Author: Admin

The Green Towson Alliance: Basic Principles

Overall
  1. GTA shall work to build and maintain a coalition of environmental advocates to collaborate in achieving environmental goals in the greater Towson area.
  2. GTA advocates the protection and effective application of Baltimore County’s environmental regulations.
  3. GTA’s focus is on fostering a healthy natural environment in the Towson area, as described in the principles outlined below, but our concerns extend to broader issues directly affecting the health and welfare of Towson residents, such as air and water quality and community resilience to climate change.
  4. GTA supports both governmental and nongovernmental efforts to identify and correct environmental conditions that negatively impact the health and welfare of economically vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
  5. Recognizing that all residents have a stake in a healthier environment, and that members of historically disadvantaged communities are underrepresented in our organization, GTA is committed to including persons from minority and economically disadvantaged communities in its membership and leadership.
  6. GTA supports the passage and implementation of laws and incentives at the county, state, and federal levels to reduce global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels, to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and to provide our communities with the information and resources needed to adapt with resilience to the impacts of climate change.
  7. GTA advocates for the community goals embodied in the 2020 Master Plan and the Walkable Towson Plan; this guidance and these regulations should not be compromised to further developers’ or governmental interests.
  8. GTA supports Adequate Public Facility (APF) legislation to provide adequate public sewer and water service, public transportation, stormwater management, schools, and open space to preserve the quality of life in Baltimore County.
    Trees and native plants

    GTA supports:

    1. The use of native trees and other native plants whenever possible, based on site conditions and science, because of their important role in creating habitat and supporting the food web for our native wildlife.
    2. Protecting and increasing the Towson Area tree canopy with native canopy trees that make the most contribution to our environment by providing shade, lowering ambient temperatures, absorbing rain and storm water, reducing particulate air pollution, providing habitat for birds and other species, and creating beautiful outdoor spaces to strengthen our communities.
    3. The planting of native canopy trees throughout our communities, on private as well as public lands, and the planting of native understory trees in locations where canopy trees will not flourish.
    4. The proper care and maintenance of both mature and newly planted trees, including appropriate planting techniques, mulching, watering, pruning and disease management.
    Waterways

    GTA promotes:

    1. Efforts and programs to improve water quality in our streams, harbor, and in the Chesapeake Bay.
    2. Improving the functioning of the county’s sanitary sewer system to reduce the incidence of sanitary sewer overflows and to improve water quality.
    3. The widespread use of effective stormwater management technologies, including green infrastructure, both by county government and by the public, to achieve improved water quality.
    4. The elimination of trash in our streets and streams through effective programs such as community education and stream cleanups.

 

Parks and Outdoor Spaces

GTA supports:

  1. The creation of public parks, greenways, and other outdoor places for social gathering to facilitate community health and recreation. This includes identifying land and helping to acquire and develop new parks, and promoting outdoor spaces for community events and outdoor dining.
  2. Active habitat restoration by citizens, government, and non-governmental organizations, through the removal of invasive plant species and effective planting and care of appropriate native plants throughout Baltimore County.

 

Public Transportation and Urban Design

GTA supports:

  1. Development of an effective, multimodal public transportation system for greater Towson, to include transit buses, circulator buses, light rail, bike routes, walkable streets, and complete streets that provide universal access and accommodate all modes of transportation.
  2. The urban design principles outlined in the Baltimore County 2020 Master Plan and the Walkable Towson Plan. These design principles contribute significantly to environmental sustainability by reducing dependence on vehicles and by making commercial districts and residential communities more walkable and bikable.
  3. Smart growth principles that are consistent with Baltimore County’s Urban-Rural Demarcation Line (URDL). Protection of the URDL and use of smart growth principles are critical for preserving the quality of life and the natural environment as the county’s growth areas are more densely developed.

 

Education and broad community engagement

GTA promotes:

  1. Community environmental education and engagement by sponsoring and supporting multiple events and media directed toward the greater Towson community.
  2. Activities and organizations that effectively expand community environmental education and engagement to areas of Baltimore County beyond Towson.

