Congratulations Darien Garden Club!

Darien Garden Club received the

DuPage Monarch Project’s Pollinator Protector Award for 2023!

Darien Garden Club supports pollinators in many ways!

DGC educational Meetings:

• In November, Branden Hayes talked about The Oak Ecosystem Recovery Plan’s efforts to recover oak ecosystems in Illinois.

• In January, members gathered to learn some basic gardening skills from Dolly Foster, a landscape horticulturalist, Master Gardener, native plant and monarch enthusiast, she encouraged us to garden in harmony with nature.

• Our February meeting featured Heather Prince’s presentation on growing perennial plants, including native plants.

• In April, Tom Eisenhart covered Water Features to Attract Dragonflies and Other Beneficial Wildlife.

• In June for our National Garden Week National Garden Week program held in partnership with Indian Prairie Public Library (IPPL) we invited Carol Elkins, Xerces’ Ambassador, to address the crowd. Carol took us though an evening of pollinator education with her talk “Bring Back the Pollinators”. She shared information about the importance of our native pollinators, some of their primary threats, and what we can all do to support them in our landscapes. Pollinator plant starts were distributed at the meeting.

• The members’ show and tell in July helped us share tips and insight into native gardening.

DGC Outreach Programing for all ages:

• In October we held an Oaktober Event at Indian Prairie Public Library (IPPL) We spent the day inspiring the community to add to the oak ecosystem and to care for the trees we have. The children enjoyed becoming squirrels, playing the Sneaky Squirrel Game, doing leaf rubbings while learning the leaf shaped of red and white oaks and other fun activities. Our donor, Bartlett Tree Experts, supplied 50 new Chestnut Swamp White Oak trees to distribute.

• In March we co-sponsored the IPPL Seed and Houseplant Exchange showing patrons native seed harvesting techniques and sharing our native seed. Sunflower seeds for @DuPage Sunflower Project were also shared.

• In May we partnered with IPPL and invited John Cebula, from DuPage Birding Club to present a lecture on how to enjoy birding during the annual spring migration. Concurrently we held a Spring Birding Experience walk up event: DGC/DBC members helped patrons learn about their favorite hobby and led families on birding hikes on the library grounds. We discussed the importance of native trees to birds and their young.

• Also, in May members of local organizations (Darien Historical Society, Darien Woman’s Club, Darien Garden Club and St. John Lutheran Church) came together to hear Jack Shouba present his talk GARDENS OF THE DESERT: An Introduction to Illinois Prairie. Jack leads the group that cares for the St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery Prairie, an original, untilled prairie right here in Darien that is registered as an Illinois Natural Heritage Landmark. We learned of their efforts to restore this special spot.

• In June we held our annual Pollinator Week Celebration at IPPL. Our DGC Outreach Volunteers enjoyed sharing their knowledge, explaining the importance of native plantings for pollinators, inspiring little biologists and gardeners with photo matching games featuring butterflies and bees, and showing off REAL LIVE baby caterpillars! Pollinator plant starts were distributed.

DGC Sprouts youth garden club:

• In October our DGC Sprout meeting was a fall fest and we included Oak education, discussing how oak trees provides food and homes for wildlife. We talked about how caterpillars on oak leaves provide food for baby birds as the food chain revolves around these native trees. We discussed the importance of blue jays and squirrels planting acorns to continue the oak ecosystem. The children did leaf rubbings, colored in stencils and took home squirrel masks.

• December’s DGC Sprouts meeting included conservation icons Smoky Bear and Woodsey Owl and environmental education and poster preparation.  The families were encouraged to get out in nature during the winter.

• January’s DGC Sprouts joint meeting with the adults from DGC featured an educator from SCARCE who covered the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We discussed caring for the earth in turn helping wildlife and humans continue in harmony.

• Our DGC Sprouts youth club received a $1000 Plant America Grant from National Garden Clubs in January for improvements and additions to the DGC Sprouts St. John Learning Garden. Part of the funds were used to work together with St. John Lutheran Church to commission a local artist Rolandas Dabrukas to create a beautiful welcoming monarch butterfly mural for the DGC Sprouts St. John Learning Garden! The mural is beautiful and stops traffic in and out of the church.  Many have stopped by to take a photo with butterfly wings!

•  In Feb DGC Sprouts discussed all the winter beauty, fun and wildlife we saw this winter via photo sharing. We met "Pumpkin" the squirrel who helped himself to one of the families' pumpkins and may have in turn ended up lunch for a hawk that visited later this season.

• Our April Sprouts meeting, DuPage Sunflower Project and Community Science Inspiration, included a visit from the founders of DuPage Sunflower Project.  We were inspired by 6th grader Lanie and her dad.  She spoke to us about planting sunflowers to bring cheer and smiles to others, and to nourish pollinators and other wildlife.  We continued to share thousands of Sunflower seeds for Du Page Sunflower Project during the course of the spring and summer.  They were planted by DGC at IPPL, Kingswood Academy, DGC Sprouts St. John Learning Garden and in many of our members’ homes.  As it was days until the City Nature Challenge, we led the group outside at the end of the meeting for a bioblitz in the gardens, inspiring the children to become Community Scientists. The families discovered worms, pill bugs and more. 

• In May we planted the St. John Learning Garden and included pollinator plants in 8 of the beds.

