Fall Thoughts by The Insider

The leaves on the locust trees are turning gold and there’s a cold snap on the way. Suddenly it feels a little more like fall here in the garden.

Conversations have turned momentarily from Winter Garden Aglow preparations to protecting seedlings in the new children’s garden from frost.

Also on our minds is the final care and watering of plant materials. Much of the garden’s water will be turned off until spring in two week’s time. Dead heading, pruning, fertilization are all being squeezed into a schedule dominated by lighting.

We have already tested lights which survived last year and the first of the WGA lights went up last Friday.

As we lose lights due to weather or age, we recycle them with Pacific Recycling and receive a credit from Idaho Power towards purchasing new energy efficient LED lights. You can help us towards this end by bringing in ANY glass bulbed holiday lights you need recycled to the garden. You can get rid of useless/ugly lights, we can help you recycle, and we can get a recycling credit to get new lights. That’s a win, win, win situation that’s hard to pass up. Being a non-for profit, we appreciate all your help in this as it offsets our significant lighting costs. And with that…It’s time for me to pick up some ladders and start hanging lights!

Joys of Fall

I love the end of summer and early fall harvest. Plants nurtured all through the growing season come to serve a purpose other than a purely ornamental one. Home grown tomatoes and lemon cucumbers brighten my lunches, and peppers become stuffed for dinner. I’m impatiently waiting for an experiment to ripen. I planted Banana Melon seeds for the first time. The large, tapered sixteen inch green fruits are slowly turning yellow. I can’t wait to sample the salmon-pink flesh.

At the Garden, hundreds of children attend the Seed Sense tour and collect seeds to bring back to school. They learn where seeds are found, how they travel, and experience the wide variety of seed shape, size and color. Others will experience the fall with their schools by coming to look at scarecrows and select a pumpkin from the vegetable garden. And on October 3rd, Idaho Botanical Garden members may reap the benefits of a Garden harvest by purchasing seeds collected from the grounds!

2009 Outlaw Field Summer Concert Series

Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal put on a fantastic show at the Garden last night! They delighted over 3,000 concert-goers with their enthusiastic performance and their humor.

Even the weather cooperated - the forecast for the evening was for a hot night, but a light cloud cover helped cool the crowd and seating on Outlaw Field offered unobstructed views of the colorful sunset and the moon rising over Table Rock.

Thanks to the more than 40 volunteers who helped make this night a huge success! Volunteers helped direct cars to parking, directed pedestrian traffic, provided information at IBG’s membership table, checked tickets, assisted with the bike corral, and served as Garden monitors. Volunteers were also able to take time and enjoy the concert too. Thanks again!

We are looking forward to the next concert in the Outlaw Field Concert Series, Michael Franti and Spearhead. They will be performing at the Garden on September 22nd at 7 pm. Tickets are $35 for General Admission and $45 for Preferred General Admission. Tickets are available through Ticketweb online at http://www.ticketweb.com/ or by phone (800) 965-4827, in person at The Knitting Factory Concert House in downtown Boise, and in person at the Idaho Botanical Garden’s Administration Office.

If you are interested in volunteering at the Michael Franti concert or any of our other events, please contact Karen at (208) 343-8649 or karen@idahobotanicalgarden.org