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.
And to those who have renewed–thank you so much! 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!
January Class
Saturday January 20th at 10:00am ~ entitled Bring Nature to your Doorstep – Planning and Designing with Nature ~ conducted by Jane Tesner Kleiner, a local landscape architect, ecologist, environmental educator and disabilities advocate.
Explore several planning and design techniques to bring more nature to your yard. Feel free to bring photos or aerial maps (Google) of your property and we can get you started on your way to creating a nature-haven!
BIO:
Jane Tesner Kleiner – Registered Landscape Architect, Ecologist, Environmental Educator and Disabilities Advocate. Nature connections are at the core of Jane’s work to support healthy communities. Her career has spanned from Michigan to Washington, with clients across the US. Ecological restoration is the center of all projects, through plantings, habitat and people-centered places. Her goal is to support and create healthy environments in neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and public spaces. She thrives in building relationships and hearing from stakeholders and bringing nature to their doorsteps. Her most recent, and on-going work in SW Washington, includes supporting the Green Schoolyard movement to bring nature to school campuses across our region. She has supported national efforts as co-author to the Children & Nature Network, Green Schoolyards America, and the Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative in Southwest Washington. She spends a lot of time at recess, parent teacher meetings and community partner meetings to build and sustain healthy environments for school staff, students, and neighborhoods. She also supports local initiatives with partners to bring nature close to people at their homes, businesses, health care facilities and any other spaces with under-utilized lawns. She owns Nature+Play Designs (www.natureplaydesigns.com) in Vancouver, Washington, and is the program manager for the regional coalition, Lower Columbia Nature Network (www.lowercolumbuanaturenetwork.org). She will be launching the “Our Backyard Fieldtrip” program in 2024 to connect more kids and families to nature!
December Class-Recap
We had a good turn out for our class which was entitled ~ Hope for a Happy Planet: One Day-One Backyard at a Time ~ conducted by Gene Wigglesworth and Grace Tiegen, environmental advocates. It was a hybrid of three classes in one touching on their personal property transformation (G-squared Park), a bit of the geology of our area and environmental concerns.
If you are interested in viewing their list “Climate Change 2023, Turning it Around ….One Idea at a Time” you can find it here.
Did you notice….
Extensive arborist work was done in the gardens in December. Removals and trimmings were done to preserve structure and health of plant material and for safety in: the Water Wise, NW Bird Haven, Hummingbird, Collectors, Cottage and Manor Gardens.
Photo ID Challenge
Visiting the gardens in winter may reveal new sightings; things that we may have previously missed. Perhaps we see things in a new light (no sun shining in our eyes) or from a new perspective.
So….how observant are you’all??
Following are photos shot in December among the various gardens (thanks Larry)–can you recognize which garden they were taken from? Test yourself…..(answers at the end, no cheating!)
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/
Once again for our new members…..
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/
Recent Comments From Business Google:
From Jed Miller–5 star review
Nature Related Quote of the Month
From Rachel Carson: “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.”
Enjoy!