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:
Thanks to those who have renewed and have done so continuously and generously. Memberships/Renewals help support our organization to maintain the gardens!
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. (Note: It is possible to use credit/debit cards in lieu of a PayPal account. If it asks you to log in with a one time code, choose the option of “try another way” and then you can choose credit/debit card and go from there.)
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.
June Class
A rare occurrence….NO June class! So many other activities happening this month (see a partial list on the attached PDF) so go out and participatge! But come back for our July class!!
May Class – Recap
Life Afterlife; the wonders of death in the garden ~ conducted by Hannah Schrager, owner Good Year Farms, native plant nursery (www.goodyearfarms.com) presented a thoughtful and perhaps an unconventional and unique perspective on the life-cycle; death & decay. There are many links between light and dark and in many ways, humans and non-humans share a similar path.
Garden Work Parties
What if we threw a party and no one showed up? We’d be pretty disappointed so we would love to have your help working in the gardens please consider spending a few hours volunteering. 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.
Don’t let our garden coordinator “supervisors” have all of the fun by themselves–please join us to help keep the gardens looking great! Thanks in advance!
This month, our Garden Walk ‘n Talk offering with Garden Ambassador Angelina Lai will take place at the beginning of the designated work party on Wednesday June 24th.
Interested in getting more bees into your garden? Increase your vegetable and fruit yield by learning how to support your local bee pollinators. We’ll discuss some bee biology, lifecycle, and activities of many local bees in our garden. There are simple actions you can take to provide food, shelter, water, and space for our beautiful and interesting-to-watch busy bees. Come and join a WSU Extension Clark County Master Gardener for an introductory workshop to learn about local bees (native and naturalized) to our area, their life cycle, and some of the plants they depend on. If you wish, bring your phone to take pictures of these busy bees.
Bulletin Board
Yup! The newest design is there for viewing–welcoming everyone to the gardens. Come take a look–on the shed in the center of the gardens! Thanks once again, Rosemarie.
Garden Tidings
**The gardens were featured in an article in the June 3rd edition of The Reflector. Gardens of community: Wildlife Botanical Gardens fosters 30 years of plant growth and building partnerships.
**Mason bee shelters, tubes and liners attached to the garden sheds have been taken down for the season to help minimize any damage from “invaders”. (See article in Reading Materials regarding Mason bee care.)
And speaking of Mason bees….it just goes to show how nature takes advantage of what is available. Mason bees found their own place to “do their thing” in bamboo stakes in our potting shed.
**Earlier in the spring visitors left us some creative “gifts” in the gardens–one of the two wreaths left on the sign post for the hummingbird garden.
**One of our garden coordinators shares a story from the gardens….
“As I was finishing up Sunday out there a 20ish young man shyly came over and asked if we were open and where he could find the most variety of bees to photograph.
He then told me all about his love and fascination with different bee species with such intense special interest.
He also told me about how photographing bees helped him heal from his dad’s passing away last year and that he stumbled upon this place by accident.
He asked about volunteering –he’s not really interested in plants or flowers, but allowed learning about different plants would make sense to augment bee knowledge. He also likes fungi and lichen.
“Do I know anyone who might be interested in talking about those things too?” I sure do!
I gave him all our information, showed him the bee homes and posters. I shared that we are always looking for help with our bee program. Told to check out volunteering, the Master Gardener programs and definitely come to a bee class! He told me he would try; seemed wary but I assured him it is very welcoming here.
I sure hope he comes back to see us. I think he also just needed someone to listen.
For myself, I learned more about bees and was reminded that the community joins us for much more than botanical knowledge and a pretty place to walk.”
“As I was finishing up Sunday out there a 20ish young man shyly came over and asked if we were open and where he could find the most variety of bees to photograph.
He then told me all about his love and fascination with different bee species with such intense special interest.
He also told me about how photographing bees helped him heal from his dad’s passing away last year and that he stumbled upon this place by accident.
He asked about volunteering –he’s not really interested in plants or flowers, but allowed learning about different plants would make sense to augment bee knowledge. He also likes fungi and lichen.
“Do I know anyone who might be interested in talking about those things too?” I sure do!
