I am so full of appreciation for our botanic garden, and the many ways it connects me to the wider world! I have discovered a whole world there…. the things I have learned and seen there come to me in my everyday life and also when I take special trips. I find myself smiling at little details I notice in new places, or recognizing familiar bees and wildflowers,or simply enjoying a landscape with an ever-evolving perspective. Last month, a couple of our tours saw the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar eating it’s only food source- the California Pipevine plant (pictured). Maybe this month we will find the butterfly in its chrysalis…
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Please consider joining us on one of the following August 2013 tours of the Botanic Garden. Find directions at http://nativeplants.org/directions.html. Parking and admission are always free. We will meet at the Visitor Center at the scheduled start time and begin our garden walk from there. There is no charge for tours, but please sign-up in advance by calling (510) 395-1670 or emailing Alya@BerkeleyGardens.com.
The Three Seasons of California Saturday, August 31, 9am-10:30am
California native plant life has developed in our particular geography and weather patterns. Much of California, including the bay area, is known to have a unique climate that conveys special attributes to its plants. It has been called our “three seasons,” and is a rare seasonal pattern- known from only a few places in the world! Come learn about California’s three seasons and how our plants and landscapes reflect this very special place.
General Public Garden Tour Saturday, August 17, 2pm-3pm
You can walk in the botanic garden a different way each day of the year, so many are the paths and possibilities! This tour is offered as one of the regularly scheduled walks hosted by garden docents every Saturday and Sunday. Let’s chart a new course together- we will go where the day leads us, and find a new way to see the garden. Questions for Alya, suggestions, and participation most welcome! It is sure to be delightful.
Sensory Exploration for All Ages Sunday, August 25, 2pm-3pm
Come one, come all! For anyone young or well-aged, this will be a simply great walk through a great garden. We will find many things sure to please with fragrance, beauty, sound and movement. Some of the things I love in the garden: the sound of running water; the cool air upon your skin when entering the redwood grove; the powerful smell of crushed California bay leaves; and the mesmerizing movement of bunchgrasses. The garden is filled with scurrying, flying, shedding, crunching, munching, breezy, sweet, majesty, treasure, hidden, soft and every green imaginable… and for this hour, you will be filled, too.
Food in the Garden for People and Other Living Things Saturday, August 24, 2pm-3:30pm
Over many millennia, California plants have sustained people, other mammals, birds, insects…. Without our plant life, none of the other California creatures would have survived. Who eats what? Why? How? Let’s talk! (Yum!)