It’s often tempting to breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the year and eagerly turn to a new year. Yet being hopeful about the future involves, at least in part, remembering. When we remember our experiences of the good, the beautiful, the tenacity of resilience, and the empowerment of relationships, then we gain an accrued confidence to face the new year. We have many, many memories from this year that offer hope and joy. Thank you for being part of those memories!
We are looking at the calendar to decide the 2025 public open garden date. We are also considering hosting an open garden in the spring and in the fall to let people see experience Catchfly Commons in seasons other than summer. Watch for announcements about these dates!
Happy New Year and may 2025 be full of blessings to you, loved ones, and creation!
Here are some highlights of 2024…
Drought
The midsummer to fall drought was tough on the landscape. We chose to water native beds 2-3 times to help natives sensitive to moisture levels and to help drought tolerant natives with their eco-services. The turf grass survived reasonably well without watering due to not mowing and many years of adding organic material (chicken manure) to the soil… thanks Elfner Organic Lawncare! We think most things survived, but we won’t really know until next year. Terri made some videos the second half of September to document the impact of the drought. Since it was made in September, some things were naturally waning.
Some of the harder hit plants were under trees. Here is the woodland bed under the red oak:
Here are our prairie beds:
Goldenrods and asters showed up for the pollinators. Here are our “middle earth” beds:
Experiences
So often being in the backyard stirs an awareness of just being awash in a sea of life… seen, hidden, and tiny.
We had a nice crop of persimmons and our first pawpaws!
I continued to do moth sheets and blacklight hunts for caterpillars with our adult daughter.
An addition to our nighttime fun was looking for fireflies and photographing their light show!
Of course, spending time in the garden with our grandson just magnifies our joy! We love that he enjoys adventuring into the beauty and diverse life in our landscape.
Observations
Here are our overall observation stats since 2019 based on iNaturalist identifications:
- Lepidoptera
- Adult – 90 species (32 butterflies and 58 moths)
- Caterpillars – 33 species (5 butterflies and 28 moths)
- Total unique Lepidoptera (adult or caterpillar) – 114 species
- Dragon and Damselflies – 12 species
- Bees – 20 species
- Wasps/Hornets – 14 species
- Flies – 21 species
Out and About
In February we were part of the inaugural North Central Ohio Pollinator Pathway (NCOPP) conference at Stratford Ecological Center. We had a display table about Catchfly Commons and gave round robin mini presentations about gardening with native plants. There was a lot of good energy and it was a great networking experience. It is exciting to see how NCOPP has blossomed over the year!
Terri did a presentation in March to Shawnee Hills Blooms on Gardening for Pollinators. In August, Terri and I gave a presentation at Cedar Bog Nature Preserve (Urbana, OH) on coneflowers, asters and goldenrods. Later in November we repeated this presentation for the Columbus Natural History Society. Terri was also busy on the leadership team for a statewide Master Gardener specialization course on Ohio trees. She is chairing the planning committee for a specialization in native plants which will be offered in 2026.
Open Garden
Over 175 people attended our open garden on Saturday July 13th. This was also the public July event for the Columbus chapter of Wild Ones. We are very thankful for the help of several Delaware County Master Gardeners Volunteers who assisted with hosting and parking. Several small groups and individuals visited for informal garden tours in the following weeks. Contact us at catchflycommons@gmail.com if you want to arrange a visit!
Behind the Scenes
We did a few improvement projects. First, early in the year we replaced the dilapidated wood fence and deer barrier around the backyard. Second, we used the rail boards from the old fence to create a screening wall and storage lean-to around our compost/working corner. Third, we installed an outdoor microphone with indoor speakers so we can enjoy the sounds of nature while the windows are closed. I will do a blog post on how we did this.
Also, the Native Plant Propagation Committee of Delaware County Master Gardener Association gleaned plants from nursery beds and the landscape for their annual plant sale.
Catchflycommons.org
The Catchfly Commons website continues to be serving us and others well! This year’s posts included:
- Winter sowing
- Witch-hazel
- Phenology
- Winter emergence
- Spring wildflowers
- Invasives
- Vines
- Host plants for caterpillars
- Fireflies
- Lepidoptera and non-nectar needs
- Big moths (Saturniids)
- Mothing finds
- Carpenter vs. bumble bees
- Gathering thankfulness
In 2024 the website had 2,100 visitors, 9,600 views, and 73 subscribers. Last year we were doing weekly blog posts, then we went to two per month. More recently our posting has been somewhat sporadic as some other responsibilities caught up with us. We hope to find a consistent rhythm for posting in the coming year… thanks for your patience. We have been using our Facebook page a bit more for posts smaller than a blog entry.
Photos by Randy Litchfield unless otherwise noted
© Randy Litchfield, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Catchfly Commons 