After our evening tour of Beechwood Farms, President Nancy Madeoy began our short meeting asking us what native plants we saw as we walked the grounds. Members answered with many choices such as Ironweed, Beebalm, Goldenrod, Common Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, Black Eyed Susan, and Evening Primrose.
The LAGC 75th Anniversary Celebration will be held on October 28th. Members need to sign up to attend the event which is being held at Northmont Church. The cost for members to attend is $22, which will cover some of the food costs and paper supplies. A signup sheet was circulated to sign up to help clean up or bring an appetizer or dessert. Please contact Claudia if you want to sign up or have questions. The dress theme is the 1950’s. You are encouraged to wear your pearls and gloves.
Dues for 2026 remain at $15. Linda Brown will collect dues as cash or check in September and October. You can also mail your check to her.
We had a discussion about the opportunity to collaborate with Ingomar Garden Club and the McCandless Northern Allegheny Heritage and Cultural Center to have a garden tour in McCandless. Members received an e-mail and were asked to vote on whether they would commit to volunteering to work on this project. Claudia said that votes are trending towards “No” that members do not want to participate in this project. Claudia will send an e-mail with a final vote.
All 9 members that entered the raffle to win a ticket to attend the Shining Star Gala 2025 at the Camelot Event Center on Saturday November 1st where LAGC will receive the Shining Star received a ticket. There is one free ticket remaining. Claudia will send an e-mail to ask if any of the members want to attend.
Marlow spoke about the November 15th LAGC Holiday Tour and Luncheon. The tour at Phipps Conservatory will start at 10:30 a.m. The luncheon will be held at Monte Cello’s restaurant on Babcock Blvd and will begin about 1:00pm. Each member will choose their meal off the menu and will pay by separate checks. Marlow is collecting RSVP’s. Please make sure to let him know if you have a membership to Phipps Conservatory.
Program – Tour of Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve with Roxanne Swann
LAGC members and several guests enjoyed a cool August evening touring the grounds of Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve in Fox Chapel. Our guide this evening was Roxanne Swann, the Coordinator of the Audubon Center for Native Plants. Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve is a 134 acre protected area for wildlife in Fox Chapel and has served as the headquarters of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania since 1977. The nature reserve comprises woodlands, fields, streams and a pond. Our speaker encouraged us to take advantage of the more than 5 miles of walking trails which are open daily from dawn to dusk year round. The facilities at Beechwood Farms include classrooms, a natural history library, the Audubon Nature Store and the Evans Nature Center Auditorium.
We began our tour in the front of Beechwood Farms where the store and meeting building are located near a large shrub called Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin). Roxanne explained that this deciduous shrub is known for its spicy fragrant leaves, yellow flowers in the spring and bright red berries in the fall. It grows 6 to 15 feet tall and wide; requires filtered light, thrives in moist soil and is deer-resistant. It’s the host plant for butterfly and moth larvae, such as Spicebush Swallowtail and the berries are a good food source for the birds.
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| Roxanne Swann collects tiny seeds. |
The next area of interest is the rain garden which was built to take advantage of the water which runs off the roof of the building. Instead of saving the water in a rain barrel, a drainpipe was installed to move the water directly into a depression in the ground. Monarda, Coreopsis, Ironweed and Joe Pye weed thrive in the moist soil.
We moved on to take a look at the small nursery where the Audubon Society sells the native plants that they grow from seed which is collected on site at Beechwood Farms and one of the other Audubon sites, Succop Nature Reserve. The facility was closed this evening, so we weren’t able to purchase any plants. Around the side of the building is a garden filled with about 20 lavender plants and small fountains.
We walked behind the building to see a large meadow which features many types of goldenrod, iron weed, jewel weed, Service Berry and many native trees. Roxanne said that the goldenrod draws in many goldfinches and cedar waxwings. The goldenrod flowers are some of the last to bloom and they have seeds very late into the season which are a good food source for birds.
The meadow area also has many common milkweed plants. One member posed the question about how the plants multiply. Roxanne explained that common milkweed is reproduced by underground runners. She also cautioned us not to plant tropical milkweed because this plant blooms longer in the season which encourages monarchs to stay in Pennsylvania at the time that they should be moving on for their winter home.
We strolled the working area of the nature reserve where Roxanne and her staff plant seeds to propagate
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| A few of LAGC members shown touring the outside seedling area. |
native plants to sell, plant in the nature reserves or give to other garden programs. Volunteers are a big help with this project along with other maintenance of the gardens.
Our last stop on the tour was the education building. Roxanne explained that the building was built in the 1980’s using green building techniques that weren’t yet popularized. There’s lots of natural light and the walls are insulated with straw which regulates the temperature so that it is neither too hot nor too cold to work in the space. The refrigerator in this building contains their seed bank and holds the seeds of 150 different species of plants. The seeds are dried carefully after being collected. They are put in plastic containers and kept in the refrigerator at 35 to 40 degrees.
