The Green Farmacy Garden, care of CEI

What a difference a month makes!
The Hellebores (Hellebore spp) are still going strong, but many of the native spring ephemerals have already completed their brief bloom phases.  Below (clockwise from top left), a bumblebee works the Hellebores; native Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) blooming; native Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea) has a longer bloom-time than many other early spring bloomers and is just getting started; and our dainty but robust Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) blooms in Terrace D.

During its decades of history, The Green Farmacy Garden has been connected to a variety of plant research projects.  One ongoing study at University of Maryland College Park sources fresh Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) from the Garden to explore their nutritional content and compare to those of the same species grown in different conditions.

Another study at Emory University is studying the threatened species Schisandra glabra, which though native to Southeastern states has been growing happily in The Green Farmacy Garden for over a decade.  Each season we track its progress alongside its famous adaptogenic cousin, Schisandra chinensis.  We always see the same pattern pictured below: Schisandra chinensis leafs out and blooms far ahead of Schisandra glabra, and our S. glabra leafs out weeks later than the native ones in Alabama, but tends to open its flowers around the same time.
Below top, native Schisandra glabra is still dormant, while Below bottom Schisandra chinensis has already leafed out and is swelling flower buds.

Early spring offerings have attracted a number of young people to the Garden, which delights both us and them!  We’re working to craft even more events catering to young people’s needs this season, including our Community Earth Day Celebration and a Children’s Day Extravaganza in June!

These young visitors joined us to learn about Willows at our Willow Walk & Work, supported by grant funding from Chesapeake Bay Trust and Clean Water Howard.  Their attraction to the ponds underscored the value of water stewardship and connection.  Water is life!

We had a strong turnout for the Willow Walk & Work. Participants learned about many ecosystem roles, medicinal applications, propagation boosts, and other functions of Willow species and then helped us install a couple hundred Live Willow Stakes along the eroded banks of one of our streams.  Right now they just look like sticks in the ground (OK, they basically ARE just sticks in the ground), but hopefully many of them will do their willow magic and take root, eventually anchoring both  themselves and the soil in place, to prevent further erosion.

We’re full of Spring energy and, buoyed by Grant support and support from CEI’s network, offering a bunch of events this month, which you can find on our Public Events page!

All non-logo images the creative works of Veri Tas except Bluebells, Twinleaf, and Spring Wild Edibles shots by Annie-Sophie Simard, garden group by Michael Hanes, eco-print by Julie Biedrzycki, and Tool Sharpening/ Repair Café pix by Simon Sauvageau

This morning as a group of local herb growers convened for a networking knowledge-share, we were excited by 5 hawks causing a ruckus overhead for an hour – the most we’ve seen at once!  Numerous songbirds were seen and heard vacating the area.  We’ll often have a hawk couple engaging in mating rituals around this time – any bird enthusiasts know if they sometimes do group displays or competitions before settling on a mate?

It’s also Fukinoto season again – read more at the link!  We’d love to share the abundance, so please be in touch by email at GFG@cei.earth if you’d like to schedule a time to come harvest some Fukinoto to try at home.

Above Top: Giant Butterbur (Petasites japonicus) buds & blooms, called Fukinoto when prepared for food in Japan. Sweet Coltsfoot is another common name for this plant, though uncovering or bringing out its sweetness takes considerable preparation! 
Bottom: The closely related Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), whose buds (foreground of bottom left image) are harvested for medicine in Traditional Chinese Medicine and leaves and roots in other traditions

Below images from March 7, Clockwise from Top: abundant naturalized wild edible Chickweed (Stellaria media) lush and blooming; Forsythia (Forsythia suspense) first blooms; shy Daffodils (Narcissus spa.) hiding in the Holding Plot; first leaves breaking from the newly imported Rose from Maryland University of Integrative Health (Rosa damascena?)

Around the change of the seasons, CEI was awarded an Outreach and Restoration Grant from The Chesapeake Bay Trust, capacitating us to make some exciting progress toward ecological responsibility as we steward the terraces and grounds of The Green Farmacy Garden.

“This grant program encourages outreach, community engagement activities, and on-the-ground restoration projects that increase knowledge, change behavior, and accelerate stewardship of natural resources that involve residents in restoring local green spaces, waterways, and natural resources.“

Look for these logos on event ticket pages and the Public Events page on our website highlighting events enabled and inspired by this grant!

Already in February, this Grant has empowered us to remove exotic plants from the area around sensitive Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and other spring ephemerals at our Woodland Walk & Work, and with the help of Howard Ecoworks, to install Log Erosion Barriers (LEB) at the top of Terrace A, to help infiltrate storm water, better hydrate the plants growing there, and decrease erosion on the steep garden slope:

Above Top: Volunteers from the public work to remove selected species from the forest floor, and Bottom: team from Howard Ecoworks helps install Log Erosion Barriers.

We’d love to celebrate the approach of Spring in the Garden with you — please find upcoming public events on our Public Events page!

All non-logo images the creative works of Veri Tas except Volunteer plant removal and stream-bed shots by Annie-Sophie Simard and Willow by Matthew Jacobsen

It’s already halfway to spring [from the solstice]!