 

Recommended Reading List

Reference and Guides

articles

Nonfiction

    • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer
    • Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy
    • Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
    • The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
    • The Humane Gardener by Nancy Lawson
    • Saving the Places We Love: Paths to Environmental Stewardship by Ned Tillman
    • A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future by Benjamin Vogt
    • The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Douglas W. Tallamy
    • The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
    • Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori
    • The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
    • The Delaware Naturalist Handbook by McKay Jenkins and Sue Barton
    • Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Fiction

  • Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Hoot by Robert Hiaasen (children’s/young adult)
  • We are Unprepared by Meg Little Reilly
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Other Suggested Reading Lists

 

2020: Continuing Our Work Under COVID-19

In a pandemic, do local streams stop flooding, does trash stop pouring down storm drains, winding up in our local waterways, or do pollutants stop seeping out of pipes to drain downhill?  Do our communities still need trees to soak up that storm water, shade our homes, and filter pollution from the air?  GTA volunteers have not given up the good work they’ve been doing for 6 years in our community.

GTA members continued activities that can be done safely all year! We didn’t stop planting trees, cleaning streams, or advocating for good environmental policies in Towson and Baltimore County.

We had to plan carefully for socially-distanced ways to work with our volunteers to clean streams or plant canopy trees in our neighborhoods. We found plenty of things we could do either alone or in small groups.

Here’s what Green Towson Alliance did in 2020:

Pruning street trees
Photo credit: J. Brough Schamp

In early 2020, GTA members completed the project of pruning trees in the medianstrip of Loch Raven Boulevard, helping the trees grow tall, healthy, and beautiful on this entrance to the Towson area from Baltimore city.  We also helped Boy Scouts prune the street trees in Anneslie.

In the spring, we offered “contactless” native plants by Swamp milkweedpotting up many dozens of species of native plants from our gardens and leaving them on our front steps. People from 14 Towson area neighborhoods took the plants home! These native perennials provide food, nectar, and homes to many species of bees, butterflies, birds, and other creatures who live here among us.

Native Buckeye TreeTo continue our efforts to point out the importance of native plants to our ecosystems, GTA members launched a new initiative called “Chalk1Up” where members wrote the names of native trees on the nearby sidewalk using fat, colorful chalk.  People walking on the sidewalks could learn the names of those native trees in our communities.

On June 18th, GTA held a Zoom discussion of Doug Tallamy’s book, Nature’s Best Hope. As an outgrowth of this discussion, GTA created a Homegrown National Park workgroup. To further our efforts to spread the word about the importance of native plants, GTA will be holding its first Towson Native Garden contest next spring.

Invasive Butterfly Weed
Escaped butterfly weed plants at I-83 and Timonium Rd.

To further the discussion about the importance of native plants, and the harm that introduced plants create in our environment, we photographed a series of Butterfly bushes (introduced from Asia) that have taken over an area at I-83 and Timonium Rd. , and posted these photos on social media. Non-native plants that spread in our neighborhoods crowd out the native plants that provide vital food and shelter to our community’s insects and birds.

EIFFS fines at Towson worksite
EIFFS fines float in the air at Towson worksite, July 2020

In July, we became aware through posts on NextDoor that hundreds of bits of Styrofoam were floating through the air in many Towson neighborhoods. These bits were ending up on sidewalks, yards, and gardens surrounding downtown Towson. We conducted an investigation and learned that these styrofoam “fines” are created during the installation process of Exterior Finishing Insulation Systems (EFIS), and that proper containment methods were not being used by the contractor. We found these fines on the streambank of the Towson Run stream, which flows to the Chesapeake Bay. We have formed a workgroup on this issue and hope to work with the county to ensure this pollution does not happen again.

