Carl Kurtz's Photo Essay: Compass Plants

In preparation for the upcoming second edition of A Practical Guide to Prairie Restoration by Carl Kurtz, we're excited to be sharing Carl's beautiful photos and observations about nature!

Carl Kurtz is a professional writer, teacher, naturalist, and photographer. He and his wife and partner, Linda, live on a 172-acre family farm in central Iowa that is one of the few prairie seed sources in the Midwest.

Compass plants, one of the most distinctive features of the mid-continent tallgrass prairie, grow in both wet and dry areas.  They seem to flourish where the soil is moderately wet, in botanical terms, mesic.  As a long-lived perennial they require a number of years to mature and produce a flower stalk.  Young plants, 3 or 4 years of age, may have only one flower stalk, while those 10 or more years of age may have more than a half dozen.  It appears they are sensitive to changing weather conditions and some years store food reserves rather than produce flowers and seeds.   Showy-tick trefoil provides a  
colorful understory to this scene.

September Gardening Tip

Expect the first frost around September 30 in northern Iowa and October 15 in southern Iowa. Tender plants can be protected from the first few frosts by covering them with sheets, blankets, or other protective material.

From Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas by Veronica Lorson Fowler

Nature In Iowa: Yellow - Bellied Sapsuckers

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers arrive from the north; this woodpecker may drum noisily on your roof, gutters, or chimney.

From The Iowa Nature Calendar by Jean C. Prior and James Sandrock

Iowa Regents schools join sustainability rating system

"Not only will this effort provide a forum for reporting our schools’ sustainability progress, we’re looking forward to sharing all the great work that’s being done on our campuses." 
Liz Christiansen, University of Iowa sustainability director

Read more here. 

Bus Top Gardening

We are always happy to see new ways of making the world a greener place. Check out this great idea they have going on in New York!

http://popupcity.net/2012/03/bus-top-gardening/

The Farm at Holstein Dip Excerpt

Mother and Father grew up in homes without electricity and on farms without tractors, and they began farming in the same way. He loved horses and used them for planting, cultivating, haying, threshing, and picking corn even after he and his brother jointly purchased their fine tractor for plowing in 1945. He gave his team oats, hay, and plenty of water when working them hard. He kept them shod and trimmed their hooves periodically because they walked on a gravel road between fields. As Father acquired more efficient tractors, his team could no longer justify their keep. After planting corn with Belle and Dolly in 1954, he reluctantly sold them to a horse trader, who promised he had a buyer that would treat them well. Horse traders ranked even below used-car salesmen for integrity, and Father did not believe what he had been told. Tears filled his eyes as he loaded his last team on the stock truck and it drove away. I would not see similar emotion from him until he faced a terminal cancer diagnosis years later.

Excerpt from "Farm," in Carroll Engelhart's The Farm at Holstein Dip

Making college campuses green: University of Iowa

The University of Iowa has moved to single stream recycling as part of a sustainability effort to achieve 60 percent waste diversion by the year 2020. Currently, recycling participation at the university is between 25-30 percent. The sort-free recycling program adopted last September is a step in the right direction. In addition to making recycling simple for university students and staff, sort-free recycling allows for more types of materials to be recycled. Reaction to the switch has been positive; recycling participation has increased enough that there is a need for greater recycling capacity on campus. Additional efforts to increase sustainability include members of the student garden repurposing items that would otherwise be thrown out and eliminating trashcans in university classrooms.

Check out the video for more information: