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.
November Class
Please review the attached flyer for our class at the CASEE Center (11104 NE 149th Street, Brush Prairie) on Saturday November 21st at 10:00am ~ entitled Native Mason Bee: Cocoon Cleaning Workshop ~ conducted by Daniel Szumlus and Brigg Franklin, NS Mason Bee Program Coordinators
Fall is the perfect time to care for mason bees and prepare healthy cocoons for next spring. We’ll kick off the event with a presentation covering mason bee biology, fall stewardship, and how cleaning bee houses reduces parasites, predators, and diseases. You’ll learn about common threats to mason bees—including cleptoparasitic pollen mites and flies, parasitic wasps and fungal diseases, as well as other nest associates—and how proper cleaning will improve bee survival and health.
After the presentation, we’ll roll up our sleeves and clean mason bee cocoons together. We’ll have plenty of nesting tubes to clean, so everyone will get hands-on experience. This is a great opportunity to learn the process if you will be cleaning your own mason bee cocoons! We’ll discuss designs that make annual mason bee house cleaning simple, effective, and healthier for your bees.
Whether you’re caring for your first mason bee house or have years of experience, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn, share tips, discover the fascinating enemies of mason bees, and enjoy a morning of teamwork and community with fellow NatureScaping native bee enthusiasts.
We hope you’ll join us!
Please let me know if you would like to attend this class to ensure proper chair set up and materials–members are
always welcome.
October Class – Recap
Our class on Saturday October 17th ~ entitled Learning to Prune Deciduous & Evergreen Shrubs ~ was conducted by Christofer Robison, Professional Gardener and Landscape Contractor. We reviewed basic rules that apply to most pruning situations as well as tools that are required to prune. The discussion of “why we prune” turned out to be quite thought provoking. But nothing beats seeing a demonstration and in this case seeing Chris tackle a particularly troublesome shrub in our gardens was inspiring! I left with renewed courage to tackle some of the challenging shrubs in my own yard.
Garden Work Parties
Thanks to all of our volunteers (many continuously) during our garden work party season (March through October) which is officially over!! What a great last session on Saturday October 31st (yes Halloween) but it wasn’t scary at all! In fact it was very productive. We welcomed a group of scouts (10 year olds) and parents along with those who signed up (and one who just showed up). From the sounds of it, it was a whirlwind of activity and it was quite an experience for all! Read Monica’s (one of our garden coordinators and work leader for the day) account of the day’s experience; what she and her helpers took away from the event and what got accomplished. Last Work Party See pic
Perennial, Buld & Seed Swap
NatureScaping & WSU Extension Clark County Master Gardeners 10th annual Perennial, Bulb and Seed Swap on Saturday October 10th started out chilly and looked to threaten “rain on our parade” but turned out to be a fairly nice day. We had wonderful MG volunteers to help answer questions and to place, package and label seeds and plants. We were joined by Gary and his fabulous seed collection who generously shared his inventory and knowledge and Meredith who represented the WA Bee Atlas program with information and her display. Though attendance was a bit down from last year (competing events or the weather?) everyone left with something(s) which will help their yards, pollinators and the environment. See pic (note: see some of the MG volunteers surrounding the blue wheelbarrow).Garden Tidings
**If you were able to get your garden tools sharpened at our recent (member only) opportunity on October 24th you know what a great service the volunteers provided! We had 3 sharpeners (Mike, Fred and Steve) and Ellen who helped direct the flow. They were fast and efficient and gave some helpful information regarding their tools to attendees. It was nice to see so many happy faces when their cleaned and sharpened tools were returned to them. All in all approximately 137 tools were sharpened. A big thank you to all who volunteered their time and efforts!! And thanks to our members for their generous ($200) contributions to the “donations jar” which the volunteers decided to gift to NatureScaping. See pic
**Have you checked out our social media (Facebook and Instagram) lately? We have new “caretakers” who have contributed more frequently with some great postings! Gotta see the WBG Halloween Edition video (yes I know it’s over but “scary” is always cool) and great photography. We are grateful to have some amazing photographers such as Monika and Fernando capturing the beauty of the Gardens and sharing their photos with our Garden community. Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting a number of their photographs–Fernando on Saturday, Monika on Sunday. Thanks to all who contribute!! (Note: if you’d like to contribute see below)
Sharing…..
**See garden photos at: Occasional Garden Photos or check out the NatureScaping Facebook and Instagram pages. We welcome WBG photographers who want us to consider sharing their photos on our social media pages or otherwise. Photographers submitting photos to us give their consent for NatureScaping to use the photos however we see fit. Photos may be submitted by sending them to info@naturescaping.org or by messaging on Facebook or Instagram [but please be aware that doesn’t always work – and is generally of low resolution]. We thank all of the talented photographers who have documented the Gardens over the years with some occasionally truly stunning photographs.
Flyers:
- Wildlife Botanical Gardens Main Flyer and Black and White Map
- Wildlife Botanical Gardens Overhead Color Map
- Attracting Butterflies Flyer
- Attracting Hummingbird Flyer
How to Raise and Manage Orchard Mason Bees.
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.
Comments:
From Google Business:
**Penny–5 stars and comment: “I have been to Naturescaping multiple times this fall, and always discover something new in the gardens and the woods. This is a great place to enjoy nature and fresh air, and to scope out native plants I could incorporate into my own life. Seeing how things are combined is so helpful and inspiring. There is a fun geocaching activity in the garden as well – worth checking out! The Naturescaping organization hosts so many interesting talks offers great opportunities to connect with other nature lovers and gardeners.”
**Mary–5 stars and comments: “My book group had a lovely picnic under one of the gazebos. We ate, discussed and walked the many charming pathways around the garden identifying lots of flowers with our phones on Google”.
From emails:
**Barbara–“we love the NatureScape. Modeled our backyard to look and feel like it.”
From Geocache: (see Note) A recent find
**wallaska
Log Type: Found it
Date: 08/26/2026
Location: Washington, United States
Type: Multi-cache
Beautiful warm late afternoon for caching at the Botanical Garden. Easy parking and access. Have been here before to walk all the the paths and enjoy the flora and peaceful settings. And to search for the little tags to solve this cache. Finally found enough more today to take a guess at GZ coords. Missed on first try but then hit paydirt with second. Muggles were managed. Nice geobeacon. Quick find. Cache in good shape. Signed dry log. Took pic. Thanks Capt.Brigg for this cache and the others you’ve placed and maintain for our adventure, exercise and enjoyment”.
Note: The Geocache program is a treasure hunt that people from around the world are drawn to–we have one at the gardens. If you want to learn more about Geocaching, and our cache visit our Geocaching web page.
Nature Quote of the Month
Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”
Enjoy!