The New Family Activity BookletsThings

Cleveland Botanical Garden introduced this month a new way for you and your child to connect with nature at home and in Hershey Children’s Garden.

Families who pick up a Family Activity Booklet at the children’s garden front gate will find activities they can do with their children at home and on a garden visit. Each month families have five new activities they can do on a garden visit and five activities they can do at home. Each month the suggested activities and themes change. June is about fairies and trees while next month is all about water. Families receive a stamp in their booklet each time they participate in an activity. Complete any five activities, collect five stamps and earn one free admission for a child. Now there are more ways to make each visit special. . .earn a friend a free visit to enjoy new ways to have fun with you.

Or What the Heck Did I Plant?

I love old-time gardeners. They are a wealth of knowledge through decades of trial and error. One thing is for sure: gardening is a learning process. Smart gardeners track what was planted, what was successful, what failed. The challenge for me is how to record and store this hard-won information.

I always give a little chuckle when I see bookstores carrying garden "journals." The idea is to sit placidly in your garden, sipping a tall glass of lemonade or ice tea, writing what gardening activity you just completed. Some journals are just lined notebooks with a nice cover. Other journals are more organized, for instance, by seasons. Now, if you are like me – and I sincerely hope you are not – you are extremely busy, and time to record what you planted, what you removed, or what weather conditions just experienced is not available. Who has the time, right?

In the Garden, Home Connections and Helping Hands

May is all about flower gardening in Hershey Children’s Garden. Our programming emphasis centers on mathematical concepts of counting and classifying. We are offering stories like Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert as an opportunity to add some color to a child’s garden visit.

We started painting the garden this month with our May Day weekend celebration last Saturday. Children participated in creating May Day baskets, filling the baskets with fresh garden flowers and dancing around the May Pole. If you did not make out this past weekend, it is okay. We are making baskets for flowers every Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. this month. If you are busy on weekends, come on Wednesdays and participate in Nature Tales Story Time at 11:00 a.m.

Your family could provide some helping hands this Saturday from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. You can make a flower arrangement during our Blooms-To-Go program for some person in the community whose needing some flower cheer this Mother’s Day. You make the arrangements and we deliver to one in need.

Lastly, there are many things you could do at home with your little one to plant your own rainbow. One idea is to plant a cutting garden in a pot or in the backyard. A cutting garden is planted with flowers especially suited for flower arrangements which you cut and use. Plant easy to care for flowers such as: marigolds, zinnias, annual salvias, sunflowers, cosmos, bachelor’s buttons, geraniums, roses, poppies, irises and so many more. You and your child can care for the plants, cut the flowers and create wonderful artwork! Come and see what we plant in our cutting garden this month.
 

Our Monthly Theme

April is all about earth care in Hershey Children’s Garden. Our programming emphasis centers around helping young children identify their common connection with and respect for other living things. We are offering stories like The Lorax by Dr. Seuss as an opportunity to discover that we are a part of the same planet.

Today, we hosted our first Nature Tales Story Time under the tree house. The leaves emerging from winter sleep and a gentle warm breeze moving daffodils in full bloom provided the perfect setting for over thirty participants listening to a story and creating flowers with their hand prints. Come next Wednesday at 11 a.m. to hear another story and learn about what we could do with our "garbage" besides through it away.

There are many things you could do at home with your little one to help them connect to their world. One idea would be to plant a pollinator garden, butterfly and bee friendly, and draw pictures of what comes to visit the flowers. The Garden has a number of examples of plant material just right for such a project. We are happy to show you what plants you can plant in your Cleveland yard. Another idea would to go for a walk through Hershey Children’s Garden or a park. See if you can find examples of the food chain taking place (a bee visiting a flower, a rabbit eating grass) and draw a picture of it. Whatever you decide to do with your child, encourage them to talk about what they are seeing and doing, what is around them. Show them how you are caring for the earth.
 

Count Down To Open

One week. That is all there is to the opening of the 11th season in the Hershey Children’s Garden. Are you looking forward to it? I know I am. Each year monthly themes are chosen upon which to base programs. We firmly believe in the power of play and story to impact a child’s development, so we are taking a literary approach this season. We are highlighting a different children’s story each month and incorporating it into our programs.

First of all, April is dedicated to earth care and cultivating a respect for all life. We want to demonstrate that our lives and actions are interconnected with the rest of life on earth. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss carries this message well. We wil bring the story to life through several programs.

BotaniCool^®School for Little Buds (ages 3-5 yrs) 
Saturdays, April 17 and May 15

Bring your little buds to the Garden and watch them bloom! In this series, children ages 3-5 will use the Garden to learn about caring for the Earth. Registration is available for individual sessions or the series. Please register in advance.

Plant a Truffula Tree            
Sundays, April 4, 11, 18 & 25
Saturdays, April 10, 17 & 24

Posted by Josh Steffen 

Celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day with nature crafts for children showcasing the importance of trees.

No registration required.

Date: Saturday and Sunday, April 24 & 25, 2010; 1:00-4:00pm

How to Tackle Your Inheritance

Few people get the luxury of obtaining a piece of land "clean" of any existing planting or building scheme. Most businesses or home owners purchase property on which the previous owner has created some sort of planting scheme. Even those purchasing new homes must work with what the builder chooses to plant. There may be domineering trees or shrubs or veracious perennials or rampaging groundcovers with which to contend. There may be a horrific color scheme among the plants that clashes with the house. On the other hand, the plantings may be so new and inadequate that we wonder why the contractor bothered, and perhaps their plant choices are not exactly. . .what one would have selected if we had control of the design from the beginning.

I inherited an existing garden when I became the manager of Hershey Children’s Garden. The Garden was in its sixth season of existence and was handed down to me from a series of talented managers before me. They each shaped the Garden in wonderful ways during their tenure and I frankly felt daunted at keeping pace.