Manhole 6883, Lake Roland
Manhole 6883, Lake Roland. August 2020

After heavy downpours in August, we made several checks of Manhole 6883, which is part of the sanitary sewer system that runs under Lake Roland. This is the manhole that blew its top after a bad storm in September 2019. A White Paper published by GTA in 2017 had documented the ongoing problems with the sanitary sewer system that runs under Lake Roland. We also have continued to meet with the County administration to bring greater transparency to our concerns about sanitary sewer capacity in Baltimore County.

Radebaugh Park
Photo credit: Paul Newill-Schamp

Throughout 2020, GTA members watched with delight as neighbors came to Radebaugh Park for outdoor play, whether alone or in couples or small groups, and as the native trees, shrubs and perennial flowers at the entrance bloomed and grew. Having this new park open during the pandemic was truly a wonderful gift throughout the spring, summer, and early fall. The park closed last month for construction of Phase 2 amenities including paths and benches. GTA looks forward to the completion of the hard structures in spring 2021 and the planting of 93 native canopy trees!

Girl Scouts clean trash out of streamIn September and October, Green Towson Alliance organized clean-ups of 10 sections of our local streams. Volunteers came from all over the Towson Area, including two Girl Scout troops, to form 5-person teams. Everyone wore masks and practiced social distancing while cleaning out trash from the Herring Run, the Jones Falls, and their tributaries. These stream clean-ups were organized in liaison with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

GTA acted as an advisor for a Boy Scout Eagle project to replace invasive NandinaBoy Scout Troop 102 with native plants at the County Office Building in October. We worked with Will Morales of Troop 102 to get permission to dig out the Nandina domestica from in front of the building on West Chesapeake Avenue and replace them with native Rhododendrons, Oakleaf Hydrangeas, and Ninebarks. Nandina domestica is a Tier 2 invasive plant in Maryland, meaning places that sell it must have a warning label for potential environmental harm. Nandina domestica has escaped cultivation in 9 states and was the Maryland Invasive Species Council’s “Invader of the Month” in February, 2018.

Aerial view of Towson
Aerial view of Towson
Photo credit: Jerry Jackson, Baltimore Sun

GTA worked with the Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholders to achieveMaryland Main Street status for Towson.  We will continue to pursue streetscape greening projects through that designation. In addition, Green Towson Alliance has been invited to participate on the County’s Open Space Fee workgroup.

 

Fall Tree planting in Towson
Photo Credit: J. Brough Schamp

In November and early December, more than 150 native canopy trees were planted in Towson neighborhoods from Anneslie north to Lutherville,  by volunteers for Green Towson Alliance in liaison with Blue Water Baltimore. Recruiting sites for the new trees started last spring, and has already resumed for 2021. Nearly 50 more trees were planted by Baltimore County’s Backyard Trees program, through GTA’s connections. An additional 40 or more trees will be planted by the County next spring in 2 small parks, as well as 93 trees in Radebaugh Park. All of these tree-plantings have come about through  the leadership of Green Towson Alliance members.

Nancy Goldring, Beth Miller
GTA members Nancy Goldring & Beth Miller at Red Maple Place tour

Our work monitoring development projects in Towson is ongoing. We are advocating for observing the full forest buffer requirements at  the Red Maple Place affordable housing project on East Joppa Rd. We are advocating for green and walkable streetscapes at the 706 Washington Avenue Dormitory project in downtown Towson.

Throughout the year, the Green Towson Alliance Executive Green Towson Alliane executive committee meetingCommittee continued its work, meeting while masked and socially distanced at Overlook Park, or virtually via Zoom. GTA members continued to join our regular, bi-monthly Zoom meetings  and to participate in our good works.

Green Towson Alliance volunteers will continue to work virtually in 2021, until we see an end to the pandemic and can join together in person again to keep Towson green and improve and preserve our local environment.

