Text by Paula Dittrick, TMNCPC blogmaster, with background information from Courier Newsletter Editor Lynn Trenta. Photos by Lynn Trenta and Paula Dittrick
It’s the peak of hot summer, yet Texas Master Naturalist Coastal Prairie Chapter members are staying busy in the gardens and prairie at Seabourne Creek Nature Park in preparation for the Seabourne Nature Fest in November.
TMNCPC member Pam Jones created and is installing new plant markers for the demo garden to replace existing faded markers. The signs are about 2×3 inches. They feature a picture and name of the plant as well as symbols for wildlife that use that plant.
Seabourne Director Jerry Trenta had the demo garden plant signs made at a printing shop where he also ordered some other, larger SCNP signs.
In the butterfly garden, the walkways have a new, crisp look with raised and cemented stone borders.
TMNCPC member Elizabeth Greene recently helped Boy Scouts bump up plants at SCNP, and members Jan Kolk and Charris Powers removed ragweed and sumpweed in SCNP’s Houston Wilderness pollinator area, which is near the fence south of the demo garden and about where the prairie path starts.
The SCNP Houston Wilderness area was established in October 2019 with a grant from Houston Wilderness, an organization which works with a broad-based alliance of business, environmental, and government interests to protect and promote 10 diverse ecoregions covering more than 13 counties in the vicinity of Houston, Galveston Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. Ecoregions include coastal prairies, forests, wetlands, and waterways.
SCNP’s Houston Wilderness Area and prairie remained very wet as of early August after recent heavy rains.