2022
Due to COVID-19 many programs are in limbo until times are safe. I will present several ZOOM programs in 2022. Details follow.
Check back often. Program requests come in throughout the year. We continue to add them here.
February 2022
February 17 (Thursday) — 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. THE UNFOLDING OF A WILDLIFE GARDEN: ONE YEAR IN THE SUTTON GARDEN, presented by Pat Sutton for CU Maurice River at their CU Social
WHERE: Zoom
All CU Socials are free for CU Maurice River Members and $25.00 per non-member. Click HERE to join as a member (annual cost of membership: $20 – individual / and $30 – family) and register for this program. Call (856) 300-5331 for more information.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Please let CU Maurice River know you plan on attending by signing up HERE
BE PREPARED
Please have your favorite device handy with a solid internet connection in order to participate. Registration is required so that CU Maurice River can get you the Zoom meeting link, which will be sent out the day before the presentation.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Join Pat Sutton for this virtual presentation (on Zoom) for CU Maurice River at their CU Social. Filming covers all of 2021, capturing the unfolding of four seasons in Pat Sutton’s 44-year-old wildlife garden. It showcases her favorite visitors while also demonstrating how (and why) she maintains her wildlife habitat in many, many maybe-new-to-you wildlife-friendly ways. Learn firsthand the many reasons why Pat is a “hands off” gardener after the hard work of spring clean up and readying the garden. This approach leaves a great deal more time for study and learning, rather than fussing, fussing, fussing with deadheading, removing spent stems, moving plants, etc. Pat hopes her presentation will convert attendees to her wildlife-friendly garden methods as she showcases discoveries she made that would not have survived in more heavily tended gardens.
Through an unsettling and uncertain time, the Sutton’s wildlife garden soothed the soul, entertained, and educated. In this wildlife habitat so much happens right before your eyes, with layer upon layer of nature unfolding. Migrant and nesting birds find countless caterpillars and other juicy treats, as well as plentiful fruits and seed heads. Varied and beautiful pollinators benefit from native perennials, trees, shrubs, and vines that offer a cascade of blooms from early spring until blooming shuts down with late fall’s first frost.
Busy water features draw in wintering birds to heated bird baths, and migrants and nesting birds to a whole array of warm-season water features, from misters to fountains to bird baths.
A din of calling Green Frogs on many summer nights led to their egg masses being discovered the next day. The transition of “Cover” provided in this wildlife garden will be showcased, from brush piles in late fall through winter, to robust stands of perennials, trees, shrubs, and vines, including a number of native evergreens. Pat will also include how she is addressing “Privacy LOST” after a neighbor took down lots of vegetation.
Life cycles occur on a daily basis. Each year Monarchs can be found in this garden daily from mid-June on, mating and laying eggs, helping to swell the summer population so that by fall the migratory population is robust and substantial. This year Pat witnessed and filmed a Monarch caterpillar in its “J” position metamorphosing into its chrysalis, and several Monarchs emerging from their chrysalises in her garden. Will these magical moments be shared in the presentation? You bet! These mesmerizing moments will help to tell the story that wildlife gardens like Pat’s (and hopefully like yours) contributed directly to a heartening and hopeful migration of Monarchs through the Cape May Peninsula in Fall 2021. A wonderful 25,000-30,000 Monarchs were counted on October 1, 2021, lifting off from overnight roosts in the Cape May Point dunes to continue their migration. As I write this on October 21st, another push of migrating Monarchs has gathered at lands end and will lift off and continue their migration when winds are favorable.
I hope you can join me for this Zoom presentation which will definitely convey the joy of wildlife gardening and lots and lots of “how to” information!