• Pollinator Safari was the theme at the June DGC Sprouts meeting. We started the evening with pollinator education, learning about local pollinators, their importance and unique characteristics. We played pollinator jeopardy, passed around butterfly wings, cocoons, and other specimens to look at first hand. We discussed the importance of native habitat that supports native pollinators which in turn support native wildlife. We spent some time looking for pollinators in the DGC Sprouts Learning Garden and St. John Butterfly Garden. We saw monarch eggs, red milkweed beetles, honeybees, aphids, wasps, and even spiders and a large crane fly. We ended the evening learning about the importance of salts and other minerals and how we can help provide those important elements for butterflies with a homemade butterfly puddle. The children prepared a butterfly 'puddle' to take home to help local butterflies in the family’s home habitat.

• At the July meeting “Art in the Garden” the children created artwork to decorate the garden, many of the canvases included butterflies, bees and the flowers that nourish them.

• August’s meeting was a garden “Show and Tell”.  The children shared rocks, cicadas, feathers, and we released newly named “Midge” the monarch with much fanfare!

DGC maintained habitat sites:

• Darien Milkweed Patch – this area produces a wonderful amount of monarch habitat and the milkweed seed is collected for our giveaways during the year.  There are a few educational signs posted along the sidewalk it abuts on Plainfield Road.

• St. John Butterfly Garden – This parking lot island provides plenty of pollinator habitat and also is graced with signage from MJV, TCF and Route 66 Flyway.  It is adjacent to our DGC Sprout Garden and serves to pollinate the vegetables and provide education for our youngest members. 

• Aspired Living - Westmont Pollinator Garden – This local assisted living facility pollinator garden is also home to a few signs including MJV and Route 66 Flyway that help to educate the residents and visitors.  It is a source of peace for the residents, who enjoy the view and the pollinating visitors especially the butterflies and hummingbirds.  The milkweed planted there was use in August to feed larva and release monarchs with the residents.  (See garden therapy below.)

• VFW Peace Memorial Garden at Darien Community Park has a significant milkweed stand as well as landscape plantings.

• St John Learning Garden is planted and cared for by our youth club, DGC Sprouts.  The garden includes pollinator friendly annuals and perennials with nectar and pollen for many butterflies and other pollinators. The DGC volunteers cleared a large area of the garden that was home to Buckthorn and other invasive species, we hope to incorporate a native shrub border for more native habitat on the property. 

• IPPL container planters maintained by our member feature pollinator plantings and even included recycled milkweed pod “stars” all winter.

Other DGC participation in conservation efforts:  

• In September we started our annual push to collect native seeds including all types of milkweeds. Our Darien Milkweed Patch cared for by member Claudia Borowski. did not disappoint as MANY seed heads were dried and cracked open carefully to harvest the seed for upcoming outreach events, DGC and DGC Sprouts meetings and any time DGC is out in the public.  She packed >100 packages and included instructions on cold treatment for starting the seed.  The supply was exhausted by mid-summer. 

• The DGC Website resources page has links related to pollinator week.

• Members participate in local BioBlitz Projects.

• Our Darien Dirt Diggers Newsletter shares local pollinator and nature education, including DMP events throughout the year. A member, Cathy Streett, also shares monthly observations from her pollinator habitat in her “walk” articles. Another member, Sylvia Olson, wrote an article “April May Bee a Wonderful Time to Help Pollinators!”.  It was a feature on no mow and waiting to “clean up”

• Many members sign the IMP pledge and DGC also signs as an organization.

• DGC social media shares information about local and worldwide iNaturalist Projects related to pollinators, DMP events, Pollinator Week and other related conservation information and articles. See our Linktree to check out our social media.

• A DGC member, Cathy Streett, sits on the Route 66 Flyway committee which promotes patchwork habitat up and down the state along Route 66.  The information on the flyway is shared at our events and we have promoted habitat plantings in the parks and city.

• DGC has a representative, Cathy Streett, on the Darien Action Committee, a group of other organizations, the city and businesses that work together to create a cohesive Darien.  We have been called upon to help plan plantings and hope to add more habitat to more Darien area spaces soon.

• A DGC member, Chris Bosacki, attended the NAMI (North American Monarch Institute) workshop in Madison and is working to secure grant money for monarch habitat at St. John Lutheran Church.  She really enjoyed the meetings/education and inspiration.  

• Our club collects native seeds including milkweed pods and delivers to Kay MacNeil, monarch enthusiast, who in turn distributes to IDOT and other projects with large acreage.  The load barely fit into a large hatch back for transport in November.

• Members attend and volunteered at Wild Things 2023.  We brought home education tools for our outreach events and information to share.

• Kingswood Academy Service Project We worked together with the children to clean native and annual seeds in the classroom.  Each child went home with four types of seed and growing instructions to try their green thumbs out. The rest of the cleaned seed was added to the IPPL seed library and was available at the DGC/IPPL seed exchange event. Milkweed seed was also distributed from the Darien Milkweed Patch and monarch conservation was also part of the discussion that day.

• DGC volunteer, Cathy Streett, helps at IPPL for their STEM classes on Fridays during the summer.  We covered photosynthesis, compost, insects, pollination with activities and games.

• DGC volunteer, Cathy Streett, helps with garden camp in June and August Kingswood Academy week long Garden Camps. We planted their raised beds with vegetables, sunflowers and other seeds.  We covered pollinators, insects, released monarchs and raised some too.

• DGC Walking Group visit local prairies, woodlands and invariably ends up discovering pollinators, birds and other wildlife as we exercise.

• Darien Garden Club board requested that Darien initiate a NO MOW until Mother’s Day option for homeowners in 2023.  The city did not act; however, we are still educating them and have the support of the Darien environmental committee.