Cherokee Park Neighborhood Association

The Mayor's Coming!!

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has confirmed that he will join us for our sign dedication ceremony on Thursday May 20th at 4 PM. We will gather at the sign location at the corner of Wheeler and Comanche at 4 pm in the field area near the sign. We are inviting several out-of-area people like the mayor and our other elected officials, so please bike or walk to this event if you can so we can leave the parking spaces around that intersection free for our guests. We'll take a group picture and hope to have a nice event planned if weather permits. To volunteer to help with this event, contact Ken Wilke or Bill Lorge.

Easter Egg Hunt and Social

The annual Easter egg hunt and social will be April 10th at 10:00 am in the park. We're hoping the Easter bunny will be able to join us. There will be Easter egg hunt and refreshments served. Egg hunters should bring a basket for their goodies.

Spring Park Clean-up

Our neighborhood spring park clean up will be held on Saturday, April 17th in conjunction with the citywide park clean up. We will meet at 1 p.m. near the basketball court at the intersection of Mosinee and Burning Wood Way. Please consider giving a half hour or an hour of your time to help clean up our park. Garbage bags will be provided. We have a beautiful park that needs a real good clean up this spring!

Nibble and Mingle

The annual Nibble and Mingle will be on Saturday May 1st. More information will be provided closer to the event but mark your calendars now.

Garage Sale

The annual neighborhood garage sale will be on Friday and Saturday, May 14th and 15th. Start cleaning out your basements! More information will be provided closer to the date.

Block Captains

Our neighborhood has the best network of Block Captains in the city. A big thank you goes out to all our block captains and our Coordinators Lisa Schwendemann and Barb Kyle. They deliver our newsletters and other important notices, they are the eyes and ears for our Welcome Committee, and they keep our association viable. They could always use some extra help, so, if you would like to volunteer to be a local Block Captain, please contact Lisa Schwendemann.

Crossing Guard Safety Tip

Jackie, the School Crossing Guard at Wheeler Rd. and Comanche Way, wants to remind Cherokee residents to use our blinkers as early as possible when turning by the crosswalk and she also reminds us to have our lights on for safety. Remember, these are our kids she is looking out for, so let's do all we can to help her.

Needlework/Sewing Club

I am interested in starting a "needlework/sewing" club to include cross stitching, needlepoint, quilting, embroidery etc. Perhaps we can rotate houses and exchange ideas, patterns, and conversation. Contact Jo if you're interested.

Spring Is Just Around the Corner

Now that we have had our taste of spring with those 50 degree days to tease us, it is easy to get impatient and want to get out into our yards for cleanup. Don't remove the winter protection from your plants until you are sure that the last chance of freezing is past. In Madison, we still have a 50% chance of frost or freezing until May 12. Now isn't that depressing? Most likely, we will be safe after May 2. The exception is for any mulch you may have applied to spring flowering bulb beds. This can be removed around the third week in March. March is also the leanest month for wildlife, so protect your shrubs and plants with wire cages or some type of animal repellant. Bonnie Carlson has had great success with milorganite but is concerned that its usage may be banned in Dane county because it contains phosphorous.

So what can you be doing now while you impatiently wait for spring? You can attend garden lectures at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Classes or lectures are available for a nominal fee and cover everything from garden design and plant selection to pruning trees and shrubs. You can browse through gardening books and nursery catalogs to get ideas. Now is the time to prune dormant trees and summer flowering shrubs (those that bloom after the end of June). Don't prune your spring flowering shrubs or you will sacrifice blooms. As tempting as it is, don't go tromping around in your flowerbeds, trimming off all the dead foliage left over from last summer or fall. If you walk on the wet soil, you will compact it into cement and lose all the air pockets plants need to spread out their root systems.

At Home with Nature

Over the years that I've lived here, I've become accustomed to a minor invasion of ladybug beetles in the fall. Usually, just a few penetrate to the inside of the house and after a few weeks they pretty much disappear altogether. Last year, though, they were joined for the first time by a much more annoying presence – boxelder bugs.

They first appeared in late fall on the exterior of the house. They were especially evident on my south-facing metal garage door, where they congregated in great numbers. Since then, they have shown up indoors on nearly a daily basis. Will I ever be rid of this scourge? Apparently so, if I can wait just a bit longer. The boxelder bug is a flying insect, slate gray in color with red lines on its thorax and along the edges of its wings. As its name suggests, it dines primarily on box elder trees.

In the spring, boxelder bugs mate and lay their eggs near female trees. The hatchlings suck juices out of the tree's leaves and seeds. In mid-summer, they mature and lay a second crop of eggs. A hot, dry summer like we had last year favors a bumper crop of boxelders.

It is the second crop of last year's bugs that we are living with today. As the days grow cool in the fall, they gather in warm places to seek shelter in which to overwinter. They have a special affinity for the south and southwest sides of homes. They will locate cracks and crevices that lead them into attics and wall spaces.

On sunny winter days, the sun may warm these cavities enough to activate the bugs, which may then be drawn into the warmth of the house. Indoors, an individual bug will live for only a few days, and it will not eat anything or reproduce. They may be removed by capturing or vacuuming. It is best not to crush them, as they will emit a foul odor and cause a purple or red stain.

Once spring arrives, the bugs will vacate their winter homes and return to their host trees to begin next year's crop. If you have article suggestions, please contact me.