Towson’s Streams are Lovelier Than Ever in a Pandemic

The Towson RunI have enjoyed getting to know some of our streams, otherwise known as stormwater management channels, this Fall while working with our Green Towson Alliance stream cleanups. We first did the Herring Run branch from Towson High School, under the Aigburth Avenue bridge, northward to Radebaugh Park all the way up to near Burke Avenue. We GTAers also did a portion of the Herring Run branch behind the St. Andrews Lutheran Church on Taylor Avenue. I have explored a portion of the branch near my home that I had largely been unaware existed. Various sections of these mostly ignored streams are beautiful. They have an overstory of large trees, many large boulders, and water.
There is not a more scenic spot to be found than the branch of Herring Run adjacent View of the Towson Runto Goucher Boulevard from Calvert Hall to Loch Raven Boulevard. The section behind the St. Andrews Lutheran Church on Taylor Avenue is also quite beautiful and a nice place in the woods to enjoy a few hours out in nature so close to home.  I have driven to the countryside many times to find the same experience. When the streamside boardwalk proposed for Radebaugh Park is built we can better reveal and interpret that stream.  It would be nice to be able to remove some of the invasive vegetation in the sunny forest edges that diminish the view into the stream buffers and streams. These streams may not be considered viable “open space”, but with more people walking around their communities for exercise during the pandemic, they can be little gems to discover.
Towson Run
– Avery Harden is a former Baltimore County landscape architect and a member of Green Towson Alliance. Besides giving GTA advice on neighborhood issues, Avery volunteers regularly to help clean streams and plant trees in many Towson neighborhoods. The photographs shown in this article were taken by his wife, LuYuan.

Opponents to affordable housing development in Towson say project would further erode historic Black neighborhood

By
Baltimore Sun Media
Nov 20, 2020

Its history is linked indelibly to the Historic East Towson neighborhood in which it was erected: it is Towson’s oldest African-American church and second-oldest congregation, built by Black neighborhood residents who purchased the land after their worship for decades was relegated to each other’s homes, Nancy Goldring, president of the Northeast Towson Improvement Association, told a crowd of listeners on Tuesday afternoon.

Yes, East Towson residents know their history. Many, like Goldring, are descendants of the freed men once enslaved at the Hampton estate who purchased land and founded the neighborhood in the 1850s.

It is this history that East Towson residents say is being threatened by a planned affordable housing complex vehemently opposed by the community that would border it, a predominantly Black community that, some residents noted during the walking tour of East Towson, has historically been left out of the conversation as encroaching development over the decades eroded borders, which once spanned to York Road and Bosley Avenue, to just six blocks.

Goldring organized a tour of Historic East Towson on Tuesday — attended by about two dozen people — as part of a bolstered push to resist the Red Maple Place development.

The planned project would create 56 affordable apartment units — 22 one-bedroom units, 17 two-bedroom units and 17 three-bedroom units — on a 2.5-acre plot of land between East Pennsylvania Avenue and East Joppa Road, off Fairmount Avenue. It is bordered by the Harris Hills condominium complex and Historic East Towson.

The proposal is still making its way through the county’s development approval process. A spokeswoman for Homes for America, the Annapolis-based nonprofit seeking to build Red Maple Place, said a second administrative law judge hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Its opponents say they intend to fight the project every step of the way, galvanized rather than discouraged by a failed attempt to block the development through a rezoning request during the county’s Comprehensive Zoning Map Process.

Neighbors fear the project will add more students to schools already nearing capacity, cause traffic woes , given its entrance and exit proposed on Joppa Road, ruin the streetscape and reduce property values.

It’s not clear how residents intend to fight the project. Michele Yendall, who sits on the Harris Hills board of directors, said retaining an attorney was probably too expensive.

J. Carroll Holzer, a lawyer whose office on Fairmount Avenue sits just west of the proposed site — and who over the decades earned a reputation representing community associations going up against developers — said the project could be legally challenged based on its environmental impact.

Environmental preservationists, like Beth Miller of the Green Towson Alliance, say the proposed site also presents topographical issues, especially as the county Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability has approved a variance allowing Homes for America to reduce its buffer requirements on the land.

“Taking out all the trees on that slope, adding impervious surface to what’s already a very flood-prone watershed is gonna contribute to additional flooding” from the nearby Herring Run river that residents say has been increasing over the years, Miller said.

