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! (some at higher levels). 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!
June Class-Recap
Keeping It Clean Upstream with Surfrider Portland~ presented by Jessica Gillian, Surfrider Executive Volunteer.
Very interesting to learn about this organization whose work centers around protecting the ocean and specifically regarding the Portland’s Chapter’s work. If you missed the session, here’s the link to the recording:
Note: We have a playlist at the Camas Library YouTube page where you can view the entire offerings of recorded class sessions from past months at:
Camas Library YouTube-NatureScaping Classes
Saturday Morning Work Parties
Saturday Morning Work Parties (SMWP) are from 9-noon. Each Saturday morning, volunteers are guided by one of our garden coordinators to work on needed tasks/projects in the various gardens. Non-Saturday dates may 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 a link: SignUpGenius
Art in the Garden
By now hopefully you’all know about the 10th anniversary of Art in the Garden which will be on Sunday July 10th from 10am-4pm at The Wildlife Botanical Gardens, 11000 NE 149th Street in Brush Prairie. We are partnering with Clark County Special Interest Group of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO) to organize the event.
It’s a fun day of art, music (native-led drummers and a bagpiper), spinning demonstrations, and a mini plant sale in the beautiful setting of the gardens. We have a record number of artists this year; returnees and newbies. Also there is a Clark County Composter Recycling Demo area ready to answer all of your compost and other questions.
Speaking about Art in the Garden…..
We have one more Saturday morning (July 9th) work party before the Art in the Garden event. Did you’all notice the weeds have been overwhelming this very wet spring/ summer? Please help our gardners get the gardens in spectacularly tip top shape for our visitors. You can sign up using the link SignUpGenius.
Tours/Visitors
We had several group visits out to the gardens last month. We even had a baby shower held at the gardens!
The NW Perennial Alliance stopped by on their way to a conference in Portland.
A group of mostly seniors, from the Villages Clark County came out to the gardens for the summer solstice.
All groups had a great time and thanks goes to Julie, our “resident tour guide” for leading the tours!
Speaking about Julie….
Julie, our NW Bird Haven Garden Coordinator, “Perennial Princess”, “Resident Tour Guide” and Master Gardener, will be leading a Native Plant ID walk as part of the Summer Saturday Interpretive Programs at Battle Ground Lake State Park 18002 N.E. 249th St. on July 9th at 11:00am to noon and again on August 6th at 11:00am.
Pre-registration required; call Battle Ground Lake State Park at 360-687-4621 or visit the Contact Station to register. Meet at the first covered picnic shelter off the day-use parking lot, follow the signs.
A Discover Pass may be required for day-use, which can be purchased on-site ($10.00 per vehicle).
Sharing……
Garden Story
The Coordinator of our Manor Garden (Martha) shares this experience she had one day at the gardens:
Vanessa is from LA and has been visiting her friend and former mother-in-law who lives in Bonaventure senior living. Jean is 95 and fell several weeks ago and is still wobble but is just now getting used to a walker. Vanessa was walking through the garden to see if Jean would be able to maneuver the paths but with the gravel she didn’t think she could. So, since I was the only one around I gave her permission to drive thru from the Cottage Garden to the Hummingbird Garden. You would have thought I offered her strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. After their short drive thru, Vanessa came to me and said that Jean was thrilled and enthralled with the beauty of the garden. What a blessing it was to make this woman happy. Hopefully, when Jean is more stable with the walker, her caregiver will be able to bring her for a little walk through the garden, or at least part of it.
Comments from Google:
From Sean: who gave us a 5 star rating with the comment: “Beautiful place for a quiet walk and a photo session”
Did you Notice?………
There is a new garden sign and a refurbished and repaired garden chair in the Flying Flowers Garden. Also we have a new and more spacious Donation and Info box mounted on our smaller garden shed under our bulletin board. It contains our comments cards and donation forms etc. Thanks go to Kurt who continues to lend his various talents to our gardens! Come see his wares at Art in the Garden July 10, 2022.
Nature Related Quote of the Month
From Henri Matisse: “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
Stay safe and enjoy!!