How could I improve upon such wonderful work? How was I supposed to approach my work with this garden with all its different facets from programming and signage to planting schemes and structural maintenance? Over the next series of posts I share the emerging approach to my work as I learned. When I reflect back on my journey thus far, I followed a similar path to the one my father took in renovating our yard during my college days.

A Garden BHAG

Gardening is centered on managing resources and working with the land one possess. Cleveland Botanical Garden believes zero waste is an important means of stewarding our gift of land. Responsible use of money makes a lot of sense to all because it hits home quickest, yet irresponsible use of water, air and earth creates a resource strain felt deeper than an empty wallet . . .just not now. Much can be said and has been written on this point so I will not thump the table too hard here. One other point, though, most do not think about is American waste disposal methods defy what other natural systems suggest. Individuals in natural systems like woodlands or coastal tidal zones create little waste. Their by-products are consumed in some other individuals activiity. Extracting resources, using energy to put in usable form and then burying it, sealed to never be used again makes no sense.

So what are doing to move toward eliminating our dumpsters? It is simple in concept and a tremendous challenge in practice. Everything we need to know in order to zero our waste, we learned in kindergarten. The Garden is following the four R’s: re-use, reduce, recycle and re-think. We are re-thinking our exhibits and horticultural practices to see if we need to purchase or use certain materials. We are, and have been, reusing materials from one exhibit to the next, and we are recycling our organic waste (as compost). We recently instituted a organizational wide staff composting collection system and all the materials from our roof reconstruction was re-used and recycled.

Sustainability is about starting where you are and being a better steward today. Cleveland Botanical Garden seeks progress in ways that are small and large. Most ideas staff implement are simple and quick and further our financial and mission bottom-lines. What are you doing?

The Breakdown on Winter Composting

Did you meet your 2009 New Year’s resolution to start or expand your composting efforts? No?  Well, perhaps you are feeling guilty for throwing away those perfectly good kitchen scraps, when they could be turning into great plant food. Perhaps you are one of those gardeners who thinks composting must end with the coming of winter. Please ease your conscience. You can consider a few rotten winter composting options. Here is the breakdown on a few ideas to get you started:

1. Continue to build your pile. Decomposition essentially ceases with snow fall, but that does not mean you can not continue to add to your pile. One method is to wait for a winter thaw to disturb your pile. Place a sizable tube in the middle of your pile at that time. The tube helps to funnel scraps into the pile and prevent scavenger access. Then, place your kitchen scraps in the bottom of the tube and cover with several inches of sawdust or leaves. The idea is to keep adding until the tube is full. The tube is then pulled in the spring so the pile can be watered and turned.

2. Store those scraps. You can also store your kitchen scraps in well sealed buckets outdoors for spring pile formation. Five gallon containers work well for this purpose. You can pick these up from hardware stores, many food preparation facilities or paint contractors. It is advisable to add a layer of sawdust or some other organic absorbent material to the bottom and top of your scrap bucket in case of warm winters.

3. Try some worming. Worm composting is another excellent option to consider. There are many helpful resources available to get you started. You will find excellent information on worm and other composting methods in Cleveland Botanical Garden’s own Eleanor Squire Library.

Do What Plants Do

People ask me what, as the manager of Hershey Children’s Garden, I do since I can’t work outside at this time of year. My answer is always the same: What do plants do in winter? Rest, reconnect and rejuvenate. I am never really done working outside. I still maintain water levels in the pond, skimming it and raking leaves when there is a thaw. I also spend time in January, February and March pruning woody plant material. The majority of my time, however, is spent doing exactly what perennial plants are doing right now.

Perennials rest and so do I. The winter is a less physically active time for me at the Garden. I sit at a desk, facing a computer. Does that sound exciting to you? It does to me after nine months of hyper-activity with little children. Temperate plants slow down biologically to rest and I take my cues from them.

Perennials reconnect and so do I. Plants may become inactive above ground, but deep down they return to their roots. Soil temperatures remain sufficient for cellular activity long after leaves drop. This allows plants to strategically use their resources. They focus direct resources above ground during the summer, and go below in spring and fall. I too, focus and return to my roots. I need the rest. I also need to repurpose myself to my personal vision. Winter is also a time to reconnect with co-workers and build relationships that strengthen my work during the season.

Perennials also rejuvenate and so do I. I identify shrubs every winter needing some rejuvenating. Many woody plants respond well to occasional severe pruning. Cutting back vegetative growth redirects overwintered resources coming from the roots into fewer growth points with the approach of spring. This means more food for less mouths, a greater grow potential. I need to rejuvenate as well. I re-examine programs, physical structures and planting schemes with an eye to enhance what we do in Hershey Children’s Garden. I prune out those aspects that do not work so I can refocus resources on new possibilities.

It may not seem like much is happening in the garden, but deep down something is still at work, getting ready to spring forward.

Posted by Josh Steffen
 

Bringing the Outside In

Many cultural celebrations center around natural cycles or events. Thanksgiving is no exception. Parents need to get their kids outside, and parents need to bring the outside indoors.

There are a number of ways to bring the outdoors in over the coming winter months. Here are a number of ideas: 

1.  Walk through the yard, neighborhood or nearby park, collecting whatever materials you find on the ground (you could do a litter hunt one day and a nature hunt another). Take the materials home and make fantastic creatures or Thanksgiving decorations. I like to ask kids to draw their creature first and then make with the materials what they just drew.

2.  You can find lots of other craft ideas on the internet.  

3.  Purchase different flowering spring bulbs and force them to bloom early, like, say, February.

4.  Purchase houseplants that can spend the summer outside in Ohio. When you return them to the indoor environment each fall they serve as a reminder of green summer days.

Posted by Josh Steffen