Our Foundation
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.
Quite a few new members this past month–Welcome! Many thanks to those who have renewed their memberships and given donations. Many of you have increased your membership renewal levels– we are so grateful. It is very much appreciated! Please know that your memberships help support our organization and our gardens!
May Class
May 21st ZOOM online class at 4:00 p.m. entitled An Introduction to Pacific Northwest Ecology ~ presented by Hannah Schrager, Owner of Good Year Farms www.goodyearfarms.com
Learning about our natural environments helps connect us to our place and time on this planet.
Hannah was born to a band of wanderers who portaged her to the Pacific Northwest before she could form memories. After her youth in the Columbia River Gorge, she set off to survey the terrain between Port Angeles and Port Orford. Her professional credentials include government scientist, rainforest ringleader, and now native plant producer in the Columbia River Gorge. Hannah has a Bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and a Masters in Environmental Science. After several years as a natural resource steward for public lands, she now runs a band of wily gardeners at Good Year Farms above the Little Washougal River.
Once again, we are partnering with the Camas Library.
Bare Root Trees, Shrubs & Perennial Sale-Update
It was great seeing a lot of our members out at the sale on Saturday–sorry if I had trouble recognizing some of you sporting not only masks but rain hats covering faces. Our sale weekend April 24-25th and our extended sale on Saturday May 1st afforded many trees, shrubs and perennials new homes!
We could not have had a successful event without our many volunteers (some on short notice)–as someone said, it takes a village!
Many thanks go out to all of our volunteers and our superstars (you should know who you are) who worked many dedicated hours getting the job done.
CASEE Center also opened their greenhouse full of native plants the first weekend of the sale. Back by popular demand they opened their greenhouse again on Thursday and Friday afternoon May 6-7 from 2-4pm.
We have a winner of our raffle–Carrie! Seems our prize was quite timely as Carrie was considering having her property evaluated and suggestions made for improvement!
Saturday Morning Work Parties
Saturday morning work parties (SMWP) are ongoing. For those unfamiliar with our parties, on each Saturday morning, with safety in mind (masks and social distancing required), we will pair volunteers with one of our garden coordinators who will supervise and guide various tasks around the gardens. A great way to get out, get your hands (gloves) dirty, get some exercise and help contribute to the beauty of our gardens. You may even learn some things!
We are doing things a bit differently this year. In order to comply with restrictions guiding the number of people gathering together we have created a sign up system using SignUpGenius. Each month additional sign up dates will be added
Save the Date – Art in the Garden
Plans are moving along in preparation for Art in the Garden, this year on Sunday July 11th. Lots of excited artists out there! We have had good responses from some of our returning artists and we’ll be pleased to introduce some new ones too. You’ll have to come and see…..
Garden Project
NatureScaping was awarded a grant funding from the WA Native Plant Society for $885 – $600 for native plants to supplement the new hedgerows on 149th St and in the WaterWise Garden and the remainder to create a brochure on native plants in the Wildlife Botanical Gardens. We talked about our Hedgerow project in a past e-newsletter (January 2021) and included some pictures–come see the progress…..
Sharing…..
Comments from member Cheri:
“I do so enjoy the gardens!
They are a continuous delight. When I take several photos my phone makes a little video with music and I can replay it as often as I like. We are up in Lewisville where it is rocky, so I find it nearly impossible to plant
Anything. My mother encouraged the native species surrounding the property. So that’s what we have, a few fruit trees, hosta, some rhodies. But it’s our little sanctuary.
She lives with us here and is 104. Quite a gardener in her day.”
Nature Related Quote of the Month
From John Lubbock: Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.