Park maintenance is never dull. One day our staff may be repairing a broken toilet and the next we’re laying sod at the dog park. Then there are days when Mother Nature decides what we will be doing. This was definitely the case this spring. Everyone expects a little bit of rain in the spring, […]

When you hear a barred owl calling “whooo, who cooks for you?” in the woods, chances are it’s calling from a nest cavity in the limb of a dying tree. When you see the bright red head of a woodpecker as it streaks through the forest, chances are it’s flying from the home it excavated […]

Tom Jones once sang, “Love is in the air everywhere I look around. Love is in the air every sight and every sound.” I’m convinced he was thinking of springtime and all the animals. Everywhere you look in nature, from the smallest of insects to the largest of mammals, there are babies. We’ve all been […]

While visiting the Tech Centre at Glenwood Gardens the other day, something shimmering in the sunshine caught my eye outside the lunch room window. Flying insects were swarming thickly above the boxwood shrubs in the landscape bed next to the building. Upon closer inspection, I saw a spider web thickly covered with insects, which I […]

On the corner of Riddle Road and Springfield Pike, a sliver of Glenwood Gardens is nestled in among the neighbors of the City of Woodlawn. With the Mill Creek winding through it, it has the potential to host a variety of wildlife and wildflowers in the midst of a quick-moving urban environment. Throughout the years, […]

The first Great Parks Bass Series tournament of 2017 was held at Miami Whitewater Forest on Saturday, April 22. There were 68 anglers with game plans and gear ready who showed up with hopes of kicking their season off with a win, but the weather did not cooperate. A cold north wind kept temperatures in […]

Recently I had the opportunity to walk The Vineyard Golf Course with Great Parks’ landscape manager Jerry Frankenhoff and Woodland Mound’s assistant park manager Jason Rahe. Jerry made our mission clear before we even stepped foot on the first hole: we were to assess each one of the treated ash trees on the course – […]

It is that time of year once again. With warmer temperatures come the beautiful blooms of our region’s spring wildflowers. Whether you are in your favorite park, nature preserve or even your own backyard, there are blooms to discover all around us. Great Parks is fortunate to have healthy populations of native wildflowers in many […]