This Week in Gardening & Nature

February Gardening Tips & Tasks, Pests & Problems from Missouri Botanical Garden. Now is the time to sow larkspur, sweet pea, snapdragon, Shirley poppy seeds!

February Garden To Do List from P. Allen Smith

Thru February 26 Orchid Show at Missouri Botanical Garden. Tickets

Thru Sunday- Audubon Society Bows for Birds Challenge. Where: Missouri Botanical Garden, Forest Park, Lafayette Park, Bellerive Park, Powder Valley Conservation… Prizes include Tickets for Big Muddy Adventures, Alpine Shop, Cardinals Baseball…

Seed St. Louis Seed Starting Class on YouTube

Start cauliflower, chard, collards, kale, kohlrabi, parsley seeds indoors this week. Plan your 2023 Garden with Seed St. Louis Seed Starting/Planting Calendar

4 pm Wednesday Grow Native! Webinar: Meaningful Design and Stewardship of Native Landscapes With Missouri Conservation Department Native Landscape Specialists. Register

6 pm Thursday Seed St. Louis Zoom Class: Jump Starting the Growing Season. Register

10 am Saturday Missouri Conservation Dept Nature Hike: Ellis Island has Eagles and Swans and Geese, Oh My. Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, meet at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, East of Hwy 67, West Alton. 12 Tickets remaining. Register

6 pm Feb 6th Missouri Department of Conservation Virtual Class: Invasive Species- Identify and Manage Exotic Invasive Plants. Learn how to identify and manage exotic invasive plants. 33 Tickets remaining. Register

Register for 8 am to 3 pm Feb 11th Seed St. Louis Community Agriculture Conference, In Person and Virtual. $15 but scholarships available. Keynote Presentation: Soul Farmer, Tyrean “Heru” Lewis. Sessions: Growing Mushrooms at Home, Help Pollinators & Increase Your Harvest, Wild Edibles of Missouri, Growing Microgreens 101, Schoolyard Animal Husbandry, Free Plants in the Kitchen Garden, Lacto Ferment Your Garden Produce for Better Gut Health, What is Therapeutic Horticulture?, Land Trust Garden Update

Feb 11th Eagle Days at Audubon Center at Riverlands, West Alton (Not Chain of Rocks Bridge). Register

11 am Feb 14th For Kids, 3-6 Year Olds. Missouri Conservation Dept program at Tower Grove Park, Stupp Center. Conservation Kids: You and Me under the Canopy- Making Tracks. Register

1 pm Feb 14th Missouri Conservation Dept Online Class- Native Plants: Plant Romance. “All registrants for this event must be between 14 and 120 years of age by 2/14/2023.” Register

4 pm Feb 15th Grow Native Zoom Master Class: Practical Magic for Pondscapes. Free to Missouri Prairie Foundation members and Grow Native! professional members. $15 for non-members. Register

Hey, teachers & parents 6 pm February 15th Seed St. Louis Zoom Class: School Garden Design. Start planning now for September-May 2023-2024 school gardens. Register

Volunteers Wanted 9 am Feb 25th for Forest ReLeaf Pruning at Penrose Park. Register

10 am March 1st Bellefontaine in Bloom at Bellefontaine Cemetery. 2 Hour Walking Tour with Master Guide. Register

7:30 am to Noon March 10th Grow Native’s Native By Design: Community Conservation Conference at Lewis & Clark Community College, Edwardsville IL. Register

9 am to Noon April 1st Seed St. Louis Spring Plant Sale @ Carriage House, 3815 Bell. Arrive early for best selection. Bring a box lid to carry your plants. $4 seedling 6-packs: Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Bok Choy, Collards, Dinosaur Kale, Lettuce. More Info

Native Plant Sales Return: 8 am to 4 pm April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 and May 20, 27 Missouri Wildflower Nursery @ Kirkwood Farmer’s Market. Order in advance– by Tuesday prior to market day- or buy what they bring to Market

Join us Sundays on Twitter for #GardenSunday with host @stl7thward to interact with other outdoor and indoor gardeners and nature enthusiasts, ask questions, give answers, share photos.

St Louis Statehood or Greater Illinois?

November 8th, voters of California’s San Bernadino County will vote on statehood. Sorta.

