GEAUGA COUNTY
Rain garden. Gail Prunty, Geauga Soil and Water, will hold a rain garden and rain barrel workshop Oct. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at The West Woods. To register, call 440-834-4656.
RICHLAND COUNTY
Milkweed collection. Richland Soil and Water Conservation District is partnering again with the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative to collect common milkweed seed pods to help foster habitats for Monarch butterflies.
Milkweed seed pods are starting to mature to the point where they can be harvested. If pods appear slightly gray and are dried out, they are ready to pick. The seeds inside should be brown before harvesting.
If you wish to help with this project, drop off collected milkweed seed pods until Nov. 7 in the green and yellow container outside the Richland SWCD office at 1495 W. Longview Ave. in Mansfield.
Place collected pods in paper bags or paper grocery sacks. Plastic bags collect unwanted moisture. On the bag, write the date you collected the pods and the county you collected them from. Keep the pods in a cool, dry area until you can deliver them. Only collect from your property or property you have been given permission to go on.
During the winter, seeds from this year’s milkweed seed pod collection will be removed from the pods and returned to Richland SWCD in the spring to be distributed for planting. Richland SWCD gave away over 100 milkweed seed packets with planting instructions this year.
For more information about collecting milkweed seed pods or other Richland SWCD programs, call 419-747-8686 or visit https://richlandswcd.net/.
(To add a nonprofit event to our gardening listing, send details at least three weeks in advance to: Gardening News, Farm and Dairy, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or email: editorial@farmanddairy.com.)
