>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies... with additional support from the following... CalFlowers... Dollar Tree... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ >> Most people, including myself, could stand to spend a bit more time with nature.

On today's show, we'll do just that, by visiting a nature center... an opossum... create a backyard butterfly nursery... and I'll share a couple of recipes, too.

♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

As we all know, life can move pretty fast.

But at "Life in Bloom," we like to encourage people to stop and smell the flowers, both figuratively and literally.

And sometimes, we need a deeper dive into nature.

Spending time outdoors, with sounds and sights and smells of nature, is restorative.

Many communities have nature centers that provide in-depth opportunities to enjoy, explore, and learn in nature.

♪ However, even your own backyard and its residents can become a neighborhood hub for enjoying nature.

So let's get outside and drink in more of the natural world.

♪ I'm here at Blandford Nature Center, where their mission is to engage and empower through enriching experiences in nature.

I spoke with Julie Batty, in charge of land stewardship, to find out more about the opportunities provided here to enjoy, explore, and learn in nature.

>> Blandford's history is really centered around our founder, Mary Jane Dockeray, who has a great love for nature and education and bringing children out into nature.

She started bringing kids out here before it was a nature center at all to this spot where she used to play in the ravines herself as a child.

And she had noticed that school kids were not getting the kind of outdoor exposure that they used to when she was small.

In 1968, the first visitors center was built here, and that was when Blandford really became a destination and a place with a name.

And since that early time, when it was really pretty small, we've acquired parcel after parcel until now we're 143 acres over here, as well as the Highlands -- former Highlands Golf Course that we've acquired and are restoring, which is another 123 or so acres.

>> So, what does the Nature Center offer?

>> Well, first -- first and foremost, we have the property, we have the grounds.

It's that outdoor experience and the chance to just quietly wander and explore and experience nature.

That's -- That's the first thing.

Our mission has always been about connecting people with nature, and we do that by having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of school kids in every year for field trips.

We -- We usually do camp programs, community programs.

We just, any way that we can to get people out here and experiencing nature.

>> So, let's talk about the green wall and the rain garden and the detention basin and how that works with flowers and the nature aspect.

>> Right.

So, when we built this building, we wanted the building to be something that contributed to the environment.

So, one thing we thought a lot about was water management, stormwater management, because what we didn't want was to increase the amount of impervious surface, so areas where water can't soak in -- concrete, roofs -- and then have that stormwater heading, unfiltered, straight to the Grand River, say.

We wanted to be contributing kind of a water filtration system in a natural sort of way.

And the way you do that is with plants, because if you want to get your water nice and clean, plants are the best way to do it.

And if you're using native plants, then you're doing double duty.

You're not only able to filter and clean some water with the plants, but you are supporting native insect populations, which is how you support your native bird populations and everything else.

It all starts with the plants.

So, that's why we've got native plants everywhere.

Behind me, we do have a green roof, and the idea behind a green roof is, it's gonna catch some of that stormwater as it falls on the roof.

Instead of it going to a gutter and going down a storm drain, those plants are gonna absorb that water, you know, hold it.

They're succulents, so, you know, they really -- they really hold that water.

And, also, green roofs can have an insulating effect, too, for your roof.

And they're really, really pretty and cool.

And we have a detention basin that is collecting some more of the roof water and also all of the water from our parking lot.

It's all being funneled into a detention basin that is planted entirely with native plants.

In the rear of our building, we have a retaining wall, but instead of making it out of cement or bricks or wood, it's made out of bags of sand and soil.

And then, native plants are planted on top and around those bags so that it will eventually be the roots of the native plants, which native plants typically have very, very long and deep roots that are gonna hold that wall in place.

>> Let's talk about the new native gardens project.

>> So, this is very exciting.

When we built this building, we started with the native plant beds, and we love them.

We absolutely love them.

And we are expanding the native gardens to go around the other historic buildings close to the visitors center.

So, we are doing the thing that I'm always telling people to do, which is get rid of lawn and add native plants.

You don't have to get rid of all the lawn, just some of the lawn.

So, they will be going in this fall.

We're doing a fall planting because it's a little easier to get those plants established when you're putting them in when they're already dormant and they won't require as much watering in their first year next year.

>> Julie, this is wonderful.

Blandford Nature Center is a treasure for our city and a treasure for all -- for all humans to come here and be able to find out more about nature.

So thank you so much for sharing it with us today.

I appreciate it.

>> Oh, thank you for coming out.

♪ >> Many nature centers offer lessons on how to tap maple trees for syrup in the early spring.

Today, we'll create a cocktail with fresh maple syrup.

♪ We'll start by squeezing the juice of half a lime into a brandy snifter.

♪ Then add 2 tablespoons of fresh maple syrup.

Stir and combine the juice and syrup together.

♪ Fill the snifter with ice.

♪ Then add 4 ounces of bourbon or rye whiskey.

