Director's Musings

Gardens and Programs
By Margo Ghia, Executive Director

With the arrival of spring, gardeners of all varieties are feeling the itch to dig into the soil and plant young seedlings or seeds. I, along with my husband and kids, are avid vegetable growers for our personal consumption. The time out in our garden is a way that we can connect with natural systems on a small scale. While we are out in the garden, we are part of the cycles of the seasons, we can delve into soil composition and the amazing critters that live there, and we can observe ecological food systems at work. Gardening is a great way for us to learn about the natural world in a “controlled” and small space.

For the past several years, The Nature Museum has offered a garden design course in the spring. The talented instructors for this course, Laurie Danforth (the Museum’s Board President), Jana Wunderlee of Terriginous Design and Laurie Bolotin of Morningstar Perennials have helped many people look at and experience their gardens in new ways. Inspired by the success of this class, the Museum is undertaking a new venture this year.

Starting this Spring and continuing through the Fall, the Museum is offering a series of programs about cultivating the earth. The series is called “Gardening with Nature.” These programs will cover such things as the basics of garden design, visiting historic gardens, garden tea parties, and basic how-to’s in the garden. Our goal is to offer a diverse and engaging series of programs that will help people experience nature through gardens, whether they be their own garden or someone’ else’s.

The “Gardening with Nature” programs are listed in a special brochure that is inserted in with this newsletter. The programs will also be listed, along with all of regular public program offerings, on the Museum’s website, in our newsletter, and on our friends of the Museum email list.

I hope you have a chance to join us in the garden this year!