Conservation@Home

Now that spring is here, the plans for the Garden Refresh project are coming along for re-designing and re-planting the native garden beds on two sides of the Clow House at The Conservation Foundation (TCF) McDonald Farm. Since it has been a number of years since the garden beds were planted, it’s time for an update!  The process began on a winter day when staff measured the garden areas and drew it out on paper. Jan Roehll, a landscape architect by training, took the lead on the project. Once she had the area mapped out, noting…

In the midst of winter, many of you look forward to getting seed and bulb catalogs, eagerly thumbing through them, dreaming of springtime and warmer weather. The Conservation Foundation looks forward to re-doing the garden beds on the east and south sides of the Clow House office space at McDonald Farm in Naperville. In those beds, staff will plant native flowers and grasses to create a garden that is both environmentally friendly and attractive.  It’s been quite a few years since these beds were planted. Some plants prospered and grew too big for the space while…

Leaves are a big topic of research when it comes to water quality issues coming from residential neighborhoods in the fall. Rainwater leaches nutrients from leaves lying in the street, creating a kind of “leaf tea.” The nutrient-rich leaf tea then flows down storm drains and into local streams. The nutrients from leaves, especially phosphorous, cause algal blooms that lower oxygen levels in the stream–less oxygen makes it harder for fish and aquatic insects to live there.  The U.S. Geological…