Central Chapter Swaps Seeds
Members of INPAWS Central Chapter brought seeds from their own native plants, but the harvest was dominated by the impressive quantities of seed culled from host Dan McCord’s suburban backyard.
Dan McCord is the intrepid native plant enthusiast who persuaded his cornfield-conversion subdivision to plant a prairie where they would have had to spend $10K a year mowing turf grass. He’s the founder of Hamilton County Urban Conservation Association, whose motto is “think habitat, not grass.”
Dan treated us to a tour of his plantings, which included neatly mulched biohedges of nannyberry, black chokeberry, red oak, and serviceberry interspersed with stiff goldenrod, Riddle’s goldenrod, rattlesnake master, blue mist flower, and stands of little bluestem.
C-INPAWS program chair Daryn Fair (his landscape firm is Fall Creek Land Design) lent his expertise to the proceedings, and a good time was had by all.
Free-for-all in Dan McCord's garage
This participant was delighted to walk away with bags full of seed to disperse at Cold Spring Environmental Magnet School’s prairie (started with seedlings lovingly nurtured by Youth Outreach’s Donovan Miller), the Traders Point Gateway greenspace project at the 71st Street and I-65 interchange, and her own mini-prairie that inhabits an mound of earth once dominated by a satellite dish.