Yowell Pollinator Garden

 October 10, 2019
Volunteers plant 60 plants donated by Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to Yowell Garden in Culpeper.  Check back in spring!  (click to enlarge images)

On Tuesday, May 21, 2019, Old Rag Master Naturalists and Culpeper Town Planning staff teamed up to restore the pollinator garden in Yowell Meadow that was flooded by rains in 2018.  (Game and Inland Fisheries project)

Click here for link to Culpeper Star Exponent article.
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October 1, 2018:  Volunteers met at Yowell Meadow Park to weed pollinator garden, in much need of attention after all the rain!

​Rappahannock County Park
​Restoration Projects

October 5 workday  
​Eleven volunteers, including 4 ORMN members, installed more than 80 plants in the edge pollinator garden, named the Potluck Pollinator Plot.

​June 22, 2019 workday:
A group of 8 volunteers, including 5 Old Rag Master Naturalists, worked at the park on a spectacular June Saturday.  Ed Dorsey brought a truckload of plants to add to bare spots in the native plant garden installed last November.  Volunteers planted and watered the plants, pulled stilt grass and garlic mustard, and toured the park trails to ID keepers and unwanted specimens. 





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​July 27, 2019 workday
   10 cubic yards of topsoil donated by John Cappiali arrived early on July 27, to be spread on the future pollinator garden plot.  Plants purchased with a $1000 grant from Keep Virginia Beautiful will be installed on next workdays, August 24 and either October 5.
   Meanwhile the Native Plant Garden started November 2018 is in full bloom and buzzing with pollinator activity, including adult and larva monarchs!
   In addition, we identified 5 ferns along the park trails, and found blooming St Johnswort, Joe Pye Weed, Yarrow, Queen Annes Lace, and Daisy Fleabane along the REC right of way.



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May 18, 2019 workday:
​Although alot was happening on May 18,  ORMN volunteers, Berni Olson (photographer), Ruth Welch, and Mike Wenger continued work to control invasives on the upper trail in Rappahannock County Park.



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Rappahannock County Park cleanup: April 6

Twelve volunteers from ORMN, Master Gardeners, and PATH Let's Volunteer Day hit the trails and pulled garlic mustard, honeysuckle nibs, and English ivy to open up light and space for ferns and ephemerals.  Take a look at what is blooming in the Park.

​November 16, 2018

About 10 hardy souls showed up on Friday, November 16...yes, the morning after the first snowfall of the year....to tackle invasive plants along the wooded edge of the Park and plant a native plant garden.  Look for future workdays coming up!
(Hover on photo for caption...click to enlarge.)

SPOTTED LANTERN FLY MONITORING  
Presentation scheduled  at fall ORMN  meeting, October 14, VFW Hall, 6:30. 

Mid April, Don Hearl taughtTom Dreier how to set up a Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma deliculata) tape trap as part of a Virginia Cooperative Extension service project to monitor lantern fly populations on or close to highways with vehicle / truck traffic (potential lantern fly spreaders).

They wrapped heavy sticky tape to an Ailanthus tree trunk to monitor every two weeks for presence/ absence of the invasive Spotted Lantern Fly.  

nternfly was detected in Virginia in January 2018.  It is an invasive plant hopper that was discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014.  In Pennsylvania and its native range, it is a pest of grapes, peaches, hops and apples.  It is commonly associated with Tree-of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima.  It has the potential to be a serious pest of agriculture and home gardens in Virginia.


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Shitake Mushroom Project

May 2019
​This is the 2nd year of a project was created by Adam Downing, the Extension Forester of the Virginia Cooperative Extension of VT.  A month in advance, Adam and fellow Forester Charlie Becker cut white oak trees into logs.  They bring them, along with tools and supplies to Hoover Ridge Park in Madison, where the inoculation takes place at the Madison Farmer's Market, the first Saturday in May.  Once the logs are inoculated, they are sold to folks at the Farmer's Market for $10 each.  We had an excess of logs this year, all of which were inoculated,. Anyone who wants one should contact Adam to see if he can provide them now. 

Dogwood Village Garden

ORMN volunteers were at
Dogwood Village on May 1
assisting senior living residents
plant their flowers and
​vegetable gardens!

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Dogwood Village gardens in August!  
Congratulations to residents and ORMN volunteers.  

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