“It’s a really bad piece of property,” Yendall said, adding that she recently spent$1,200 to shore up her porch.

“The ground is simply eroding.”

County Councilman David Marks, a Republican who represents Towson, chose not to support the rezoning request. He said Tuesday he feared doing so could open the door to a federal lawsuit, despite his opposition to building the project in its current form on this piece of land.

Under a 2016 conciliation agreement between the late county executive Kevin Kamenentz’s administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Baltimore County is required to “take all necessary steps” to encourage developers to build 1,000 affordable housing units across the county over a period of 12 years, or 83 units per year.

The county is providing a $2.1 million, 40-year loan for Red Maple Place. County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. has previously said his office is “committed to ensuring that Red Maple Place will be an asset to the community and the residents of our county as a high-quality, affordable housing option.”

Marks added that conversations around affordable housing can be inflammatory, and those who inhabit them are often vilified, blamed for nearby crime and stigmatized.

But affordable housing already exists at the nearby age-restricted Tabco Towers and Virginia Towers, and neither Goldring nor other Red Maple opponents have used that rhetoric. On Tuesday, Goldring said she worried the project would draw more police activity to her quiet neighborhood; if a crime is committed nearby, she fears police could assume it came from a Red Maple tenant.

Democratic Del. Cathi Forbes,who joined the walking tour, said the county must find “a smarter way” to facilitate the construction of more affordable housing. She said she was exploring different options to block or change the proposed project, but declined to offer more detail.

Marks said he has been in conversation with Homes for America to shrink the size of the project. He said he was also interested in a suggestion by Goldring to convert a commercial building at 405 East Joppa Road adjacent to the proposed Red Maple Place site into a mixed-use development. That building is currently for sale and is zoned to allow for residential and commercial use.

Fighting the project is a matter of “environmental justice, because of the many incursions into this neighborhood over the years,” said Carol Allen, a Towson resident who once led the disbanded Historic Towson Inc. organization and served on the county’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

She noted the BGE substation, an eyesore built on a baseball field used by the community off Fairmount Avenue, and construction of the Towsontown Boulevard extension, for which the county razed neighborhood homes.

“Enough, enough already,” she said.

Green Towson Alliance Still Cleaning Up Local Streams, With COVID Safety Measures

For the past five years, Green Towson Alliance (GTA) volunteers have cleaned up local streams in Towson neighborhoods, clearing out over 7 tons of trash and debris to keep local streams healthy and to preserve our environment. While GTA traditionally conducts stream clean ups in the spring, the pandemic caused a delay in the spring 2020 cleanup. However, GTA successfully cleaned out 10 sections of local streams in September and October, modifying the cleanup process in accordance with COVID measures.

To stay safe, GTA organized small groups of no more than 5 people, who wore    Volunteers cleaning up trash from the Herring Run stream in Towson.masks and stayed at least six feet apart.  During these stream clean ups, 66 bags of trash were collected, as well as many bags of recyclable aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Larger items included coolers, backpacks, tools, building materials, clothes, a baby stroller, a piece of a wooden desk, lamps, 2 big stereo speakers, a metal sign, wire fencing, a boogie board and part of a mirrored disco ball.

50 volunteers, including GTA members and their families, local residents and children, cleaned up the streams along with volunteers from Girl Scout Troops 1152 and 1550.  One of GTA’s leaders, Carol Newill, coordinated the teams and the supplies.

Volunteer cleaning up trash from the banks of the Herring Run stream in Towson.Eight of the stream cleanup sites were on the Herring Run, including sections near Radebaugh Park, Overlook Park and the Loch Raven Library. One site was on the Jones Falls and another on the Roland Run; both of these streams flow into Lake Roland. The Herring Run flows into Back River and then the Bay, while Lake Roland flows into the Jones Falls, to the Patapsco River and then the Bay.

In addition to cleaning up the streams, GTA volunteers also detected a sewer smell in one section of a stream and reported it and also reported a water leak in another neighborhood.

