Summertime is PRAIRIE Exciting!
Summertime is typically busy, busy, busy for everybody: sports, vacation, camps, family reunions etc etc. With that in mind, I’ll keep this blog post quick and to the point! What’s the point? Well, it’s July and that means Ohio’s prairies are blooming and you and your family should go see the show! Seriously… it’s so cool.
So, where can you go and see the bloomtastic show of beautiful, flowery awesomeness? Look no further, here’s a list of 3 great nearby places you can go checkout this week (NOTE: I like to refer to living plants and animals as”who” not “what” or “it”):
Scioto Audubon Metropark
Where?
Right next to downtown! You enter from German Village. You can see the park’s water tower from 315-S
Who?
Waves of Milkweed for Monarch Butterflies, drifts of yellow Prairie Coneflower and Wild Bergamot buzzing with Bumblebees, and an amazing garden by the nature center full of birds! Also, the water around the places has all sorts of cool animal brothers and sisters: Great Blue Herons, Dragonflies, Turtles, and little Fish!
Bonus!
In addition to the lively prairies, this park boasts and super fun nature center (checkout the playroom and library), a HUGE outdoor obstacle course, a rock-climbing wall, and an observation tower!
Whetstone Park
There were no good pictures of this park online… you gotta go yourself and see!
Where?
In Clintonville behind the Whetstone Branch Library,
Who?
Chickadees and Goldfinches drinking out of Cup Plants, Deer hiding in 8 foot-tall flowers, Hummingbirds buzzing Royal Catchfly, Ebony Jewelwings dancing around the stream, and Butterflies flapping from flower tip to flower tip.
Bonus!
In addition to the prairie restoration (on the left once you pass the athletics fields), this park features long streambanks with perfect skipping stones, massive Sycamore trees for hugging and climbing, an active Red-Shouldered Hawk nest, the Park of Roses and more. It’s one of our main summer camp locations for BFA Reed, LDBB HW, and BFA Clintonville… ask those campers their favorite spots!
Prairie Oaks Metropark
I took this photo on my phone on a Summer morning near the park entrance… it was truly magic.
Where?
About 20 mins west of downtown, just a bit past Hilliard off of I-70W
Who?
So many flowers, including rare Downy Sunflowers and Royal Catchfly! With those come Goldfinches, Hummingbirds and some feisty Tree Swallows and Bluebirds!
Bonus!
This is the park that made me fall in love with prairies… the smell, the huge expanse, the color, the LIFE! This park offers some of the biggest continuous prairie close to Columbus. It’s truly a sight to behold. Get there at sunrise and it will change your life… it did mine!
And what if you want the magic without the drive?
Here’s a beautiful picture book I recommend about it… and I’m writing my own too!
You can ask your kiddos: if you want to bring the party to your yard… plant native plants! You can buy some prairie plants for your yard from one of our nearby native plant nursery partners: Scioto Gardens or Leaves for Wildlife. (Word of caution: don’t buy the wildflower seeds or native plants from big box stores… they’re sometimes not native and potentially harmful to the environment OR are soaked in chemicals that will kill the critters you’re trying to invite!)
The best and easiest option however is (as I wrote in this blog post) to reach out to Peter with Native Landscaping & Consulting, LLC. He’s done wonderful work for multiple BFA families and BFA Clintonville! He installs everything and in a few hours you have yourself a slice of prairie heaven that will keep the birds, bees, and butterflies happy for years to come (and your family too)!
So all of that is very prairie exciting! For more excitement, check out my instagram @jaredthenatureguy and be sure to checkout last month’s blog post too!