As usual we met Susan Hanson at Henderson Nature Preserve Park at Berkley Lake to monitor and remove weeds. It was a sunny, cooler morning with a welcomed breeze. We found the following flowers in bloom: beebalm, purple coneflower, white aster, wild sensitive plant. We targeted continued removal of mulberry weed and Microstegium, plus any pest plants that dared trying to resprout like privet and English ivy.
We adjourned to lunch together on Susan’s porch. Over lunch, Linda reminisced about going with her grandparents during WWII to pick Asclepias pods along the country roads for the war effort. According to Wildflowers of Tennessee, the seed fluff was used to stuff life jackets for pilots for its buoyant and insulating properties.
The participants this month were Susan Hanson, the project leader, Linda Lowery, Margaret Bergeron, and Joan Frierson.
The next scheduled workday will be Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 10:00 – 12:00.