GTA’s local stream cleanups are part of Project Clean Stream of the Alliance for the Volunteers with trash cleaned out of Roland Run in Towson.Chesapeake Bay, which supports cleanups throughout the Bay’s watersheds in six states.  Keeping the streams and the Bay clean continues to be an important job for everyone interested in our shared environment.

Green Towson Alliance, a non-profit collaborative coalition of Towson area environmental volunteers, works to make Towson neighborhoods healthy and green by planting trees, cleaning up streams, protecting mature canopy trees and working with local and state officials to encourage green open space in Towson’s communities.

Despite revisions, student housing development in downtown Towson leaves residents concerned

By Allana Haynes 
Baltimore Sun Media
Nov 03, 2020

After undergoing a community input meeting, two Design Panel Review sessions and revisions to the original concept plan, a housing project being planned for university students in downtown Towson is still opposed by residents in the nearby community.

The 16-story project, which is planned for 706 Washington Ave., calls for 147 units and 350 beds, as well as a café, a fitness space, outdoor and rooftop terraces, 35 parking spaces, 100 bike racks, scooters for rent or ride-sharing and a private shuttle.

Residents who participated in the review sessions have voiced concerns ranging from the potential environmental impact to noise and traffic.

The property, which borders Ware Avenue, Washington Avenue and West Joppa Road, would be a mile south of Goucher College and a mile north of Towson University.

The project is marketed toward out-of-state graduate and undergraduate students who may be looking to leave their cars at home, according to the design review.

The 706 Washington Ave. project got off to a rough start late last year when during the community input meeting the developer cited support from Towson University to construct the building; however, university officials said they had not spoken to developers regarding the project.

University officials said last week they could not comment because the building is not a university undertaking.

Manzo Development, which has proposed the project, is hoping to open it in 2022.

In July, the project was presented at a Design Review Panel meeting held by the Baltimore County Department of Planning and was resubmitted and revised for another review in September.

Jenifer German Nugent, division chief of the Development Review Division of the Department of Planning, said Manzo’s plans have “come a long way,” since the original concept plan was submitted.

“The concept plan had very little info and detailing,” she said. “We made a lot of review comments and we worked with the applicant very closely and repeatedly to get the designs where they needed to be for an acceptable [position] for the design panel.”

The original proposal called for 121 dormitory units, 241 apartments and 482 beds, and 46 parking spaces, according to the concept plan.

The project still must go through a development plan hearing, the next step in the process. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Beth Miller, who is on the executive committee for Green Towson Alliance, an organization that works to maintain an environmentally friendly community, attended both review panels.

Involved in an organization that works to promote a “green” community, she said she is concerned the 706 Washington Ave. proposal will come at the expense of trees being planted downtown.

“Downtown Towson has steadily lost street trees that are not being replaced, and now we are going to have a building that you can’t even plant street trees in front of,” she said. “It is very disturbing that the county is allowing a building to be built that will preclude the planting of street trees.”

Additionally, she said the height of the building would create canyons and shadows that make it harder for natural light to shine between buildings.

Despite the meetings that allowed the community to voice their concerns, she said she did not feel heard.

Sandy Gurchik, a resident who lives across the street from the property in the Penthouse Condominiums on Allegheny Avenue, agreed.

She said she felt the developers were “going through the motions” by holding meetings with the community, but did not take their concerns seriously.

“[The developers] had a hearing for us and we voiced our concerns, yet this project is [still happening],” she said. “The residents and businesses have been ignored.”

Developer Mark Manzo did not respond to repeated email requests for comment.

Gurchik said some of her concerns about the project include increased noise and traffic, litter and pollution.

She said she would rather the property be used for something that better meets the needs of the community, such as a park.

“We need more green space, not more buildings in downtown Towson,” Gurchik said.

