Nature Journaling Photos and Resources

Here's a glimpse of our Intro to Nature Journaling workshop held this past Saturday:

Micro-worlds were unveiled, often overlooked details noticed with new eyes and excitement, and maybe even a new species of spider discovered!

Thank you to all who joined us.  What a perfect it day it was to be out exploring the gardens!

P.S.  We've created a new page on our blog dedicated to nature journaling resources.  You are sure to find lots of useful information...  Please be sure to check back regularly.

Remember, nature journaling is a practice to be done on a regular basis.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes and will eventually become part of your routine.  As our friend Roger says, "the longer you look, the more you will see" and the first step in understanding the natural world is to see.

Next workshops
Intro to Phenology, June 15th: Phenology is the observation and recording of the effects of seasonal changes on plants and animals.  Join us to discover the joy and benefits of keeping a phenology journal.
Patterns in Nature, July 20th: You will be amazed at the patterns to be found all throughout nature and the influence they have had on the scientific, mathematical, and artistic worlds.    Come see what patterns you can discover...

Monday Inspirations: Green

Hello again.  Happy Monday.  Are you looking forward to your week?  We are definitely looking forward to our nature journaling workshop this Saturday.  We sure hope to see you there...

Until then, we're here to provide a little inspiration for working some nature exploration into your week.  We promise it'll be fun!

The following activities have been inspired by all the beautiful green growth outside as well as a lovely book titled Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.  Whether you are 3 or 93 or somewhere in between, give them a try and have fun!

• Matching Green:  Have you seen our color walk cards in the childrens' area?  Would you like to have your own?  Head to your favorite paint supplier and collect some paint chips.  Try to choose shades of green close to what you have seen in nature.  Punch holes in them and attach to a key ring.  Head outside and see how many of them you can match.  
• Creating Green: Put some green paint on a paint pallet or paper plate along with some white and black paint.  Try slowly adding some white or black to the green and paint that color onto some paper.  Now add a little more and add it to your painting.  Experiment further by adding yellow, blue, and purple.  What do your shades of green look like now?  By the time you are done you'll have a lovely green color study that just might be fridge worthy.

• Journaling Green:  Now that you've experimented with making different shades of green, take your nature journal and paint supplies or colored pencils outside.  Stop at a few different plants, draw a quick sketch, maybe add a description, and try to match the color.  You'll have captured the freshness of spring in your journal.  Maybe you can even visit the same plant in the summer and see if the color has changed any...

If you would like to share photos of any of these activities that you have tried, we would love to see them!  You might see them in a TPL Gardens photo gallery!

A Great Day and Another Coming Up...

Last month the Topsham Public Library Garden Committee hosted a Garden open-house and what a lovely day it was!  The weather was perfect, volunteers were hard at work, children played, laughed and made some nature crafts and we even made a few new friends.  We call that a success!  Thank you to all who joined us.

This month, we have another fun event happening in the gardens and it's coming right up...  

It's our second annual nature journaling workshop.  This year, we will be hosting a series of three workshops, all with a specific theme.

Sources: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 

The first in the series, taking place May 18th at 1pm, will be an introduction to the practice of nature journaling and is open to all ages.  We’ll be kicking it off with a not-to-be-missed 3D slide presentation by a very special friend that's sure to inspire you.  The rest of our time will be spent in the gardens where you'll receive individual guidance as you make a nature journal entry.

We will provide notebooks and sketching pencils, although do feel free to bring your own supplies.  You may also choose to bring your camera if you’d like to add photos to your journal.

We hope to see you then...

P.S.  If you'd like to read more about nature journaling, check out my post here: The Art of Observation 
Don't forget to view the resources at the end.

It’s Getting Greener!

Have you noticed?  It’s greening up outside and it’s beautiful!  

Go ahead... While you’re at the library, take a stroll around our gardens.  There are some lovely flowers blooming and all sorts of new growth.  And speaking of new growth, have you ever noticed how many different shades of green there are?  The variations seem endless.

