Monday, September 28, 2009

Hey!

Anybody out there? If you are, heres a link to a short video interview I conducted with Tom Harville, the president of the North Carolina Native Plant Society. I have a good bit more footage, so we'll probably see Tom again soon. Look for more of these video interviews in the near future with folks involved in the protection and celebration of our native flora!
Hey!

Here's a link to a photo gallery from the plant sale this past Saturday. Enjoy!


Hey there!

A few notes. . . We had a great plant sale this past Saturday. It was cloudy and cool, and the rain held off until the very end. I'll post a link for a photo album from the sale in the next day or so. The "Walk on the Wild Side" this Thursday is about invasive plant species and why they are such a problem in the garden and in wild landscapes.

Please consider making a small donation of your time or a modest monetary contribution to aid the construction of the Easley Discovery Garden that I've mentioned here before. You can learn more about the garden at www.easleydiscoverygarden.com. If you'd like to donate your time, we'll be having a workday on Oct 10th to begin the formal construction for the garden. Monetary donations should be sent to Easley Elementary with a note that they are for the Discovery Garden attached. Thank you in advance for your support of this special project.

I'll be going to the Chicago Botanic garden this Thursday to present a poster about the design and construction of the Church Endangered Species garden found within the Blomquist Garden.. The conference is focused on global plant conservation efforts, and is timed to coincide with the opening of the new Plant Conservation Science Center at the botanic garden.
Go Bears!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Lovely, cool rainy day... Fall is on the way. You've heard me mention the collaboration between the Duke Gardens, the Eno River Association and Easley Elementary in Durham. We're working together to design and build a native plant educational garden on the Easley campus. If you're interested in learning about the project, you can now follow what we're doing at
www.easleydiscoverygarden.com. The site is brand new and obviously will grow as the project grows. I'm going to upload a photo album tonight of sketches from Easley students- these are drawings of what the children imagine the garden might be, and, as is the case with everything kids create, the pictures are amazing and imaginative. Check it out!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Happy Thursday! Don't you just love four day weeks! I'd like to thank all the attendees at the most recent "walk on the wild side". We had over twenty people on the tour, most of them with red hats on. Yes, the ladies of the Cary Red hat Society joined us, and we had a blast. We talked about plants with interesting stories, touching on Cherokee plant legends, anecdotes about plant explorers, and plants with interesting wildlife connections, to name a few. The next walk, on October 1st, will focus on invasive plant species in the garden. I look forward to seeing you all! The goldenrods and asters are starting to get going in the garden, and a plant is getting ready to bloom in the wildlife garden that I'd be willing to bet you haven't seen before. Solidago faucibus, or Gorge Goldenrod is a native of small regions in the mountains of South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky, and it's quite a looker, if you ask me. Check it out!