Wildflowers Take Root At Blue Creek Nursery

How does Penny's garden grow? With the help of a lot of hands.

Seeds collected throughout the Metroparks are going into one of the area's most unusual gardens at the Blue Creek Conservation Area. There, Penny Wagner tends to plots of native wildflowers and grasses that she and other members of the land management staff use to restore Lucas County's natural areas.  Other plants are used for stream bank stabilization or in landscaped areas, such as the Metz Visitors Center at Wildwood Preserve, where people can appreciate and learn more about them.

Cardinal-flower, blue lobelia, hoary mountain mint, Swamp milkweed, New England aster, tall coreopsis, wild sienna, bergamot.

"We collect everything we can," Wagner said. "We have a lot of species."  Priority is given to nectaring plants, such as lupine, butterfly-weed and dotted horsemint.  By June, the land management crew had already planted about half the 3,000 lupine plants it expects to plant this year at the Campbell Prairie and other areas of Oak Openings Preserve. Lupine is critical to the survival of the federally-endangered Karner blue butterfly, which was reintroduced in the Oak Openings region.  In a remote area of Blue Creek - a farm in Whitehouse now owned by Metroparks and jointly operated with the Lucas Soil and Water Conservation District - Wagner uses a truck with a water tank, a sprinkler system, a small greenhouse and lots of care to nurture the plants. Grasses - big bluestem, little bluestem and Indian grass - are grown in larger, one-acre plots nearby.

It's a lot of work, but she has hundreds of helpers.

Why eat local? When we buy our food from local farmers and other producers, we support the local economy. We don't like having our jobs outsourced, but is getting apples from New Zealand ok? Being able to shake the hand of the folks who created our food creates friendship and trust. The recent food safety concerns are extremely hard to trace in large scale processing systems. In addition, far less energy is used bringing your produce to market when it comes from nearby. Here are some suggested steps that I've used towards becoming a "locavore".