KERHONKSON (and ULSTER COUNTY)

The Five Seasons Garden is a learning landscape designed to reveal life’s regenerative cycles, our place within them, and how we can participate more intentionally for the well-being of the land, the many beings with whom we share it, and ourselves.Each seasonal garden offers highly nutritious foods and medicinal plants that provide support for that time of year. Many are plants that naturally emerge in that season. Drawing from Classical Chinese Medicine and place-based Indigenous knowledge traditions, we also explore deeper correspondences: how a plant’s color, taste, growth pattern, ecological niche, and medicinal actions may help us understand its relationship and value to a season. When we recognize that our physiology, emotions, and dispositions change with the seasons and that plants have evolved qualities that help living beings meet these seasonal changes we begin to understand that the seasons move through us, not merely around us.We are, in every sense, part of the natural world. The elements live within us. Kinship is not a metaphor. Here, the garden becomes a place to witness these connections at work and, through our educational programs, to explore how they might guide meaningful changes in the ways we care for the land, ourselves, and one another.er.

KERHONKSON (and ULSTER COUNTY)

The Five Seasons Garden is a learning landscape designed to reveal life’s regenerative cycles, our place within them, and how we can participate more intentionally for the well-being of the land, the many beings with whom we share it, and ourselves.Each seasonal garden offers highly nutritious foods and medicinal plants that provide support for that time of year. Many are plants that naturally emerge in that season. Drawing from Classical Chinese Medicine and place-based Indigenous knowledge traditions, we also explore deeper correspondences: how a plant’s color, taste, growth pattern, ecological niche, and medicinal actions may help us understand its relationship and value to a season. When we recognize that our physiology, emotions, and dispositions change with the seasons and that plants have evolved qualities that help living beings meet these seasonal changes we begin to understand that the seasons move through us, not merely around us.We are, in every sense, part of the natural world. The elements live within us. Kinship is not a metaphor. Here, the garden becomes a place to witness these connections at work and, through our educational programs, to explore how they might guide meaningful changes in the ways we care for the land, ourselves, and one another.er.

Catskill Native Nursery, our favorite Nursery, filled with great plants and staffed with a group of very smart plant people!
Hortus Conclusus and now Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge is a growing garden with amazing plant sales and an excellent series of continuing garden and plant education programs
Hudson Valley Farm Hub, a local and regional nonprofit agricultural center with "a mission of fostering an equitable and ecologically resilient food system – one that meets the economic and social needs of our communities while working in partnership with natural systems". A larger machine-scale crop production approach designed to also support small farms.
Mohonk Preserve, with a mission to protect the Shawangunk Mountains region and inspire people to care for, enjoy, and explore their natural world through land conservation, stewardship and educational programs.
Rondout Creek Watershed Council, group working in association with NY DEC,Rochester, Rosendale, Marbletown and Wawarsing to draft Water Management plan for Rondout Watershed
Rondout-Esopus Land Conservancy is a nonprofit trust that works with landowners to protect and preserve land in Ulster County, New York for the enjoyment of current and future generations. 
Rondout Valley Permaculture, a large, active meetup group with regular gatherings and farm visits, much to learn from the regulars here.
Town of Rochester Website with public notices, zoning and code requirements, waste management guidelines and information on the Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission
Ulster County Department of the Environment Website, good resource for County Open Space plans, Watershed mapping, Government climate-action initiatives and Natural Resources
Wild Earth's vision is for every person from every walk of life to have the opportunity to explore, play, and learn in nature and while building strong connections to themselves, each other and the Earth. Anne and April had an amazing time!
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