (Wikipedia). Perhaps the Riel family may have seen a copy of that painting:

Un dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte

Here's the Georges Seurat version of our volunteers:

Un vendredi après-midi à la Grande Berme

The Parking Lot Garden is Buzzing

The Parking Lot Garden is absolutely humming with insects. Today, there were morning cloaks, monarchs and other butterflies along with dozens of little flies, beetles, etc. It's amazing how much our native plants have attracted insects. 

Here are a couple of videos that are stored in Google Photos. If you turn up your sound on both the video and your computer, you can hear the buzzing, humming and "cricketing". Once you click on the link, then please click on the video itself so that it plays with sound. Thanks.

Parking Lot Garden and Crickets 

             I am walking from near the Centre to the East side of the Parking Lot Garden. You can see what is planted in this area by going to our pdf Native Plants for Parking Lot Garden.

Parking Lot Garden and Monarchs 

             The Monarchs are attracted to the pink Dotted Blazing Star Liatris punctata. The yellow flowers on the left are Coneflower Ratibida columnifera. The white flowers at the end of the video are Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea.

Compost

Despite not paying any attention this year to the compost bin, we have compost. 

The middle bin contains the remains of grass and sandy soil that we collected when we scraped away the grass that had been growing between the paving stones on the walkway from the road to the Riel House entrance. The bin on the right contains the corn husks from last August's end of year corn roast. Neither pile was turned, aerated or watered after their creation last summer.

Today, we added compost from the middle bin into the right hand bin, mixed it around with a shovel, tossed any big bits back into the left hand bin, then spread it on our onion beds. 

Our goal is to have the two bins empty and ready to accept the husks from this year's corn roast on Saturday August 26.