Duke Gardens' Michelle Rawlins, Ruth Mary Meyer Japanese Garden horticulturist, and Megan Brown, horticulturist of the Doris Duke Center Gardens, will demonstrate how to construct a holiday wreath for your front door using fresh-cut greenery from the Gardens. Each participant will learn how to build a wreath using provided greenery and other interesting botanical material. Please bring a pair of hand pruners and any additional adornments you would like to include. All other materials will be provided.
Duke Gardens' Michelle Rawlins, Ruth Mary Meyer Japanese Garden horticulturist, and Megan Brown, horticulturist of the Doris Duke Center Gardens, will demonstrate how to construct a holiday wreath for your front door using fresh-cut greenery from the Gardens. Each participant will learn how to build a wreath using provided greenery and other interesting botanical material. Please bring a pair of hand pruners and any additional adornments you would like to include. All other materials will be provided.
A garden in winter can be just as vibrant as in any other season. Join Dr. Neeti Bathala, professor, author, gardener, graduate of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Gardens board member, to learn how to support local wildlife through thoughtful winter gardening practices. Discover native and select ornamental plants that provide food, shelter and unexpected blooms. Gain tools to deepen your connection to seasonal ecology and become a steward of your local environment by contributing to a mid-winter citizen science project aligning with the rhythms of nature.
Try your hand at carving a wooden spoon from raw wood collected at Duke Gardens. Vanessa Hernandez of Ask the Trees will introduce you to the tools, safety strategies and techniques of simple carving in this workshop. All materials, tools and instruction are provided so you can begin your own gorgeous, hand-carved wooden spoon. Information on tool purchasing, kitchenware maintenance and wooden blanks for you to choose from are included. All participants must complete a participation waiver when enrolling.
The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Author Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.
Join Kavanah Anderson, director of learning and community engagement at Duke Gardens, for a conversational stroll in the garden that deepens your relationship with plants. Swap plant stories, dig into horticultural history, question what you know and practice multisensory observation on a playful amble through the Gardens that delights and disrupts your understanding of what a garden can be. Expect to learn from each other, share what you know and leave with more questions than you started with.
Every Durham gardener knows the frustration: clay (or sometimes sandy!) soils that are difficult to work with. But beyond their bad reputation, Durham’s clays can provide a great foundation for edible and ornamental gardeners, provided you know how to balance drainage, organic matter, nutrients, and pH. This presentation will also touch on soil selection for raised beds and containers. This program is part of the Hattie Meadows Gardening School, a free community learning project to spread knowledge and love of gardening.
Join tree expert Matt Archibald, ISA board-certified master arborist at Leaf & Limb for a walk to wonder at the beauty of trees in winter. Learn fascinating facts about various species, emphasizing their ecological importance and their role in our environment.
Growing a garden from seed can be exciting. This presentation will help you build a successful indoor seed starting setup that can be used for edible or ornamental plants and share tips on how to get your homegrown seedlings ready to go outside. This program is part of the Hattie Meadows Gardening School, a free community learning project to spread knowledge and love of gardening. Classes will take place at the Stanford L. Warren Library from January through June 2026.
“This Earthen Door” re-imagines Emily Dickinson's herbarium—a 66-page book of pressed plants she made as a teenager—using plant pigments grown by the artists in their gardens. A renowned American poet, Dickinson was better known as a gardener and avid botany student than as a poet during her lifetime. To honor the poet's nearly 200-year-old efforts, the artists Leah Sobsey and Amanda Marchand remade Dickinson's flower sampler with an early plant-based photo process known as anthotype. Join the artists for a virtual presentation about this collaborative photo project at the intersection of art, science and literature.