Coastal Maine Botanical Garden Entrance
I had the honor last week of joining the faculty at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden to give a two day workshop on Gardening for Wildlife as part of the Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture.
As a general rule I don’t tend to spend much time in botanical gardens because I don’t enjoy the “Plant Zoo” mentality, which is a collection of specimen plants from around the world that have no ecological connection to each other. Just one of this, one of that, like animals in a zoo but with plants.
A wildlife garden is dependent on specific native plant communities which work together with the wildlife to form an ecosystem.
The Hillside Garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
However, the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden has adopted a different mission: to showcase the native plants of coastal Maine. They are redoing their Hillside Garden to highlight these plants.
Lady Slipper Orchid in Bloom at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
They have been conducting a long-term study of their Lady Slipper Orchid population for the past 15 years.
And now they have started this Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture. The first group of students will complete this 2 year program this coming October.
It was such a joy to get to know each of these students. What a dedicated and eager to learn group of people. Many kudos from me to Melissa Cullina, the director of education, who had the vision to start this program and attract such an amazing group of people!
Canada Tiger Swallowtail at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
And kudos to each of these students who came to class so well prepared, having read and printed out all of the resource material I posted on a web page I created for them.
You asked such wonderful questions I had to do some homework for the second day of class to find the answers for you. Thanks so much for sharing your lunchtime with me, and for being so excited about finding holes in plant leaves and trying to figure out who had been snacking there. Thanks for showing me around these beautiful special gardens where we discovered so many signs of wildlife. And good luck to each of you as you near your graduation from this program!
Discovering Insect Life at the Gardening for Wildlife Workshop at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
It was a joy and an honor to share those two days talking about so many aspects of creating welcoming habitat for wildlife in our gardens. I’m really looking forward to coming back again in the future.
If you live nearby, please sign up for this certificate program! Melissa Cullina has done an excellent job of creating this very in-depth course, and you will really enjoy it, and learn so much from it.
If you don’t live nearby, this is a place you don’t want to miss. And Maine is an incredibly gorgeous place to visit, so start planning your trip now 
Carole Sevilla Brown lives in Philadelphia, PA, and she travels the country speaking about Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife. Check out her new free online course Ecosystem Gardening Essentials, 15 free lessons delivered to your inbox every week.
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
I sincerely hope that you will visit the Matthaei Botanical Garden in Ann Arbor, Michigan which has many different types of native plant gardens and is working hard on adding more. It is a lovely place. (Disclosure: I volunteer there as a part of the native plant group, collecting the seeds of, preparing, sowing, transplanting and weeding native plants.)
Hi Carole,
Thank you again for a great class! I really enjoy how you teach and get the information “stuck in my head” ;O)
I’ll retake the class when you are back up because it was so great!
What a wonderful program that I wish I could attend and how exciting Carole to be part of it..they couldn’t have had better teacher!
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It must have been great, Carole, meeting people so dedicated to wildlife and native plants that they signed up for the 2yr course. I always am thrilled when I meet people that share the same passion. We need more such courses across the nation~
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I had just heard of these gardens as I left Maine to move to NY. That and Four Season Farm which was just across Penobscot Bay from where I lived! You’ve reminded me that I do miss Maine and hope to plan a trip back. The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden will be one of my destinations!
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