Winter Notes: These Cross-Quarter Days

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February 3: Cross-quarter days  We’ve gotten past about the longest January I think I can remember. The cold, the snow, the dreadful events impossible for any decent person to turn away from. The resultant grief. Offering support to those caught in this vortex of cruelty and violence visited on so many by the government is necessary—and somehow not enough. And yet. Just the other day I noticed that it was still light at 5 pm. Surprise! The dark post-solstice January pause is over; suddenly we’re at the cross-quarter days.  I say days advisedly: we are halfway between the solstice and the spring equinox, but measurement, like everything else I’ve ever heard of, depends on your perspective. Time, day and season depend on where you are, which calendar you use, even which astronomical calculations. St. Brigid's day is February 1,  and Groundhog Day is, of course, February 2, as is Candlemas. These are based on the Gregorian calendar, and are not quite the same as Imbolc,...
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About

Posted by
Adrian Ayres Fisher
Gardening and the outdoors have always been important to me. Years ago, several life-altering events, coupled with my spiritual beliefs and concern for the environment led me towards an earthcare-centered life that includes learning about and practicing ecological, or regenerative, gardening and natural area restoration.

As a long-time volunteer with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, I am volunteer site steward at National Grove Woods, approximately 75 acres of oak woodland, savanna, and floodplain forest. 

I also monitor rare plants for Plants of Concern. In addition I serve as programs and advocacy co-chair on the board of West Cook Wild Ones.

In the past, I was sustainability coordinator at a community college, trained and volunteered as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and worked at an independent garden center as a native plant buyer and gardening coach.




My garden:
I moved! I now live in an old neighborhood built in what was once an oak woodland savanna and m making a new garden. More about this to come.
 
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 My former home, where I practiced native plant gardening for over 30 years, was a 35x150-foot urban lot in an old neighborhood built at the turn of the twentieth century on a prairie in the Des Plaines River water shed. The soil is black silt loam. What started as grass with narrow borders of annuals along the fences evolved into a bird and pollinator-friendly place full of mostly indigenous species of trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses, along with herbs, rhubarb and raspberries, and a small raised bed for vegetables, all surrounding a small polyculture lawn. Like most gardeners, I am always experimenting with new plants. The garden functioned as a kind of lab and its aesthetic appeal arose out of its ecological functionality rather than adherence to conventional principles of visual design.


Talks and Workshops:
From time to time I give talks about garden and restoration related subjects. 

2025
Letting Nature In: When, Where, and How to Start Native Plant Gardening
July 24, Forest Park Public Library
 
National Grove Woods, Sentient Beings and Myriad Things
May 4, Zen Life and Meditation Center, Oak Park
 
2024
Soil Carbon Sequestration through Native Plant Gardening
North Town Gardening Association, Chicago

Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration: How We Can All Draw Down Carbon While Increasing Biodiversity
September 21, Gibson Woods Wild Ones Native Plant Symposium, Schererville, IN

Native Shrubs Belong in Every Garden
September 19, Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (online presentation)

Birds, Bees and Butterflies: Gardening for Nature
July 17, The Breakers at Edgewater Beach, Chicago
 
Tree, Serpent and Buddha's Footprints
June 30, Zen Life and Meditation Center, Oak Park

Easy Does It: When, Where and How to Start Native Plant Gardening
February 25, Temple Har Zion, River Forest IL

2023
Native Plants and Living Soil and the Joys of Complexity in the Garden
March 23, Riverside Public Library Facebook Link   YouTube Recording 

2022
30x30: Good News for Ecosystems, Wildlife, and our Climate
September 28, West Cook Wild Ones (online presentation) YouTube recording

Birds, Bees and Butterflies: Gardening for Nature
June 2, Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, Il (online presentation)

Native Plants and Living Soil: The Joys of Complexity in the Garden
May 12, Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (online presentation) 

2021
Native Plants, Healthy Soil and Carbon Sequestration
March 3,  Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, Il (online presentation)

2020
Native Gardens through the Seasons: A Virtual Walk
September 12, West Cook Wild Ones. My garden was one of three featured in the online presentation.

Native Bees in the Garden
June 14, West Cook Wild Ones. (online presentation)

Bees, Birds and Butterflies: Gardening for Nature
March 4, Mather’s—More Than a Café, Chicago

2019
The Gurneys of Tower Grove Park
April 28, Tower Grove Park, St. Louis

Climate Change, Soil Carbon Sequestration and Regenerative Gardening
March 30, Chicago Community Gardeners Association conference

2018
Native Shrubs and Why We Should Love Them
November 8, DuPage Organic Garden Club

Native Plants and Living Soil: The Joys of Complexity in the Garden
May 5, Chicagoland Daylily Association

Backyard Carbon Sequestration
March 7, Ecological Landscape Alliance Conference, UMass Amhurst
December 4, webinar of talk

2017
Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
September 12, Triton Community Gardening Club

 Native Bees in the Garden
April 6, South Barrington Library

Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
March 25, DuPage Organic Gardening Club Conference, Carroll Stream Public Library

Monarch Conservation
March 23, IGEN Sustainability Conference, Heartland Community College, Bloomington

Native Bees in the Garden
January 2, DuPage Organic Gardening Club, Carroll Stream Public Library

2016
Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
May 3, Lake to Prairie Wild Ones, Fremont Library, Mundelein

Native Bees in the Garden
January 9, Barrington Village Hall

2015
Do Three Shrubs Make a Hedgerow? Reflections on Hedgerow Structure and Usefulness in Several Contexts: as part of the symposium Life Along the Edges – A discussion of the value of field margins, hedgerows, and buffers in the modern landscape.

March 27, Society for Ecological Restoration - Midwest-Great Lakes Chapter Annual Meeting, Chicago Botanic Garden

Native Bees in the Garden
January 31, Chicago Wilderness Wild Things Conference, UIC

2014
Native Bees in the Garden,
August 17, sponsored by West Cook Wild Ones, Dominican University, River Forest

2011
The Polyculture Lawn, Oak Park Art League

2010
Oak Park Friends Meeting, Oak Park
Washington Park Conservancy, Chicago
Triton Community Horticulture Club, River Grove
Friends MCGM Meeting, Oak Park
Proksa Park Garden Club, Berwyn

2009
Friends Illinois Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions, McNabb
Trailside Museum, River Forest
 

Comments

TheGardenDiaries said…
Love your blog! I am also a garden writer and blogger and love your lawn posts and native bees ones. Have you ever gone to the Garden Bloggers Fling? It is a yearly conference where garden bloggers get together and tour gardens. And you meet fellow writers. It is in Madison this year.
February 26, 2020 at 4:35 PM
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