Since we last posted, the Garden has been blanketed in & released from snow; the earliest in-ground bloomers have popped up & sprung to action; tropicals have been blooming in the greenhouse and studio; and CEI’s been awarded a Chesapeake Bay Trust Outreach & Restoration grant that will enable us to offer more opportunities to engage with and learn about the property grounds beyond the garden, as we work to improve stormwater management on the site.

Above, clockwise from top left: frozen pond; critter footprints (do you know whose?) in the woods; the barn; the patio in the wondrous white.

Below, clockwise from top left, some garden knockouts in winter finery: Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) requires no dressing up!; Echinacea (Echinacea spp.) seedheads bedecked with snow; hardy yet dainty Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) in bloom; breathtaking Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus aculeatus).

Below, spring’s earliest harbingers (all introduced species) besides the Giant Butterbur (Petasites japonicus) that’s almost certainly at least budding too, clockwise from top: Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis); Hellebore (Helleborus spp.); Daffodil (Narcissus spp.); and Winter Aconite (Eranthus hyemalis)

In recent weeks, the greenhouse is filled with colorful blooms, and fragrance from the oh-so-wistfully-named Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Brunfelsia australis):

In the studio, the lemon tree’s been blooming for months, so profusely that its heady scent greeted one just heading downstairs.  Below, left to right, top to bottom: lemon blooms in December; baby lemons setting in January; inside the greenhouse in January; Boldo Brasiliero, or Toilet Paper Plant (Coleus barbatus) blooming in January

We’d love to share the garden and grounds with you this month as Spring draws ever nearer.  Join us for Herbal Medicine-Making or a Walk & Work!

All pictures the creative works of garden director Annie-Sophie

The winter solstice marks the Garden’s first full year operated by Community Ecology Institute (CEI). As the Dukes’ passion project, The Green Farmacy Garden was neither conceived nor historically run as a business, and had been almost entirely privately funded its first 25 years. CEI’s stewardship of the property and onsite teaching legacy has been recognized by the community at large as the best opportunity to develop a financially sustainable model that allows the Garden and our global community to support one another reciprocally in the long term.

Jim and Peggy’s two children, Celia and John, have made a very generous donation to CEI of $10,500 to help support our stewardship of the Green Farmacy Garden. Responding to a call to match this investment in securing the longevity of Jim and Peggy’s legacy, our community has thus far collectively contributed 62% of this amount. To help close the gap, you can contribute any amount here, or email giving@cei.earth to explore corporate or organizational sponsorships of the Green Farmacy Garden.

You can access CEI’s 2022 Annual Report here, and expect this year’s shortly–where you can see how the non-profit utilizes the financial resources it channels to support its mission of cultivating communities where people and nature thrive together. We received word last week that our grant proposal to the Chesapeake Bay Trust has been awarded, which includes funds earmarked for enhancing the Garden terraces to better infiltrate rainwater and control runoff and erosion. This will help us further refine and demonstrate ecologically responsible stewardship of the global herbal traditions represented and honored in the Garden in the context of our local ecoregion.

Under CEI’s stewardship, public events at the Green Farmacy Garden have for the first time been able to utilize the former Duke family home. Guest teacher ethnobotanist Aleya Fraser’s dynamic Caribbean Materia Medica workshop inspired us to explore the potential of the house’s diverse spaces. After a brief introduction to the largely dormant Garden, participants met tropical plants in Peggy’s studio (top left), sampled herbal infusions and an herbal steam in the sunroom (top right, bottom left), and took in a multimedia presentation in the living and dining rooms (bottom right):

A photographer for the Baltimore Sun joined us for yesterday’s mostly indoor Mushroom Log Inoculation workshop and we’re looking forward to seeing some of those images in an upcoming Howard County Times. A Sun reporter is working on a related piece to follow soon – if you’ve attended a workshop with us this year and would like to contribute to that article, please email me (gfg@cei.earth) your desired contact info to forward to the reporter!

Despite the freezes, a few species still show signs of life outside. From this angle we can see North American natives Yucca filamentosa in the foreground, bottom right; at photo center, Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) on the right with the distant Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) to its left; and Juniper (Juniperus communis) to the gazebo’s right in the image:

Above: left, Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena, representing Black Seed, Nigella sativa) seedlings carpet the ground under their parents’ seed-heads; right, Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) droops and fades but persists in vibrant green.

Below, counter-clockwise from top: Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale) at the Garden’s entrance; a Giant Butterbur (Petasites japonica) bud swelling – they will start blooming in January!; and my personal favorite garden nibble: garlic leaves, available year-round except for the driest few months.

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) are two of the rowdiest self-sowers in the garden. They love to germinate in the gravel of the garden stairs, where we mostly have to remove them. Sometimes they choose an appropriate spot to thrive in, like the Milk Thistle at bottom left that’s located itself only slightly left of the Aging plot for which it’s indicated, in front of some Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) growing rightfully in Menopause. Often Mullein refuses to thrive where its indicated so we have to leave a few in the rock walls where they go wild (bottom right):

We’ve currently got our Monthly Herbal Medicine-Making offering–Nourishing Infusions–and CEI’s ongoing Second Saturday Socials (winter rendition of Second Friday Fires) coming up on January 13, and anticipate hosting more community events over the winter, including our Eco-Game nights and Climate Cafes.

May the light of love and wonder be with you and your loved ones–human and beyond–this season, and we look forward to reconnecting with you in the New Year!