Creating a 100-foot Prairie-Inspired Pollinator Garden

By Benjamin Vogt
prairie inspired garden design and author of A NEW GARDEN ETHIC

Creating a new pollinator garden for your yard can be daunting, especially when you A small pollinator gardenare new to a lot of the design and environmental principles that make up a great garden. It’s a lot to remember, from choosing the wrong plants for the site, to matching those plants to one another, But it’s not all that complex (well, maybe it is) especially after you’ve learned a few basic principles and dive in after you’ve done some healthy research. This article attempts to distill what makes a natural pollinator garden beautiful for wildlife and people, all while requiring less management (water, mulch, fertilizer) than  a typical garden.

learning about plants

So yes, you have to research plants. You can just trust a plant tag or even a sales person, especially because when you put a little legwork in you learn your way, way, way more. So let’s say you’ve just picked up a pale purple coneflower, Echinacea pallida. The plant tag likely says it needs full sun and dry soil. That tag can’t fit enough pertinent info on there to help you garden with more success, such as: what TYPE of soil; how it actually performs in various conditions; what wildlife it literally grows. Is it even native to the local ecoregion? Go online and type a search in for “Echinacea pallida.” Websites that I’ve found the most helpful in learning about plants in flyover country include:

Prairie Moon Nursery
Prairie Nursery
Illinois Wildflowers
Missouri Botanical Garden
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Once you’ve read about the plants from these sites — and even a local or regional book — you’ll know more than most folks and you can plant with much more ecological confidence.

What you’ll discover about Echinacea pallida is that it has a deep tap root, and planted as a plug it will take 1-2 years before flowering as it works on that tap root. You’ll learn it prefers leaner, drier soils but can thrive in the moisture swings of clay soil. You’ll learn it’s a clumper that, in bare soil, will lightly self sow. Since it has a deep taproot it works well among other plants that have more fibrous root zones, that way the plants aren’t always competing for the same resources. You’ll learn its flower stalks get taller in more rich soil and that its basal foliage stays relatively short to the ground, with long fuzzy leaves. Since its foliage isn’t all that dense or large, other plants that require more sunlight — including ground covers — will do well right next to it. You may even discover in your reading that the dried flower heads, nearly jet black, remain all winter, and how cool they look with a backdrop of short prairie grasses (like little bluestem) as the winter sun filters in behind them.

Click here to continue reading this article.

Buying furniture and linens at a Thrift Store

Furniture

Thrifting is the ultimate recyclingThrift stores allot varying amounts of floor space to furniture.  You can usually find nice, often vintage pieces that will meet your needs. (1,2)   If you are looking for a piece of furniture for a specific function/location, be sure to measure that location and then bring a tape measure with you so that you find a suitable piece. If you are leery of upholstered furniture, note that some stores place stickers (3) that should reassure you. Most thrift stores have staff who will assist you in getting the item in your car or van. Additionally, most have some sort of delivery services.  Change hardware (handles, drawer pulls, hinges, etc.) for easy & attractive modifications. Look at each piece critically – if it has scratches and nicks, can it be easily refinished or painted?  If the top of a table, chest, or cabinet is beyond repair, think about a glass top with wallpaper or fabric below it. (4)  Another solution is a large wood and glass tray with wallpaper, fabric or photos. (5) Dining room chairs like this one (6, $10) can be somewhat mismatched when the seats are easily recovered with the same fabric.
Shopping for furniture at a thrift store

Furniture and linens at a thrift store
Linens

If you are handy and have a sewing machine, think creatively and consider re-purposing.  For example, turn two flat sheets into a duvet cover with 3 seams and a few snaps, buttons or Velcro.  And if you use two different sheets, you’ll get two duvet covers for the price of one! Sheets can be also turned into pillowcases, tablecloths into table runners, place mats, or curtains. You may find new linens in original packaging. (7)

A word of warning

That “Thrift Store Smell” seems to be most prevalent in linens and clothes made with synthetic fabrics. Try adding a half cup of an odor eliminating laundry booster like white vinegar, Borax, or baking soda to the wash or hang for a few hours in the sun.

Remember! By purchasing gently used instead of new items, you are helping our planet and its fragile ecosystems. Your actions are part of the Green Change.