The Wonder of Water: Take your Garden to the Next Level with a Water Feature
We love our water features at the Garden, especially in the heat of summer. The long, tranquil basin that greets guests as soon as they enter the gates, the gushing fountain that stands in the center of the Rose Garden, the serene koi ponds of the Japanese Garden—there’s nothing else like the relaxing sound and sight of water. What if you could bring that peace and serenity back home with you? With a little time and effort, you can—with water features for your home garden.
Strengthen Family Connections with Back-to-School Traditions
The start of a new school year can be both stressful and thrilling. Certainly for families with school-age children, it’s a time of nervous preparation, of anxiety about the year ahead, of shopping and scheduling and strategizing. But mixed into that stress is excitement about new things to learn and new friends to meet. To foster excitement and reduce anxiety, Education Program Coordinator Joanne Howard encourages families to mark the start of the new school year by establishing family traditions.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: Exploring the World of Herbs
For many people, herbs may conjure a mental image of an aisle at the grocery store and tiny bottles filled with dried flakes labeled “Rosemary,” “Oregano” and “Thyme.” But this is only one way to experience herbs. Certainly herbs can enhance your cooking, but they offer much more. “Herbs provide a lot of hope,” says Andrea Garcia, Fort Worth dietician and herb enthusiast. “They may not be able to fix everything, but they can ease things, make things better.”
Garden Education Team Supports Fourth-Grade Teachers with New Interactive STEM Program
The education team is putting the final touches on a new STEM initiative starting in September and aimed at helping fourth-grade teachers meet state standards for energy, organisms and environments. The program, funded by a generous grant from the Sid Richardson Foundation, combines professional development workshops, field trips and peer support.
Capture the Beauty of the Natural World through Printmaking with Plants
Many people appreciate books as doors to other worlds, treasuries of knowledge and archives of human thought. But books can be more than the words or images reproduced on their pages–they can themselves be works of art. The cover, the pages, the binding, even the paper itself can be an expression of creativity. Fort Worth artist and printmaker Laura Post will share ideas and processes for creating one-of-a-kind books inspired by the flowers, trees and shrubs of the Botanic Garden in summer at a two-day workshop on Aug. 11 and 12.
Tis the Season for Dehydration: Watering During a Heatwave
It’s officially summer time in Texas, meaning every day brings hotter and hotter temperatures. But humans aren’t the only ones who suffer in the heat—our plants feel it, too. The good news: it’s not hard to create a garden that is water efficient.
Talk a Walk Through a Book on the Garden’s Pollinator Pathway
School is out for the summer, and caregivers are always looking for fun activities to keep kids happy, busy–and learning. One suggestion from the Garden’s family education team: go on a StoryWalk®. “In a StoryWalk, the pages of a book are placed along a pathway to propel the reader along,” says Early Childhood Program Manager Cheryl Potemkin. “It makes reading an active experience involving movement, attention and reflection.”
Beauty in Blue: Exploring the Earliest Form of Photography, Cyanotypes
A cyanotype is a magical thing. White shapes emerge ghost-like against an indigo-blue background, revealing a negative image in a striking monochrome palette. Cyanotypes also carry a rich history of the earliest experiments in photography–and yet they are remarkably easy to create. You can learn all about cyanotypes and create your own magical blue images in an upcoming workshop with Fort Worth photographer Edgar Miller.
Bring on the Bees, Butterflies and Hummingbirds with these Plants for Pollinators
The Garden’s Pollinator Pathway is a-buzz this month with bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators busy collecting nectar from blooming plants. To enjoy this whirl of activity in your own garden–and help support the overall health of our ecosystem–look to summer-blooming native plants.
For Reliable Summer Color, Look to Red Yucca
Many plants flower in May and into June, but as the temperatures rise, the blooms fade away and then stop altogether. Not red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora.) This Texas native combines easy care and drought tolerance with reliable color all summer long. “It’s one of the most carefree plants you can find,” says Sr. Horticulturist Steve Huddleston.