The winter workout

Why people pay good money to belong to a gym is a mystery to me. Parenting provides all the aerobic exercise I can handle. Take my recent snowy "vacation" morning:

8 a.m.: Chase dog down main street after youngest child leaves the gate unlatched (again).

8:45 a.m.: Struggle through Olympic effort to clothe children in snowsuits, mittens, hats, scarves, coats, and boots.

9:15 a.m.: Walk to sledding hill, pulling sled and pushing stroller (everyone on the block knows I'm Nature Girl—can't be seen increasing carbon footprint by driving 3/4 mile).

10:45 a.m.: Hurtle downhill into marsh on purple sled with toddler. Climb up big hill. Repeat 100 times.

11:30 a.m.: Walk home, uphill all the way, pushing stroller and pulling sled with frostbitten kindergartner on board. Distance seems to have doubled.

Noon: Collapse in sodden heap by door, covering ears to the plaintive cry of "What's for lunch?"

See what I mean about aerobic exercise? And thanks to winter's chilly temperatures, outdoor play means calories are burned at breakneck speed. No gym membership required. There are so many fun ways to explore nature in winter. You and your child can draw snowy pictures with a stick, look for birds' nests among bare branches, search for animal tracks in slushy mud, or use a camera to capture icicles and cool winter light. Running will keep little ones warm, and huddling near a thicket will demonstrate how animals shelter from the cold.

Even if braving cold weather is not your style, it's still possible to engage your children in wintry play. A bowl of ice cubes provides much entertainment and a science lesson: Why is the ice getting wet? Can you see through ice? Does ice have a smell? A taste? What color is ice? Freezing chunks of fruit in ice cubes provides insight into what it's like for animals to find food in winter. Frozen berries are more difficult to smell than fresh, have less taste, and are difficult to eat. This is one reason squirrels bury nuts in the fall: buried nuts taste better than ice-glazed nuts.

Need a discliplined approach to getting outside? Sign up your preschooler or homeschooler for a winter nature class at the Arboretum. Programs begin the first week of February. Click here for more information and to register. Fresh air and exercise are guaranteed, with nary a sweaty rowing machine in sight.

By Jenny Houghton

Youth Program Coordinator

Bringing nature home

A growing number of people believe that we should only be planting and using native species in our gardens. All non-native plants should be considered aliens and are to be avoided. Follow that premise, and you will build a much better viewing garden and a habitat for wildlife.

I recently had the opportunity to read a book by Douglas Tallamy titled Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (updated and expanded). I found a chapter called "Making It Happen" particularly interesting. In this chapter, Tallamy explains how it takes a paradigm shift to go from today's garden to one filled with natives.

So, what will it cost, you might ask. Well, it doesn't mean that you have to adopt a slash-and-burn policy toward your beautiful garden filled with aliens. You can follow the rules of attrition. As aliens die, you should replace them with natives that come closest to what you want, considering habit, size, texture, and fall and flower color. Or you can redesign small patches at a time. Even better would be to create brand new plantings. We all know how to create a three-dimension garden by planting tall plants in the back, short in the front, etc. But remember that you are building to create habitat, not only a pretty garden. One of the things you will need is mulch. The perfect mulch is leaf litter. It not only acts as a sponge, preventing runoff, but it slowly releases moisture to a garden. It's free fertilizer, free weed control, and free soil amendments. Many wildflowers, such as trout lily and pink and yellow lady slipper, will only grow in soil with lots of humus, making leaf litter a perfect addition to soil where you want them to grow.

Garden design can also help to fight global warming. Hacking away at forest to plant large lawns is a poor way to reduce carbon dioxide. Trees are carbon sinks, using carbon from the atmosphere to build their tissue, and they keep that carbon locked up until they die. Then add the costs of mowing, and the benefit of rethinking the lawn mentality becomes even more obvious.

Choose trees wisely. It is best to plant species that grow in your area. Some native trees are hard to transplant but are easy to grow from seed. Use plant diversity-creating vertical structures, such as trees, shrubs, and understory plants. It's a good way to start. Then supply as many natives as you can, such as viburnums, red and black chokeberries, and native azaleas.

There's no getting around the fact that removing invasive species is hard, hands-on work. Often natives will grow up where you remove non-natives. Since squirrels and blue jays like to bury seeds, sometimes all you have to do is clear a patch of bare soil where you want native species such as beech, oak, and hickory to germinate. Of course, you will have to weed out the invasives as they appear. Mulching will minimize germination by alien species. At home, we have decided to allow a section of about a half acre of lawn to go unmown and return to meadow. A recent visitor to the Arboretum told me that she did this and had several very desirable trees grow. I can't wait to see what grows in that area at my house.

As a new garden season approaches, do you find yourself unsure of what you should plant? In Appendix One, you will find suggestions for native landscaping plants by region. Our region starts on page 294. I found this to be a very informative book and a great resource for anyone who is planning a garden or is just interested in native species. Several copies are available for purchase in the Arboretum's Sweet Bay gift shop. Come on out for a walk and pick up your copy!

by Diana Beall

Administrative Assistant

Coping with cold

Groundhogs are true hibernators, surviving cold winter months by reducing their heartbeat and respiration in a deep sleep. When animals hibernate, their bodies' fat is used up much more slowly. True hibernators include chipmunks, some bats, some ground squirrels, and frogs.

Contrary to popular belief, bears are not true hibernators. Instead, their bodies undergo torpor. In torpor, animals breathe a little more slowly and lower their body temperature by a few degrees. They sleep a lot but still wake on warmer days to forage. Skunks and raccoons are examples of animals that use torpor as a way to deal with cold temperatures.

Want to know more about how animals cope with the cold? Join educator Jenny Houghton for an afternoon of winter fun on Sunday, January 20. Click here to learn more!