♪ Top off with dark ale.

♪ ♪ Stir gently and garnish with a lime.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So, Lori, this is Sylvia.

>> Ah, yeah, this is Sylvia -- Sylvia the opossum.

>> One of my favorite animals.

So, I -- I just fell in love with them when I was in high school, and I started to learn more about them and how valuable they are to our ecosystem.

So, tell us a little bit about why possums are so valuable and anything else about Sylvia.

>> So, with opossums, these guys are the only marsupial that we have in Michigan.

So, a marsupial is a mammal that has its babies in a pouch.

They're not born in the pouch, but they're born really early.

Within about two weeks of the mom opossum getting pregnant, the babies are born.

And so, when the babies are born, they're about the size of a bee, about the size of the tip of my pinky.

And they crawl right to the mom's nipples that are in the pouch.

And so they stay there for about 2 1/2 months before they start crawling out.

Opossums are great to help reduce Lyme disease because these guys, like a cat, they like to clean their bodies off, and so they will clean the ticks that are on their bodies, 'cause they're outside in all kinds of stuff, and so they are naturally cleaning all the ticks off of them, and that helps to reduce the ticks that are outside in the environment.

'Cause these guys, opossums, are omnivores.

They eat a little bit of everything.

So, they will eat bugs, like ticks, they'll eat other small animals, they might eat eggs that are in, you know, birds' nests and whatnot.

And they, of course, eat the veggies.

With her, she loves cauliflower and radishes... >> Wow.

>> ...are her two favorite veggies.

And, of course, you saw she likes grapes.

So, typically, opossums, they're not necessarily picking fruit off of your trees, but they will eat the rotten or ripe fruit that falls down.

>> So, what does an animal ambassador do here at Blandford?

>> So, with our animal ambassadors, they help us to educate the public about all the cool wildlife we have here in Michigan.

'Cause with us, we focus on native animals that can be found here in our state, 'cause we found that, you know, a lot of people just don't know or realize there's so many cool animals right here in Michigan.

'Cause, you know, sometimes you just don't notice them around, or all of a sudden, you've never seen one, and all of a sudden, you see an opossum in your backyard or you hear an owl outside, and it's like, "What the heck is that?"

And so, for us, we like educating the public about the animals that are around not only just to know about cool things about the animals, but how we live with them and how they're, you know, a part of our environment and things that we can do to, you know, be good stewards of the wildlife here in Michigan.

Obviously, I know the animals are cool, but that is, for us, kind of that gateway to reach people, 'cause, you know, the environment is important, and nature is important, but sometimes people can be like, "Oh, I don't know if I want to go out where there's mosquitos and poison ivy or learn about dirt or whatever," but then, ooh, there's an animal, and if we show people animals and tie the animals in to the mosquitos and the dirt and the trees, it gets people -- it gives them that way to kind of connect to nature and get interested and then try to, you know, kind of dive in to learning more about the environment, the wildlife around them, the nature around them.

♪ ♪ >> I love to watch the butterflies fly around the flowers in the garden, so, today, we'll make an arrangement that has a butterfly branch of little butterflies that'll fly around our flowers on our table.

We'll start by placing our branches into our soaked flower foam.

That will define where the branches are gonna go, and we can add our flowers in between.

♪ ♪ I'm using a bunch of flowers I picked up at the grocery store.

We'll place our flowers into the arrangement and then come back and add the butterflies.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Two essential things for this flower craft are the Glue Dots and the butterflies I picked up at the craft store.

The butterflies come on a wire, and I've trimmed away the wire.

We use the Glue Dots to adhere the butterfly to the branch.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Dandelions are one of the most vital early-spring nectar sources for a wide host of pollinators.

Dandelion flowers do not need to be pollinated to form seed.

Dandelion is a common meadow herb of the sunflower family.

Dandelion and dandelion greens are edible and highly nutritious.

Whether it's consumed dry or crushed and brewed as a tea, the dandelion root is perhaps the most nutritious part of the plant.

Dandelions can be used in the production of wine and root beer.

Root of dandelion can be used as a substitute for coffee.

There are about a hundred species of dandelion, and all are beneficial.

If you mow dandelions, they'll grow shorter stalks to spite you.

Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist, masters of survival worldwide.

♪ Did you know you can create your own butterfly nursery at home and watch nature reveal itself into beautiful butterflies?

Let's learn how it's done with my friends Zoe, Doc, and Millie.

♪ ♪ Laura, you're so sweet to let us come and see the butterflies.

Our number-one camera guy, our director of photography is your husband.

>> Yep.

>> So we've known these guys -- We have Zoe, we have Doc, we have Millie.

>> Since they were born.

>> Doc and Millie are twins.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> So, yeah.

And so you started this cool project for them.

>> Yes.

>> So, how long have you guys been doing this?

>> This is, I think, year three.

>> You've learned so much about this.