The ballot question is: “Do the citizens of San Bernardino County want the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to study all options to obtain its fair share of state and federal resources, up to and including secession?”

The Fair Share ballot issue is more of a nonbinding vote in favor of flexing muscles for more state revenue.

Republicans will likely have complete domination of state government after Missouri’s November 8th election. St. Louis City will not be in any position to get much of anything good from the pro-death Republican majority in Missouri’s statewide offices and General Assembly.

The Missouri Democratic Party is a dysfunctional, useless, private club.

Republican governors today and for the foreseeable future will reshape the circuit court landscape of Missouri with appointments to courts in the state’s urban areas- St. Louis, Kansas City and Greene County (Springfield).

Missouri will become a state without checks and balances against abuse of power.

St. Louisans do not have the luxury of using the threat of secession as a bargaining chip to getting red flag laws, abortion rights, more public education funding (without first the slight of hands reducing funding first, again), or anything else from Republicans.

The Missouri GOP may agree to throw in some money for mental health services by robbing it from another program. To get that, some Democrats will probably have to vote for something on the Rex Sinquefield agenda. Republicans enjoy watching the selling out part.

Don’t get me wrong. I still want statehood for St. Louis. Two U.S. Senators. Woo Hoo! A streamlined city-county-state government. YES! Tight laws on campaign finance and lobbyists to shut out Rex Sinquefield. Damn skippy! No more wondering what horrible legislation the Republican Party will pass to force its hateful ideas on St. Louis. A gal can dream can’t she?

But maybe there is another option for St. Louis, a way out of Missouri with an ally- Illinois.

In Oregon, what began as the multi-county movement for secession to become the State of Jefferson is now the Greater Idaho movement to have the Idaho border moved to allow Oregon’s more Republican counties to become a part of Idaho. These county votes are nonbinding but the first step toward pressuring both Oregon and Idado state legislatures into voting for the change.

What if, instead of statehood, we lobbied Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker and other Illinois Democrats, Labor leaders, pro-abortion activists, etcetera, to work with St. Louis- St. Louis City, and St. Louis County if they want to come with- to become Illinois 103rd or 103rd and 104th counties.

It’s way less complicated than statehood. Congress creates an interstate compact for boundary changes, both states adopt the compact as a constitutional amendment, as happened in 1958 for Washington and Oregon. St. Louis becomes a part of Illinois, is subject to the Illinois Constitution and statutes, gets representation in Illinois General Assembly, and becomes a part of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.

Think about what it would be like to live in a state that isn’t willfully ignorant about guns.

Who on the Board of Alders will sponsor a nonbinding resolution for the St. Louis ballot to see if voters are interested in being free of Missouri and becoming Illinoisans?

This Week in Gardening & Nature

Missouri Fall Color Report
Illinois Fall Color Report

Tulip & Daffodil Bulbs- 30 for $17 – still available from Brightside St. Louis

1:30 pm Monday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register

4 pm Thursday Horticulture Hike at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Horticulturalist led walking tour focusing on trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. Be prepared to walk on uneven terrain with moderate slopes. Register

1:30 pm Thursday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register

7 pm Friday Missouri Conservation Department and Missouri Nature & Environmental Photographers Class at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, Kirkwood: Conservationist photographer Noppadol Paothong- The Art of Close-up Photography. Register

9 am Saturday Open Space Council’s River de Peres Trash Bash: Litter Pick Up, Storm Drain Marking, River des Peres Watershed Coalition Picnic. Volunteers Wanted. Register

5:30 pm Oct 24th St. Louis Public Library Pumpkin Guts Sensory Storytime at Cabanne Library. For Kids 0-5 years. Kids will play with and learn about pumpkins. Dress for the Mess. Register

5:30 pm Oct 25th Heartland Conservancy Prairie du Pont Watershed Informational Open House, Kappa House, Cahokia Hts, IL. Register

10 am Oct 26th Seed St. Louis and St. Louis Public Library Workshop: Container Gardening. Jamestown Bluff Library. Register

4 pm Oct 26th Grow Native Missouri Zoom Master Class: The Seed Cycle: Native Seed Collection, Stratification, Propagation with Mike Hoyle, manager, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery. Free: MPF members and Grow Native Professional Members. $15: non-members. Register

