Our Bedrock
Mission Statement: Gardens and programs that inspire, educate and enrich our lives and our community.
Purpose Statement: To educate and encourage citizens on the importance of developing, restoring, maintaining and conserving wildlife habitat and the native plants that comprise that habitat.
Welcome members–those who have renewed and those newly joined! Thank you! Memberships help support our organization and our gardens!
Note: We can now accept memberships and renewals online with this link: Membership/Renewals.
However, to help us cover our processing costs for the convenience of using online payments, it is necessary to include those costs in our online membership fees. Amounts remain the same as before for checks/cash.
Separate donations can also be transacted online! Donations/Memorials.
April-No Class
No class in April due to the Bare Root Trees, Shrubs & Perennial Sale. Class will resume in May–stay tuned….
March Class-Recap
Attracting Birds and Watershed Health, conducted by Antonya Pickard, Backyard Habitat Certification Program was very comprehensive and informative. We had so many great questions that class went overtime!
March Zoom Class-Recap
We had an additional Zoom presentation hosted by The Camas Library, Friday, March 31st in conjunction with Clark Conservation District called Hosting Mason Bees in your Backyard in Spring. It was conducted by Anne Bulger, Master Gardener Intern and was well attended. It emphasized the spring activities of the bees and how to host them more effectively. Anne generously donated a bee shelter to be awarded to a lucky winner.
Saturday Morning Work Parties
Saturday morning work parties are ongoing and last through October. For those who would like to volunteer at the gardens, each Saturday morning (from 9:00am to noon) volunteers are guided by one of our garden coordinators to work in the gardens. Non-Saturday dates will also be available as determined. We have a sign-up system using SignUpGenius. Additional sign up dates will be routinely added. To sign up to work on listed days, here is the link: SignUpGenius
Student Garden Coordinator Program
Success! The Student Garden Coordinator Program, a partnership of CASEE and NatureScaping, took place on four consecutive Saturdays in March. The program was led by Erin Harwood with support from Master Gardeners/ NatureScaping volunteers and Margaret, the facilitator at CASEE. A good turnout of 18 students and approx. 6 regular volunteers (thank you volunteers!) took part in classroom instruction and worked on assigned projects then completed work in the gardens.
Topics included seeds, pollinators & Beneficial Insects, plant propagation methods and garden design. Projects included making seed paper (see below), constructing bug hotels, starting seeds and garden design proposals.When polled, the students indicated some of their favorite things about participating in the program were working outside, gaining hands-on experience and working with friends.
Bonus! Want to make your own seed paper as demonstrated in the program? Here are instructions and a link to the video shown during the class:
Bare Root Trees, Shrubs and Perennial Sale
If you have not already heard, our annual Bare Root Trees, Shrubs & Perennial sale at the Wildlife Botanical Gardens located at 11000 NE 149th Street, Brush Prairie will be on Saturday, April 29th from 9am-4:00pm. We will be picking up plant materials next week and heeling them into trenches already dug. Once inventory is taken, plant lists will be made available.
Shopping
Members, (up-to-date with their dues and new members) will have early and exclusive access to the sale starting at 9:00am until noon on Saturday, it will be open to the public thereafter until 4:00pm. We will be using SignUpGenius to schedule people in hour increments all day Saturday. Each signup slot on Saturday will allow the attendee up to 4 additional people as needed. I will send an email to members with the link to the sign up later this week.
NatureScaping is offering bare root trees for $15, bare root shrubs for $7, espalier fruit trees (if applicable) for $20 and potted perennials starting at $1 up to $6. Potted/bagged & burlapped and special items will be priced as marked. There will also be Mason Bee cocoons and supplies as well as photo cards for sale. This fundraiser will be held in collaboration with students from the adjacent CASEE Center who will be selling native landscaping plants from their greenhouseCASEE. We will again have a raffle basket containing a variety of items. NatureScaping and CASEE will be accepting credit cards (MC/VISA), cash, and checks.
New this year! Garden Delights Herb Farm will have a space set up in the gravel area between the greenhouses & the checkout station. They will have a wide variety of herb plants and herb seeds all grown on their small farm in Brush Prairie. Joining them will be their youngest family member. He is raising money for his end of the year school trip. He has grown garden veggie starts, baked pet treats and handcrafted reusable tote bags. Please stop by and see both these local growers & creators!
Also new! Clark County Beekeepers Association will conduct a swap meet, stationed in the CASEE east parking area. Beekeepers will be there with information about keeping bees and to answer Beekeeping questions. Also available will be Beekeeping equipment, Beeswax Candles, possibly some honey, garden and beekeeping books and Pollinator seeds.
Volunteer Opportunity
We still need volunteers, especially those highlighted in red below. Volunteers working a 4 hour shift will receive a complimentary bare root tree, shrub (only those varieties with quantities of 10 or more) or perennial. Volunteers with pre-sale hours, may pick up their complimentary plant item the day before the sale on Friday April 28th from 3-7pm. For those volunteers scheduled to work Saturday, with the pledge of fulfilling your Saturday duty, you may also pick up your complimentary plant item during that time. Please note: We will no longer be allowing shopping during your volunteer time.
Volunteers for pre-sale work during the weekday:
Heeler: Place and cover or “heel” the bare root trees into the sale area
Labeler-placer: Writing labels-placing finished labels on plants
Here is a very brief listing/description of some of the various jobs we will need to fill on sale days. As you can infer, some jobs are more physical than others.
Field Helper: Help with selections and help pull trees for purchase
Holding area: “Check in” and hold plant loads while people continue to shop
Bagger: Dip bare root trees in water, place into bags.
Checker: Write up sales slips for cashiers.
Cashier: Do the math (calculators furnished) and take in checks or cash (no coin change transactions).
Please help us make this a success! To volunteer or if you have any questions please contact Kelli Marine at: volunteers@naturescaping.org
Art in the Garden
We are getting a good response from artists to whom invitations were sent for our event this year on Sunday July 9th from 10am-4pm. Artists will be displaying and selling their creations at locations strategically set among the gardens. Some past favorites and some newcomers will be there– more information to come.
Garden Tidings
Brigg Franklin, our Bee Herder, released some of our many Mason Bee Cocoons into our gardens. Once the time is right, they will emerge and hopefully “do their thing”. Not to worry, we will still have plenty of Mason Bee cocoons for our plant sale.
We want to thank The Backyard Bird Shop for their generous donation of 20 lbs of Black Oil Seed for our feeders in the NW Bird Haven Garden.
We welcome our newest Collectors Garden Coordinator.
Signs of Spring: Family having a picnic on one of the first nice days in March. Hellebore display in the Entrance Garden.
Sharing…..
For anyone interested….
Booklet
With funding from a Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) grant and with many volunteer hours from committee members (you know who you are) a longtime dream has been fulfilled.
We have created a free 52-page booklet as an educational tool that includes dozens of high-quality photos, descriptions and other information regarding native plants found at The Wildlife Botanical Gardens and reasons to incorporate them in your landscape. Here is the link to finding it on our website:
https://naturescaping.org/resources/free-booklet/
Comments from Business Google
From Peter a 5 star review and comment:
“Beautiful, very peaceful place. Nice little trail in the woods.”
Nature Related Quote of the Month
And the famous quote….
From Thomas Tusser: “Sweet April showers do spring May flowers”.
Think Spring and enjoy!