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.
Annual Report
For those interested, here is a link to our 2022 annual report. Let’s hope 2023 is even better!!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16iKbcgQPL-hsQ_GWqtTGoB742MDMdIeQ/view?usp=share_link
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!
Membership Clarification: Being the beginning of a new year, unlike some organizations, our memberships are not based upon a calendar year. Memberships run a year from when you join, thus renewals follow suit. Remember our memberships are family memberships (immediate family).
Thanks again to all for supporting NatureScaping and the Wildlife Botanical Gardens!
February Class
Saturday February 18th at 10:00am entitled ~ Basic Garden Tool Maintenance ~ conducted by Arthur Fuller, Cowlitz County Master Gardener. See Art’s bio below.
Here is the class many of you have been asking for!!
Learn how to clean and sharpen your tools so that they will work better so as to shorten your work and make it easier.
Please let me know if you would like to attend this class to ensure proper chair set up and materials–members are always welcome.
Art’s Bio: From a start as a Pennsylvania boy helping in his grandparents’ garden, working 10 years in the steel mills, a 30-year career as a naval engineer and finally a Master Gardener volunteer. During his naval career Art met his wife of 34 years, Willow, who was a Navy welder.
In 2005 they ended up in Winlock. His military career allowed him the opportunity to live and garden in Hawaii, California and finally Washington. Gardening has been a new experience at every location. He retired in 2012 from the military and decided that he wanted to learn how to be a good steward of their property while keeping much of the property natural while raising edibles. After reading about the Master Gardener program, he signed up and became a Master Gardener in 2014 and after completion took on the title of “Lewis County Master Gardener Volunteer Coordinator” for four years before retiring again and becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer.
January Class-Recap
Seeds are popular!! We had a great turn out for our Seed Saving-From Harvest to Storage class with Erin Harwood and Eloyce O’Connor,Co-Owners of Garden Delights Herb Farm (www.gardendelightsfarm.com).
It was a hands-on experience and we even learned how to make little seed packet envelopes out of paper.
Note: With more time indoors for the next few months, if you’d like to review some of our past recorded Zoom classes (starting in mid 2021 when we could not meet in person) we have a playlist at the Camas Library YouTube page where you can view most of the recorded class sessions from past months at:
Camas Library YouTube-NatureScaping Classes
Saturday Morning Work Parties
For those who would like to volunteer at the gardens, our Saturday morning work parties (SMWP) will start in March and 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 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
Upcoming Events–Save the Dates
Planning has already begun for a few of our annual events. Here are dates you may want to put on your calendars! More information will be forthcoming–you may see a few changes this year…….stay tuned to our website and/or the newsletters for further details.
Bare Root Trees, Shrubs & Perennial Sale:
Saturday April 29th 9am to 4pm. We will have folks sign- up for a slot–per hour time frame–with members getting earlier access before later slots are available to the public.
Art in the Garden: Sunday July 9th 10am to 4pm. Artists will be displaying and selling their creations which are strategically located among the gardens. This will be the 11th year for this beloved event!
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
Gail recently gave us a 5 star review.
Comment Cards recently left at the gardens–both had never been to the gardens before.
Kimberly gave us an “excellent” rating and said: “So interesting! Very helpful to planning my own yard.”
Liz gave us a “good” rating.
Did you know…..
NatureScaping had a table 
at the recent Hockinson Seed Swap & Giveaway–2nd year in a row. There we found a home for all of our leftover seeds from our own swap held last October. We talked with some nice folks and shared information about our organization and gardens. Thanks to Cathy for her assistance.
Talks/Partners–Correction
In the January newsletter I referred to Eve Hanlin’s talk to a group of corporate employees via Visit.org. For her presentation she put together a site which listed many extensive and valuable resources. She was generous enough to share them with us but unfortunately, the link I included was not active. Here is the link Resources which you might find very interesting.
Nature Related Quote of the Month
From e. e. cummings: The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.