Buck Creek Road. Miles of gravel road beauty in Jefferson County, Kansas.  Area cyclists who enjoy riding on gravel know it well.  My co-worker who learned I lived on Buck Creek knew it well enough to know we lived on the curve in the road.  The surgeon who pinned my son’s arm during the pandemic, told me how much he enjoys biking Buck Creek and could picture us at the bottom of the hill.  The pandemic brought out many families on bike rides and area walkers, too.  Many people in the area seem to appreciate the natural beauty along Buck Creek Road.

When my kids were younger, we read a picture book called, Miss Rumphius. As a girl, her grandfather told her, “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” Later in life she was lovingly nicknamed “the Lupine Lady” as she scattered lupine seeds, “along the highways and down the country lanes…around the schoolhouse and back of the church…into hollows and along stone walls,” and soon there were lupines growing everywhere.  I’ve had this idea of being my own Ms. Rumphius and decided 2020 was the year.  We would sow even more beauty along the sides of Buck Creek Road.

I teamed up with Courtney Masterson, an ecologist and owner of Native Lands, and my neighbor, Stu Shafer, facilitator of Johnson County Community College Sustainable Agriculture Program and came up with a plan.  We met up in November to tour the stretch of Buck Creek from 27th Street to 35th Street noting the areas we could be successful introducing native plants.  We talked about a spring beautification day and Courtney came up with a plant list and ordered the seeds. 

In February, we put the word out to the North Village and friends and neighbors gathered to make over 100 seed terrariums.  We cut the tops of milk jugs and similar bottles, filled them with 3 inches of potting soil, planted seeds, labeled them with pencil on popsicle sticks, and taped the tops back on.  They went to various homes in the North Village and were kept outside to cold stratify.  The lids were removed so they could get some rain/snow inside.  We kept an eye on our seed terrariums and on sunny days if we didn’t see any condensation inside, we added more water.  When spring came, the tops were removed, and they continued to grow. 

Meanwhile, Stu was growing seeds in a Johnson County Community College greenhouse until the college was closed due to the pandemic and Patti Ragsdale of Happy Apple’s Farm was growing violets for our project.  Another neighbor donated transplants of a couple native plants.

At the end of May, we gathered for our beautification day.  Many plants (nearly too many plants) showed up in milk carton seed terrariums, others came by the tray…in all we had about 20 different native varieties.  Courtney gave instructions, we divided into three teams, and began working in various areas along Buck Creek Road.  Many of us had been isolating due to covid, so we had a very enjoyable morning visiting and planting.  In the end, we scattered these native plants along Buck Creek Road from 27th to 35th Street. 

It was a wonderful community project.  We hope those who bike, walk and drive down Buck Creek will enjoy it even more in the coming years when our native additions add even more color and beauty to this wonderful stretch of land.  We hope you feel the love and amazing spirit of the North Village as you travel this little piece of heaven right here in Jefferson County, Kansas.