I gave him all our information, showed him the bee homes and posters. I shared that we are always looking for help with our bee program. Told to check out volunteering, the Master Gardener programs and definitely come to a bee class! He told me he would try; seemed wary but I assured him it is very welcoming here.
I sure hope he comes back to see us. I think he also just needed someone to listen.
For myself, I learned more about bees and was reminded that the community joins us for much more than botanical knowledge and a pretty place to walk.”
Did You Notice
We have new picnic tables and a new bench! Last month,David J. Marshall Life Scout — Troop 545, his family, siblings, and other scouts installed 2 picnic benches in the Homestead and Bird Haven gardens. A new bench was also put into the “under construction” area (in back) of the Homestead garden. They cleaned up the older benches in both gardens and cleaned up and repainted the bear in the Homestead garden. All of this along with other garden chores! David relayed that 26 people gave 85 hours and 40 minutes of service excluding the time it took to build or stain the tables and bench.
David said: “I first volunteered out there about two years ago for some conservation service hours to help me with rank advancement. It was then that I first saw other people’s Eagle Projects out there and thought of it as a possible place for my own Eagle Project to be completed. I’m proud I could be part of the area the community uses and enjoys. They are all beautiful gardens.”
Sharing…..
Flyers
Always striving to best share information, our standard flyers in display boxes at the gardens are now on our website.
Art in the Garden
As many of you have already heard, this annual July event will no longer be held at the gardens. It was recently brought to our attention that this event and other certain activities are not permitted usage of the property. NatureScaping operates as a tenant of Battle Ground School District property (BGSD), which itself is a lessee of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). After meeting with BGSD and reviewing the lease we were made aware of the stated allowed usages which do not include commercial or vendor-based activities.
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:
**Blamo–5 star review
**Am A–5 star review & pictures
From Comment Cards:
**Brenda–Excellent review & comment: “Thanks for being You!!”
From our garden community:
**One of our long-term members/volunteers shares her thoughts…..(edited)
“…holding on to long-term younger volunteers through the years is one of the largest issues with any volunteer organization where manual labor is necessary. At this point, general maintenance is all that is needed in the gardens until a major event like the annual fundraiser (plant) sale and suddenly more manual labor is needed. When asked to go above and beyond their physical capabilities, older volunteers are just not capable of the manual labor necessary to continue these events. As such, NatureScaping is in desperate need of new younger volunteers who will continue to volunteer in years to come, allowing the organization to flourish. Having been a member myself since 1994, having been on the board, assisting in the initial installation of the Wildlife Botanical Gardens, assisted in the first and all ensuing annual plant sales until just this year, I know all too well the work involved in running this non-profit and how, without adequate volunteers it simply does not run. I encourage our members here to become involved, volunteer, become a member, sit in on a board meeting … It’s the only way this lovely little non-profit and gardens will continue to thrive and enhance our gardening community.“
“…holding on to long-term younger volunteers through the years is one of the largest issues with any volunteer organization where manual labor is necessary. At this point, general maintenance is all that is needed in the gardens until a major event like the annual fundraiser (plant) sale and suddenly more manual labor is needed. When asked to go above and beyond their physical capabilities, older volunteers are just not capable of the manual labor necessary to continue these events. As such, NatureScaping is in desperate need of new younger volunteers who will continue to volunteer in years to come, allowing the organization to flourish. Having been a member myself since 1994, having been on the board, assisting in the initial installation of the Wildlife Botanical Gardens, assisted in the first and all ensuing annual plant sales until just this year, I know all too well the work involved in running this non-profit and how, without adequate volunteers it simply does not run. I encourage our members here to become involved, volunteer, become a member, sit in on a board meeting … It’s the only way this lovely little non-profit and gardens will continue to thrive and enhance our gardening community.“
**From me: While at the gardens recently I spoke with a young gal who looked to be studying. She said she was recently told about our place and now returns regularly to study and spend time. It is one of her new favorite places and she wanted to sincerely thank us for having this beautiful place for the community to enjoy.
Nature Quote of the Month
From Steve Irwin: “If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.”
Enjoy!
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