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.

Membership:
Welcome new members!! We hope to see you at our monthly classes and upcoming events.

Renewal Information:
Renewal notices will be emailed during the month in which it is due. Due to circumstances, it is currently the more expeditious and cost effective method.

Note:
Though you may still choose to mail in payments, 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.

Memberships/renewals help support our organization and our volunteer maintained gardens! Thanks to those who have renewed and have done so continuously and generously.

July Class
Please review the attached flyer here  for our class at the CASEE Center on Saturday July 19th at 10:00am ~ entitled Seasonal Bird Behavior ~ conducted by Brandon Burger, Backyard Bird Shop Vancouver (www.backyardbirdshop.com)
Brandon, one of our favorite speakers, is back discussing what may seem like unusual bird activities and habits.
Please let me know if you would like to attend this class to
ensure proper chair set up and materials–members are
always welcome.
 
June Class–Recap
June’s class entitled Ecology, Edibles and Ethnobotany conducted by Hannah Schrager, owner Good Year Farms native plant nursery, proved very popular! Hannah is very engaging and had many slides (and opinions) to share. We covered a lot of ground discussing the featured topics–something for everyone!
Work Parties
 With the Art in the Garden event coming up, we could still use some extra help. There are a few work party days this week prior to the event. Please consider spending a few hours volunteering at the gardens, this would be a great time to do so. And it can be rewarding! See comments below. On work days volunteers are guided by one of our garden coordinators to work on needed tasks/projects in the various gardens.  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. We’d love to have you join us!

Comments shared by a garden coordinator after a work party session: “They all made comments about enjoying working in the garden when they can and are hoping to be back. There were also comments that they appreciate that we offer snacks and water. It makes them feel like they are being well cared for! I love that!”.

Art in the Garden
The 13th anniversary of Art in the Garden will be Sunday July 13th from 10am – 4pm. It’s a fun day of art, music, spinning demonstrations and a raffle containing wares from some of the artists–in the beautiful setting of the garden area. We have returning artists and some first timers. Musically, we’ll start out with a trio and continue, once again (it has become a tradition) with The Traveling Day Society (native-led drummers) in the afternoon. The Clark County Composters will be in their Demonstration area to the west of the gardens to answer your recycling and composting questions. We’ll have a perennial mini-plant sale too! Let’s hope for good weather!! I hope to see many of you there!! See attached map of artists locations.
Note: Last year (for the first time) several artists did experience a period of time with limited access to credit card processing ability. Cash still works! Just saying….
Garden Tidings…..
A big thank you to the VanRidge Garden Club who donated all of their residual funds to NatureScaping. The club, which was federated in 1977 decided to disband the club. Two members of the club met with me in the gardens to award the check (see pic). They told me the vote to donate to us was unanimous–they love NatureScaping!

 

Last month we had an artist who was teaching watercolor painting classes (plein air) in the gardens. As relayed by an observer, “They seemed to enjoy their time in the gardens”.

 

A Birthday was celebrated in the Cottage Garden one Sunday late afternoon.

 

The Mason bee tubes have all been collected from the gardens and stored vertically in boxes safely closed until the fall cocoon cleaning (November class). See pic. If you haven’t brought your mason bee blocks and tubes in liners in, you should do that asap. Do not leave your mason bee blocks or tubes and liners out for the summer.

 

Clark County Composts led by Pete DuBois held a composting workshop at the Compost Demonstration Area at the west end of the gardens. They were featured in The Reflector newspaper. Read article

 

Did you have a chance to attend the Pollinator Festival in June? We were there!  If you didn’t get the opportunity to hear some of the featured speakers here is your chance to listen to the recordings.
Did you notice… 
NW Natives Garden is undergoing an exciting transformation as we work toward Backyard Habitat certification. This redesign celebrates the beauty of Pacific Northwest native plants and began with the removal of non-native cherry trees and overgrown Oregon grape to bring in more light and life. Out of nine beds, we’ve focused first on two: one is becoming a vibrant meadow of native annuals, while the other now features a dry creek bed surrounded by a tapestry of native grasses, lupine, salal, Oregon sunshine, irises, and more. We’ll be renovating each bed over the coming year—with hopes of earning Platinum certification by February 2026.
 Sharing……
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:
 Comments:
From Google Business:
**Evan–5 star review, comment & pics: “I was in the area and needed a place to wait for about an hour. This garden couldn’t have been a better place. A real gem in a small town. They have each area of this garden sectioned into different areas for relaxation. This is a nice place to alleviate stress.”
**Crystal–5 star review, comments & pics: “This is the best free place to have a picnic and enjoy the natural beauty of all the plants and flowers the volunteers have made so beautiful. There are plenty of places to sit and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine or shade. There is plenty of parking. You’d never know this was just off the beaten path.”
**Vermithrax–5 star review
From Comment Cards:
**Kathe–Excellent rating, donation & comments: “Lovely Birthday walk for myself and my granddaughter (we share a Birthday) 70 years old and 3 years old.” 
**Anonymous–Excellent rating and donation
**Anonymous–Good rating and comment: “I’m sad so many plants look unhealthy. But it is a beautiful garden.”
Nature Related Quote of the Month

From the Family Circus comics: “Some weeds try to fool you by having flowers.”