Looking Good

We stopped by the Matzke Park Butterfly Garden this morning.  It is looking just great.  The ladies are doing a good job with their beds.  Installing the new fence and removing the old roses has made a major positive difference.

As usual, there was a mom and young child enjoying the gazebo and the many blooms.  We saw no butterflies, however.

These were taken while we were there.

Get Some Fresh Air

A Free Fresh Air Event:

 

 

Matzke park is a great place for fresh air.. AND .. there are alternatives very close by.

 

National Trails Day is June 1st.  It celebrates the thousands of miles of great public

trails our country has to offer. On June 1^st In honor of this day, Bayou Land Conservancy looks forward to residents of the Norchester Subdivision joining us and Harris County Pct. 4 Parks Department for a light work session at the new 100-Acre Wood Preserve.

 

When:Saturday, June 1st  9 am-11:30 am
Where:  100-Acre Wood Preserve (see map picture below)

Where to Meet: Intersection of Balcrest and Normont in Norchester

Wear and Bring:   Long pants, closed-toed shoes, bug spray, your own water,
                            shovels, clippers, and work gloves.

RSVP requires at 281-576-1634 or email to info@bayouland.org 

 

 Your "Bloggers,"  Luv2Plant and Helper #1,  walked the trails of this area from the start, at Jones and Cypress Creek all the way to behind the YMCA and back.  About a mile each way.  It was a very pleasant and interesting hike with just a few moderate short hills.  There were no bugs at all when we were there 3 weeks ago.

“The 100 Acre Wood Preserve” is situated on 98 acres in northwest Harris County. It borders Jones Road to the east, a Northwest Harris County Municipal Utility District 230 water treatment facility to the west, Cypress Creek to the north, and the Norchester Subdivision to the south. Bayou Land Conservancy facilitated the donation of the property to Harris County, and has ensured that the property will be forever protected by placing a conservation easement over it. The conservation easement ensures that the property will never be cleared, developed, or otherwise damaged. This future Harris County nature preserve will be mostly left in its natural state. Currently there are approximately two miles of trail that will continue to be maintained. The county will be constructing an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible “trunkline” trail through a portion of the preserve.

 

Four unique forest communities are present on the preserve, which is also dotted with small patches of pocket prairie. The forests here are mature second growth, and are inhabited by trees that may be in excess of half a century. Mixed pine hardwood uplands occur on well-drained soils and are dominated by a healthy population of mature post oaks and loblolly pine. American beautyberry and yaupon can be found in the understory. Moist transitional forests are highly diverse communities with overstory species such as water oak, water hickory, loblolly pine, sweetgum, and American holly. A variety of hawthorn species as well as deciduous holly and dwarf palmetto can be found in the understories. The preserve also harbors a number of forested wetlands, which occur on poorly drained soils and hold water mainly in the winter months or following large rain events. Tree species here include water oak and water hickory. There is a large nearly pure stand of overcup oak, which occurs here at the southwestern edge of its range. Species such as river birch and American sycamore thrive in riparian forests along Cypress Creek. The conservation easement held by Bayou Land Conservancy will ensure that these forests remain intact for the enjoyment of future generations. For more information about Bayou Land Conservancy please visit it HERE

Bayou Land Conservancy is pleased to have raised the funds to purchase this land, donate it to Harris County Parks Dept., and then permanently protect it with a conservation easement. This special green space with post oaks is now an important part of the growing Cypress Creek Greenway.  

Please make plans to join them and their main sponsor, Houston Endowment, and other partners including: REI, GHORBA, and the Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition. Houston History magazine will also be there with copies of their latest edition – with the cover story on the Spring Creek and Cypress Creek Greenway history (photos and articles by Bayou Land Conservancy!)  

Bring your family, friends and neighbors to introduce yourself to, and work on this new two-mile trail system that is free and open to the public!

Not Just Little Kids

This was another morning of learning events for day school children led by ladies from Norchester Garden Club.  For this group, the story of Catherine the Caterpillar is being read while one of the teachers listens in. 







And here, on a very real poppy plant, perches a very plastic butterfly.  It is one of the items hidden for the children to find for their garden scavenger hunt.   

Thanks again, Ladies.




And, as was so well documented in the April 16 post of this blog, From Behind the Fence (archives on the right) it is not just the very young that enjoy this beautiful park. While the sessions were going on for the children this morning, two buses pulled up which discharged a gaggle of seniors with walkers who enjoyed the morning at the picnic tables .  Nope... not just the young kids enjoy the park and garden.

Right Here in Harris County

(As you have likely learned by now you may link to more information and pictures by clicking on any of the words or topics highlighted by the purple color in these blog posts.)

