Sculpture in the Garden Exhibit

The Montgomery Botanical Gardens seeks entries for our first ever Sculpture in the Garden exhibit. This will include the work of Alabama artists, students and teachers, uniting these works with the curated landscapes of the Montgomery Botanical Gardens. Combining art and nature invites visitors to experience both in new ways, discovering new and unexpected relationships.

This year our Artist in Residence is Charlie “Tinman” Lucas, who has held free workshops with Alabama teachers in advance of the Exhibition, so they can go back to the classroom and help their students create sculptures for the Exhibition.

FULL DETAILS AND ENTRY FORMS HERE

 

Late Season Pollinators

As we enter the dog days of summer, our gardens begin to take on the air of tired travelers in need of rest and recovery. During these last days of summer, providing food and shelter for pollinators takes on a critical role in order to provide food supplies for our winged neighbors. Bees forage for nectar, monarchs need fuel for migration.

Several plants provide for late summer nutrition. Asters, sedums, heleneniums and hydrangeas all offer added support during the waning days of summer. They also fill beds with glorious blooms and make beds look less tired and woebegone.

Visit Montgomery Botanical Gardens Pollinator Garden to learn more about what to include to draw pollinators to your garden.

Support the Montgomery Botanical Gardens when you shop on Amazon and a portion of your purchase will go to improve the Gardens.

1. Go to smile.amazon.com

2. Click the ‘Start Shopping’ button

3. Shop as usual.

Montgomery Botanical Gardens Then and Now…..

While enjoying the beauty and peace of the environment in our Montgomery Botanical Gardens today, we may forget what this particular part of Oak Park looked like prior to 2017 when volunteers began clearing and planting Phase I of the Southern Garden. 

The entrance in 2017 and in 2022 illustrates a remarkable improvement. 

The location now is home to the Daylily Display Garden then and now.

 It is rewarding to review where we were and how far we have come. This perspective will help guide us in our future plans for the development of the gardens. 

Support the Montgomery Botanical Gardens when you shop on Amazon and a portion of your purchase will go to improve the Gardens.

1. Go to smile.amazon.com

2. Click the ‘Start Shopping’ button

3. Shop as usual.

Faithful Master Gardeners Participate in MBG’s June Volunteer Day

by Cathy Maddox

Cheryl McKiearnan, Alice Jackson and Lynne Kuhlmann removing Virginia Creeper and other weeds.

Considering the heat that we have been experiencing this month, it is very impressive that faithful volunteers from the Capital City Master Gardener Association arrived for MBG’s June Volunteer Day. The group, including Karin Carmichael, Linda Graydon, Marie Tomlin, Cheryl McKiearnan, Alice Jackson, Darwin Prewitt, Justin Skipper, Lynne Kuhlman, Ann Hamill, Jane Martin and Cathy Maddox, gethered at 7:30 am on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, to avoid the hotter parts of the day (Volunteer Day is the third Tuesday of each month). Summer heat also produces prolific unwanted weeds and misplaced grasses that require constant removal to prevent their overtaking the planted areas. The group of intrepid gardeners removed eight large black bags of weeds and gathered limbs and debris that created a stack about 5 feet long and 3 feet high for pick up and disposal.

Some of the hydrangeas required additional watering due to the heat, so the volunteers hand watered them to enable them to survive this period of dry heat. This was made possible by the Parks and Recreation staff who recently installed a faucet in the Southern Garden for MBG use. The unsightly hedge of very old shrubs along the entrance drive also got some much-needed attention. Vines, saplings, weeds, dead shrubs and random trash were removed for about twenty feet along the drive. Then a volunteer, Justin Skipper, pruned the Loropetalum shrubs and trimmed the weeds and grass in areas that lawn mowers do not reach. The rest of the hedge along the entrance drive will require continuing attention through the summer to improve the appearance of the hedge and to nurture the health of the desirable plants within them. Our wonderful volunteers make the gardens possible and their faithful and diligent efforts maintain the health and beauty of the gardens. Come and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Ann Hamill weeding beds. 

Justin Skipper trimming weeds.

Marie Tomlin gathering fallen limbs.

Support the Montgomery Botanical Gardens when you shop on Amazon and a portion of your purchase will go to improve the Gardens.

1. Go to smile.amazon.com

2. Click the ‘Start Shopping’ button

3. Shop as usual.