Pruning branches in the Nature House’s native species garden, Hilary Marentette and her fellow gardeners return each spring to the task before them. Her daughter Meghan Marentette is also involved with the Nature Trust, not as a gardening volunteer but by bringing her own unique skills as an artist and author to land conservation.

The Marentette family’s journey with the Nature Trust began in the spring of 2023, when Hilary’s husband passed away and they generously set up a plan to donate a portion of his life insurance proceeds to the Nature Trust. Looking for a way to meet people and to build community, Meghan gently nudged her mother to get in touch with the organization. “I thought they might be her kind of people.”

They were.

Hilary signed up as a gardening volunteer. When she first visited the Nature Trust garden, it was covered in snow and she remarked that it was quite small. Used to tending a much larger garden at home, she welcomed the challenge of the smaller space at Nature’s House. Her first official meeting with the group of five other gardeners was in May 2024. The Nature Trust provided lunch for the gardeners. “I’ve always found that Nature Trust has been very generous in their support for volunteers,” Hilary shared.

During that first meeting at Nature’s House, Hilary mentioned that her daughter is a Nova Scotian children’s author and artist who creates diorama picture books set in nature – in fact, set on Nature Trust conservation land in Purcells Cove. This led to Meghan meeting with staff about the idea of starting an Art and Nature series on the Nature Trust’s blog. The series would aim to highlight Nova Scotian artists who are deeply inspired by nature, and Meghan would help write the questions to ask the artists about their process. The series kicked off with Meghan as the first artist highlighted.

Mother and daughter share a deep-rooted love of creativity in nature, with Hilary being a gardener for most of her life. Twenty years ago, the family moved from Spryfield to a property in Fergusons Cove that had once been a rubbish dump. Over the years, Hilary transformed it to the garden she has now. Through her involvement with the Nature Trust she has noticed a shift in her focus toward more restoration and native plants.

Her time in the gardening group has spilled over into a tight knit group of friends; Hilary shares that “they were the best of friends.” She also recalls, “once they volunteered in my garden to help remove invasive roses.”

In her garden was a native Pink Coreopsis that she had purchased and brought to the Nature Trust garden, where it unfortunately did not make it, but Hilary has continued to contribute a few other native plants that have grown successfully at the Nature’s House garden.

Hilary is very grateful to the fellow volunteers she has met and the friendships she has made, looking forward to the gatherings. She says, ”We all have a great time too, that’s the other thing. It’s not just that we’re volunteering, we’re having fun doing it.”

Together the garden volunteers attend events from forest bathing in Wentworth Valley to native plant sales at Acadia University. In winter, when the garden rests, they meet monthly to talk about plants and share books. One recent shared read was Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger on plant life and its sentience.

Looking even more closely at nature was Meghan, who brought a forest to life on a miniature scale in her children’s picture book, Rumie Goes Rafting (published by Owlkids in 2024). It’s a photo-illustrated story set along the banks of the stream that flows from Purcells Pond in the Purcells Cove Backlands, land that is protected in part by the Nature Trust.  Meghan created the tiny animal characters from fabric and wire, made the props and sets from found materials, and then photographed the story along the stream, collaborating with nature itself to tell the story of Rumie’s forest adventure.

“I wanted to create a picture book that helps children feel more familiar with nature, and inspire them to explore it,” Meghan explains. “Especially for the kids in my local communities, like Herring Cove and Spryfield, who live right on the Backlands but might not know it’s there.”

Meghan returns to the area often, still feeling connected to the stream where she photographed her book, noting all the details that have changed there over time. Hilary returns to the area as well, as she now also volunteers as a Property Guardian for the Purcells Cove Backlands. The land surprises her still. What begins as forest near the pond opens into granite pavement near Flat Lake. The climb is steep and wet in places, and uneven ground, but at the top, the view is worth it.

“It’s lovely,” she says. “And surprisingly challenging steep inclines, even though it’s in the city.”

Most visitors stay near the swimming pond. Fewer venture into the deeper backlands. But for Hilary, the guardianship role has expanded her understanding of the terrain she’s called home for two decades.

For Meghan, seeing the artist series develop over time is a point of pride, knowing that her fellow Nova Scotian artists in nature are being spotlighted with an opportunity to tell their stories. It was through volunteering her time with Nature Trust that Meghan was led to the Backlands Artists, after being invited to join the group by textile artist Frances Dorsey. The group, whose next exhibit will be at the Keshen Goodman Library from early March until the end of April, aims to connect people to the land through the art inspired there, in hopes to gather support for the Backlands’ protection. Meghan is grateful that she can help support the Backlands Coalition in their mission of land conservation, by sharing the art she created in the Purcells Cove area of the Backlands. Over the years, the Nature Trust has been working to protect more areas at Purcells Cove.

“The Nature Trust not only nurture nature, but nurture their volunteers, and really help build connections. Those community connections just proliferate. Kind of like nature itself. We’re like mycelium, you know?” Hilary shares.

Be it through tender care for native plants at the Nature Trust garden or working to highlight the stories of artists out in nature, mother and daughter weave a legacy of artistic vision and skill through all the nature they touch. In nurturing these living connections, we discover that each of us can show up for nature with our unique skills and that strengthens the web of people working hard to protect wild places for today and for future generations.

We’re very grateful to Hilary and Meghan Marentette as volunteers and supporters of the Nature Trust. You can learn more about Meghan and her work on her website or on Instagram, including updates on Rumie’s next adventure in the Backlands, scheduled for publication in 2028! Check out the Backlands Coalition art exhibit, including Meghan’s artwork, at the Keshen Goodman Library from early March until the end of April 2026.