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 new members–we hope to see you at our monthly classes and upcoming events (plant sale?).
And to those who have renewed–thank you so much! Memberships help support our organization and our gardens! Renewal notices (for the most part) are sent out via USPS during the month in which it is due.
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!
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
Amy Campion’s class entitled, Northwest Native Garden Plants and the Amazing Insects They Attract proved to be quite popular and received many appreciative comments.
There was a lot of amazing photography and some great information.
Saturday Morning Work Parties
Get your hands dirty and volunteer at the gardens! Our Saturday morning work parties (SMWP) are well underway and will last through October. Each Saturday morning (from 9:00am to noon) volunteers are guided by one of our garden coordinators to work on needed tasks/projects in the various gardens. Non-Saturday dates and other opportunities may also be available at times. 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 Gardener Coordinator Program
The spring session of this program which engaged CASEE students with adult mentors took place on four Saturdays in March and is now concluded. There were 16 dedicated CASEE students consisting of mostly Freshman and Sophomores with a few Juniors. The sessions were structured with classroom presentations including fun activities (scavenger hunt, creating stepping stones and painting rocks among others) and outdoor time working in the gardens. Some of the topics covered were: native plants (leaf and flower morphology), dichotomous key, noxious weeds, composting and food waste (that last session with the help of Pete Dubois). There was a “graduation” party at the last session and certificates were given to the students who finished the program.
There will be a fall session later in the year–more information to come.
Bare Root Trees, Shrubs and Perennial Sale
Things are progressing for our annual Bare Root Trees, Shrubs & Perennial sale this year at the Wildlife Botanical Gardens located at 11000 NE 149th Street, Brush Prairie on Saturday, April 27th from 9am-4:00pm and Sunday April 28th from 10am to 3pm.
Shopping
(As per a separate email sent to members earlier)…
Members, (up-to-date with their dues and new members–others will be delisted and have another opportunity for an available slot once current or joined) 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 (here is the link Plant Sale SignUp) to schedule people in hour increments during the morning hours. Each signup slot on Saturday will allow the attendee up to 4 additional people as needed.
Please note: It is important for the count, that when signing up you only list yourself and when filling in the quantity box please list only 1 even if you are bringing people with you–you can indicate that elsewhere.
Sunday will be open to the public all day with no signups.
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. Potted/bagged & burlapped and special items will be priced as marked. There will also be Mason Bee cocoons and supplies for sale as well as photo cards (by Terry Covington) with beautiful photography for purchase. This year again, Garden Delights will have an array of their herbs and more, for sale. Test your luck at winning a raffle “basket” containing a variety of items. NatureScaping will be accepting credit cards (MC/VISA), cash, and checks.
This fundraiser will be held in collaboration with students from the adjacent CASEE Center who will be selling native landscaping plants from their greenhouse. They will be accepting credit, cash and checks.
Volunteer Opportunity
Our success depends upon our volunteers–please consider helping. This is our big fundraising event of the year and it takes lots of volunteers!! We still need lots of help especially on Sunday (both shifts) and the Saturday afternoon shift for a variety of jobs.
Here is a brief listing/description of some of the various jobs we still need to fill on sale days. As you can infer, some jobs are more physical than others.
Greeter/Check In: Distribute plant lists, guide new customers to the sales area, check for receipts. Check in volunteers at the beginning of shifts.
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).
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. *More details to follow.
To volunteer we are using SignUpGenius
Won’t you please check the list and see when/if you could help? It would be much appreciated!
If you have any questions please contact Meredith at: volunteers@naturescaping.org
Did You Notice…..
*Correction to the March Newsletter regarding recent additions to the hardscaping projects done by scout troops. To give proper credit where due…..
Scouts Kegan DeCarlo and Joshua Baldwin (with help from the troop), from Brush Prairie Troop 475, completed their Eagle-level requirements through their projects in the Wildlife Botanical Gardens Water Wise Garden. We now have a beautiful pergola and stepping stone paths.
The pergola in the Hummingbird Garden mentioned in a previous newsletter was built by Battle Ground troop 344 led by Sam Hickel. The twobeautiful benches adorning the pergola were built by fellow troop member Steven Stimson.
We apologize for getting our troops confused. We appreciate all of the time and effort put into these projects by the troops–they help enhance the gardens and provide a respite for visitors. Now you’all come down and see them!
We also have a new bulletin board up on the shed helping to promote our plant sale–thank you Rosemarie!
Garden Tidings…..
Lots of bees were humming around our enclosures when a second set of mason bee cocoons were set out at the gardens on Sunday March 31st. See pic of closure but couldn’t get the bees to pose. Thanks to contributions of cocoons, we will have plenty to sell at the plant sale. Come and get them!
Sharing……
Always striving to best share information, our standard flyers in display boxes at the gardens are now on our website. Find them referenced on the following pages:
https://naturescaping.org/the-gardens/
https://naturescaping.org/the-gardens/flying-flowers-garden/
https://naturescaping.org/the-gardens/hummingbird-place/
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/
Recent Comments:
*From Business Google:
Richard–3 stars & comment:
This place has an annual native plants sale in the spring and we picked up some wild strawberries from here. They were quite efficient in their operation and I highly recommend them for native plants. I’ve also walked through the garden area there and it’s nice, but relatively small for what I was hoping to see.
Amy: 5 star review
Rachel: 5 star review
*From Comment Cards:
Gerry: “Such a surprise to find this gem of a place like Garden of Eden only better. Thank you”
Sophie, OD, Gus & Krystal: “We all love this amazing hidden gem. Peaceful, beautiful, informative.”
Shereen: “Beautiful, beautiful flowers.”
Nature Related Quote of the Month
From Jimmy Carter: Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.
Think Spring and enjoy!