How did -- What started this?

What made you all of a sudden say, "I'm gonna do this"?

>> We just happened to find some, and then, it's a little bit of work, but it feels really good to release the butterflies when they're hatched.

So, it was worth it enough to be like, "Okay.

So maybe we can do more next year."

And it feels good to be hopefully making a little bit of a difference.

>> You live out in the country, and there's a lot of milkweed.

>> Yes.

>> And so monarch butterflies are attracted to the milkweed.

>> Yes.

>> Do you look for the eggs?

Do you look for the little baby caterp-- What do you look for?

>> What we look for is the eggs, and we'll do the little caterpillars so long as they're small enough.

>> Can you tell us a little bit about the process and what you do?

>> Absolutely.

I bring them in as the eggs or the caterpillars.

I try to keep them as separate as possible by age.

This would be eggs and newborns.

These guys are getting a little bit bigger and making their chrysalis there in the corner.

>> They're big caterpillars.

It's a big caterpillar.

>> They get real big.

>> Yeah, they're big.

>> They eat a lot.

>> And you said that they're voracious.

They eat all the time.

>> All the time.

>> Yep.

And you have to keep them separated or they'll eat each other.

>> They might, mm-hmm.

>> Yeah, okay.

Wow.

Interesting.

>> I do want to keep them separate not only to keep them from accidentally eating each other, but also from spreading disease.

>> Okay.

'Cause you monitor that, too.

>> Yes.

These guys went through the whole process already, so these are chrysalis that are hatching.

>> That's fascinating.

>> My favorite part about the butterflies is getting the chrysalis and seeing them turn into a chrysalis.

>> And so the chrysalis is like what we would call a cocoon, right?

>> Yeah.

>> A cocoon is actually an encasement that they make material to surround themselves.

A chrysalis is actually them.

They shed their last skin as a caterpillar, and then, there they are -- they're a chrysalis.

>> So, like, they're the chrysalis all along.

>> It's inside there, but then it's -- so it comes out.

Look at how much you know about this.

I think it's fascinating.

>> It's like they turn inside out.

>> Kind of is like they turn inside out.

>> That's very cool.

So, when they've traveled through all these, then they come out of their chrysalis, and then you let them go.

What happens to the butterfly after you release it?

>> Well, these ones, later in the year, these are our migrators.

So, in this side of the region, they will go to Mexico.

So... >> Mexico?

>> ...these guys might not necessarily make it, but there might be a generation or two that goes between actually getting back to Mexico.

>> Wow.

>> And the same way for coming up.

>> I think that that's fascinating, and I think it's such a great -- Thanks for sharing it with me!

I just love that you guys do this, and I love that you let me come talk to you today.

You're doing a great job, and your mom's so smart for helping us and showing us what we do with it.

So I appreciate that.

That's fun.

Thank you.

>> Did you want to go let some butterflies go?

>> Yeah, let's do that.

>> I think we've got some that might be ready for us.

>> Okay, cool.

♪ ♪ >> It sticks, it sticks.

Sticks, sticks, sticks, sticks.

>> He's getting a feel for the wind.

>> Sticky.

Ooh, ooh!

Goodbye!

>> There we go.

♪ >> One of my favorite summer salads is the fairy mix that's grown at Blandford Nature Center.

This has all different sorts of lettuce, and then it has nasturtium and marigold petals inside.

So let's create our chamomile and lavender dressing.

So, I heated up a cup of water, and then I put in four tea bags of chamomile lavender tea.

We've let that steep and cool off.

That's gonna be our basis for this dressing.

We're gonna use about 1/2 cup.

And then we're gonna add fresh lemon juice.

We use about a half of a fresh lemon.

We'll add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

♪ ♪ Now, we need a teaspoon of honey.

We mix that all together, and we season with salt and pepper.

[ Shaker rattling ] ♪ So, let's give it a try.

♪ ♪ Now we'll garnish it with fresh organic lavender that I grew in the garden.

♪ ♪ Becoming more involved in nature is truly its own reward, whether it's a project in your own backyard or visiting a nature center near you to learn more about the natural world.

I hope you find the result both inspiring and relaxing.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

>> There.

I did it.

[ Laughter ] No hands.

>> ♪ Sticks, sticks, sticks, sticks ♪ ♪ Sticks, sticks, sticks ♪ >> He likes my nose.

>> He does like your nose.

>> It's a good place to hang out.

>> Yeah.

>> I hope he doesn't put any stuff in my mouth.

>> ♪ Sticks, sticks, sticks, sticks ♪ ♪ Sticks ♪ >> I can see you.

>> She's not a ham at all.

>> Not at all.

>> She hates the camera.

>> Right.

[ Laughing ] Here, yeah, can I get a picture with you?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies... with additional support from the following... CalFlowers... Dollar Tree... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪ For everything flowers, recipes, projects, and more information, visit ubloom.com.

♪