9 am Oct 29th ForestReLeaf Fall Tree Planting, Ruth Porter Park, St. Vincent Greenway, West End. Volunteers Wanted. Register

4 pm Oct 27the Grow Native Missouri’s FINCA EcoFarm Tour and Native Edibles Tasting @ Lincoln University, Jefferson City. Register

7:45 pm Oct 29th Missouri Conservation Department’s Night Shift Walk to the Confluence, Columbia Bottom Conservation. Area 8 Tickets Remaining. Register

6 pm Nov 9th Old North’s Northside Workshop Support the Bee Sanctuary FR at Turn Restaurant, Midtown. Tickets: $50

9 am Nov 12th ForestReLeaf North Riverfront Mississippi Greenway Tree Planting. Volunteers Wanted. Register

10 am Nov 19th Seed St. Louis In Person Workshop: Utilizing the School Garden in Winter. At Carriage House, Bell Community Garden, 3815 Bell. Register

4 pm Nov 23rd Missouri Prairie Foundation Online Master Class Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect Free to Mo Prairie Foundation members & Grow Native Missouri professional members. $15 for non-members. Register

Join us Sundays on Twitter for #GardenSunday with host @stl7thward to interact with other outdoor and indoor gardeners and nature enthusiasts, ask questions, give answers, share photos.

This Week in Gardening & Nature

Brightside St. Louis still has some daffodils and tulips for sale. 30 for $17.

Thru Nov 6th Seedfolks at Grandel Theater. A 9-year-old Vietnamese girl plants bean seeds in a trash-filled, vacant lot and starts a series of changes. Tickets

Missouri Fall Color Report and Illinois Fall Color Report

Missouri Native Plants and Illinois Native Plants

2 pm Tuesday Seed St. Louis and St. Louis County Library Workshop: Composting 101 at Grand Glaize Library, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, Manchester. Register

1 pm Wednesday Horticulture Hike at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Horticulturalist led walking tour focusing on trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. Be prepared to walk on uneven terrain with moderate slopes. Register

1:30 pm Wednesday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register

4 pm Wednesday Grow Native Missouri Webinar: Dicamba and 2,4-D- Old Herbicides Causing New Problems. Presented by Robbie Doerhoff, Forest Entomologist, Missouri Department of Conservation. Register

6 pm Thursday Seed St. Louis Zoom Class: Reuse in the Garden. Register

6:15 am Saturday Missouri Department of Conservation Sunrise Breakfast at the Confluence, Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. Register

8:30 am Saturday Brightside St. Louis Blitz Clean Up @ Bellerive Park & Sister Marie Charles Park in Carondelet. Volunteers Wanted.

9 am Saturday Americorps St. Louis Clean Up at Laumeier Sculpture Park, Sappington. Mary Miss’s Pool Complex: Orchard Valley needs a clear out, clean up. Volunteers Wanted. Register

10 am to 2 pm Saturday St. Louis Audubon Society’s Bring Conservation Home Native Plant Sale at Webster University, Bookstore Parking Lot, 554 Garden, Webster Groves

10 am Saturday Plant a tree in memorial to someone special with Sustainable St. Louis Memorial Tree Planting at Shaw Forest, 39th @ DeTonty. Register

10 am Saturday Missouri Conservation Department In Person Workshop: Butterfly Gardening with Tom Terrific. At Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center.

2-5 pm Sunday Tower Grove Park and Missouri Department of Conservation Fall Frolic

10 am Oct 26th Seed St. Louis and St. Louis Public Library Workshop: Container Gardening. Jamestown Bluff Library. Register

9 am Oct 29th ForestReLeaf Fall Tree Planting, Ruth Porter Park, St. Vincent Greenway, West End. Volunteers Wanted. Register

9 am Nov 12th ForestReLeaf North Riverfront Mississippi Greenway Tree Planting. Volunteers Wanted. Register

10 am Nov 19th Seed St. Louis In Person Workshop: Utilizing the School Garden in Winter. At Carriage House, Bell Community Garden, 3815 Bell. Register

Join us Sundays on Twitter for #GardenSunday with host @stl7thward to interact with other outdoor and indoor gardeners and nature enthusiasts, ask questions, give answers, share photos.