 

Matzke Park and the Butterfly Garden are beautiful and convenient.  However we constantly like to explore and suggest other “green things” in the Harris County area.  

 

Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s new Endangered Species Garden dedication was held on Earth Day yesterday. They boast a number of the 760 plant species that are federally listed as endangered or threatened. Mercer has been working with the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) since 1989 and Mercer is one of the 36 botanic facilities in the nation that maintain CPC’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. The Endangered Prairie Dawn (Hymenoxys txana) is only found in Texas and can be found right here in Harris County.

 

Precinct4 has a preserve off of 1960 and Cutten Rd. housing many of these tiny sunflower plants that are about 3 inches high. You might step on them and not even note them on the ground.

Check other interesting things that are happening at Mercer. One endangered plant Correll's False Dragon-head (Physostegia correllii) is of the mint family . It is found only in Texas and Louisiana and is being investigated for use in treating cancer. Read more about it by clicking HERE      

 

 

 

Standing and Munching in the Cold

Friday turned out to be a beautiful spring day. But it started out very cold and windy for the good ladies of Norchester Garden Club who, once again, presented their Children’s Program to local “day-schoolers” from 9:00 to noon or so.   Some of the scheduled classes left them standing in the wind and didn’t even show up.  But the monarch larva did.   It is always amazing to see a pin-head sized egg on a milk weed leaf turn into the very tiny larva..  And within a few days, the larva has greatly increased in size; leaving the milk weed plants as stripped twigs.  Such is the way of nature.  

 

With luck, the weather will be much nicer for the ladies and the larva on Friday April 26 when the next programs are scheduled.

  

 

Always Learning.. Young and Old

Today was the first of many scheduled sessions for day care students, hosted by ladies of Norchester Garden Club and friends of the park.  They listen attentively to the story of “Catherine the Caterpillar” and then make crafts that help them learn about nature, the garden and the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. This morning’s session went fine and the butterfly garden looks wonderful.

 


And your “Helper #1” learned something a couple of days ago.  When I use certain font colors that show up nicely on the blog… some of them don’t show up at all if you are one of the folks who have signed up to get an automatic email version of each new post.    I am sorry about that.  It shouldn’t, but if it does happen again, just check the blog site itself and you will see what was intended. The post for Apr 16 is one that shouldn't be missed in my opinion.

If you choose, just enter your email address in the box on the blog and click “submit”  You will get an email copy of each new post the next day.

Also.. feel free to post a comment or question after any entry. 

Thanks again to the dedicated ladies from Norchester Garden Club for these programs.

From Behind the Fence

One of our most faithful friends of Matzke Park shared this with us very reciently.  It follows below as written....

April 15,2012

Observations from Behind the Wrought Iron Fence

                                                                Two Spring Weekends in April, 2013.

While planting long rows of society garlic on the soccer side of the fence I had a wonderful opportunity to observe the various activities at Matzke Park. I was there for about four hours each day.

·         Easter Sunday moms hiding plastic Easter eggs in the flower beds in the butterfly garden.

·         Lots of family photo taking with the flowers as background.
·         A little girl with her butterfly cage who came to the garden to let her butterflies fly away.
·         A five year old girl telling her younger brother not to pick the flowers because the butterflies eat the flowers.
·         Two elderly ladies from the assisted living apartments opposite Cy Fair High School who said they come daily just to sit on one of the benches for a couple of hours.
·         Many, many children on the playground equipment then taking a rest break to sit on the edge of flower beds or in the Bennett Gazebo.
·         Ten boys ranging in age from seven to about twelve having a pickup game of football with no parent or coach telling them what to do.
·         Three little girls on their razor boards flying on the trail.
·         Little kids driving their battery powered jeeps on the expanse of grass.
·         Families bringing their own folding picnic tables and chairs and coolers full of food to share with friends under the shade of the small trees.
·         A dad watching his teen age daughter practicing cartwheels in order to try out for the drill team at Cy Ridge High School.
·         A dad with his four year old son practicing batting from a T ball stand.

For those of us who have backyards perhaps we fail to appreciate what the park means to many people. Listen to the many languages spoken there on a weekend in the spring.

For those of you who supported saving the land from commercial development a big Thank You.

For those of you new to our area please continue to enjoy and respect this Precinct 4 Harris County Park.

Visit the park . It is a great place to people watch..

 

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Wow.. was that great or what ??   And speaking of back yards... here is a picture of one of the harder working flowers in ours;  taken last week..

 

A "Katrina Rose".. .also called a Peggy Martin on our back fence. You can read about the Katrina Rose by clicking here.