From Our Backyard to Yours

4/30/2020 — Spring Has Sprung

“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

This week we turn to our horticulture and grounds team for advice about orchids, ferns, and trails. Strolls at Home considers the meaning of “connection.” And we share a garden-inspired poem to close out National Poetry Month.

Horticulture & Design: Orchids? Really!

One of our readers asked about the orchid we showed last week and wondered how we were managing to grow them. Director of Grounds & Horticulture, Andy Navage offers this advice.

Nature & Well-Being: Strolls at Home, Week 3

We’re very glad you are enjoying Strolls at Home. The theme for this week addresses something we are all trying to find more of during this time of quarantine — Connection.

And while you’re here, take a moment to connect with these short videos — quiet moments at the Reserve:

Blooming primula

Flowering star magnolia

Conservation & Stewardship: Blazing the Trails and Trimming the Ferns

Maintaining the Reserve is a multi-faceted endeavor encompassing everything from plant propagation and organic composting to the creation of new landscapes and habitats. Take a first-hand look at how we build our trails: Trailblazers. Then learn how and why we cut back our ferns every spring: Fern Frenzy.

Creativity & Inspiration: In the Garden

We round out our celebration of National Poetry Month with this offering from Anis Mojgani. Anis was a Creative Resident at Bloedel Reserve in 2018 and has just been named Oregon’s next Poet Laureate, a two-year appointment that begins May 4, 2020. You can read more about Anis Mojgani here.

In the garden

Sometimes I would lie in the garden

and pretend I was a carrot.

Sometimes I curled under the big leaves

and became a head of lettuce.

Sometimes I softened my paws in the softer earth

and I was a rabbit.

Sometimes when in the garden

I was a rock

and wished I were two rocks

was sometimes becoming three rocks

was sometimes warmed by the sun

or held cool and smooth in a palm

but sometimes I was waiting hundreds of years

and it was only the wind that touched me.

Sometimes I waited hundreds of years

thousands of years!

and not even the wind moved me.

Sometimes the moon was full

and looked like a round and orange skinned woman in an orange dress

and the enormous night would use the moon to tell me

I know you

you are like how I am

and look how bright my body sometimes is

Sometimes I waited for spring

always I would wait for spring

and one time my love appeared like it

out of the cold

and with flowers upon her fingertips

Missed a Week? Want to See More?

Click the links below to see previous week’s Backyard pages:

Ask Us

Is there something about Bloedel Reserve you’d like us to highlight here? Some burning question you’ve always wanted to ask our horticultural team? Let us know. Send us an email at in**@bl************.org.

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