I'm a New Member!

A few minutes ago, my cousin Kathy sent me on Facebook a link for Beekeeping as a Force for Good at the Horticultural Society of New York  and said, "You should totally have bees next! Make your own honey!"  Little did she know that I've been dreaming about raising honey bees for some time now.  Kathy and I are peas from the same pod, we both love gardening and homesteading, it's no wonder we are cousins. Whenever either of us hear about cool gardening related events around the city, we both notify each other to attend.  I can not believe that I have not stumbled upon The Horticultural Society of New York until she mentioned it.  I looked at their current offerings of lectures and workshops and they are having a whole series of DIY Homegrown workshops from making your own hand salves and lip balms, to hydroponic gardening with Boswyck Farms (where I intern already) to a talk about cultivating mushrooms.  OMG, everything sounds so interesting, all topics are things I've always wanted to learn.   I immediately signed up for a year membership, which gives you benefits such as discounts and invitations to upcoming events, films, and exhibitions.  There are different levels of membership, and the membership fees and donations goes towards funding their current programs.  This is something I definitely want to support.

For example, from their website they say,  
$65: (the cost of an individual membership) buys ladybugs and magnifying glasses for two New York City public school 3rd grade classes. (the fact that my membership donation goes towards teaching kids about gardening is totally awesome)
$100: provides tools to maintain a public library reading garden in a community with few green spaces.
$250: supports the cost of building a bi-lingual teaching library at the GreenHouse on Rikers Island.
$500: funds a 200-gallon rainwater harvesting cistern that can water an urban garden for an entire planting season.
$1,000: purchases the materials for four vegetable gardening workshops at a seniors’ center, a residence for formerly homeless individuals or families, a rooftop garden for people with mental illnesses or a hospice for a terminally ill adults.

The day after the beekeeping lecture, on February 17th, The Horticultural Society of New York opens it's new exhibition, The Art of the Heirloom.   The exhibit "showcases 23 original works commissioned by the Hudson Valley Seed Library for their annual Art Pack collection." They have beautiful artwork on their seed packets and they are setting up a pop up store where the seeds will be on sale.  Aren't these seed packets gorgeous?  I definitely want to attend the reception where the artists will be in attendance.  For more information about the exhibit, check out Hudson Valley Seed Library's website.