If you’re with your children (or even if you're not), grab the color walk cards and see how many different greens you can match.  Don’t forget to visit our “Activity downloads” page for a great Nature Detective packet to encourage your little ones to learn all about leaves.  Or, take an observation sheet with you and tell us what you notice in the gardens.  We’d love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful spring-green day.

Seedfolks

Lately we have been reading lots of garden-related stories: Seedfolks, Rose's Garden, Plant a Kiss, and more.

But these stories are not just about planting gardens.  They are about so much more, like planting seeds of hope for a future filled with beauty.  About the power of nature.  About how simple gestures bloom into something so much bigger with faith and perseverance.  About a sense of community. 

The messages found in these pages are being realized right here at our library.  

Join us on the 27th of this month from 10am to 12pm to celebrate the library gardens at our spring Gardens Open-house.  See what our community has nurtured from those very first seeds of hope and be a part of its blooming.

Nature Crafts

As I look at the calendar and think about the upcoming holidays, I'm also starting to think of snow.  It'll be here soon.  But I still want to hold on to the beauty that the fall season has to offer.  I'm not quite ready to slip into winter.

If you are feeling the same, here are some wonderful nature crafts that would put all those pressed leaves, collected acorns and pinecones, and miscellaneous treasures from nature to creative use:



Fall Leaves Window Display



Magical Nature Creatures



Fairy Tea

Leaf People





Nature Mandalas


Be sure to also check out the fall leaf and seed activities in the children's area during your next visit to the library.

ENJOY!!!

About the Children’s Garden

What makes a place a “children’s garden?”  Colorful flowers and features to engage all the senses are certainly high on the list. It might have a theme that appeals to children, or it might include whimsical plants with unusual shapes. It should certainly attract little creatures, such as birds, bees and butterflies, that delight little people.  

The plants should be suited to their location and not require large inputs of water or chemicals to maintain. Nor should they require the use of herbicides or pesticides. Overuse of resources and  toxins today leaves a debt of damage that will be paid by the very people the garden is for.  

The Topsham Public Library Children’s Garden was designed with all of these features in mind. It is a rainbow garden, roughly mimicking the sequence of colors in the rainbow. It starts with reds and pinks, moves through the warmer colors of yellow and orange, continues into the green section (with many white-flowering plants), and ends with cool blues and purples. My children think I should put the purple coneflowers in the pink section. They may be right, but the plants are called PURPLE coneflowers, so purple.

The plants you see in the garden, with very few exceptions, are highly drought tolerant and tough - necessary features for this hot, dry, windy site with poor, sandy soil. During the summer the garden gets watered about once per month. While this is more than enough for most of the plants here, some of the less drought-tolerant species will not look as spectacular as they otherwise might. We think this is a reasonable trade-off for a garden that uses fewer precious resources.

Plants of different textures, smells, and shapes populate the garden. The flowering panicles of the prairie dropseed grass smell like vanilla. Leaf forms range from the soft and fuzzy leaves of lamb’s ear to the spiky yellow and green leaves of the yucca plant. Bright blue spheres of globe thistle dot the top of the garden in mid summer. Gayfeather sends out long shoots of flowers resembling fireworks.

You would be hard-pressed to visit the garden without seeing butterflies and bees busy at work. One plant, commonly known as butterfly weed, is among the only food sources used by monarch butterfly caterpillars. In fall, goldfinches visit the dried seed-heads of coneflowers and black-eyed susans.

In its short lifetime, this garden has battled a variety of pests. Most noteworthy was a fearsome attack of Asiatic Garden Beetles in 2011 which severely damaged nearly one third of the plants. Faced with the ruin of the garden it was tempting to spray a pesticide. Instead, we replaced a number of plants with ones the beetles were less attracted to and we left some in that had less severe damage to see what the next year would hold.  

As with every interaction with the natural world, the garden is a work in progress and continually evolving.

Sarah Wolpow
Garden Designer
Thistlegaard Perennial Gardens