Natural History Wanderings

from Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and Green Home Features Showcase

Upcoming Free Events from the Natives Garden Tour:  Online talks, garden visits, bike trips, bird walks and more

This month we’re beginning a new online talk series featuring inspirational, interactive presentations (bring your questions!) that will help you move ahead with your native plant projects.

These presentations will be followed by opportunities to get together with other native plant fans for outings to home gardens, public native plant gardens, native plant nurseries, restoration projects and more—often followed by the opportunity to have lunch at restaurants with outdoor dining.

Below is information on these and other upcoming events and opportunities:

You Can Do It! Design Your Own Native Garden (online)

Presenter: Native Garden Designer Kelly Marshall, owner of Kelly Marshall Garden Design

Tuesday, June 25, 6:30 – 8:00 pm (online)

Register for Kelly’s talk here.  The Zoom link will be sent to registrants a few days before the event.

Visit the “Find a Designer” section of the Tour’s website here and look under “Marshall” to see the gardens Kelly has designed that have been on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour.

In this online presentation talented garden designer Kelly Marshall, owner of Kelly Marshall Garden Design, will share her secrets for creating an attractive and inviting California native plant garden, along with some of her favorite native plants.  We hope you’ll come away from this presentation inspired and ready to grow your own habitat garden!

Whether you are starting your garden from scratch or looking for fresh ideas, join us for this dynamic and informative session with Kelly.   Her designs feature native plants artfully arranged to create a sense of place and refuge while attracting birds, bees, and butterflies. Kelly’s creative use of focal points, pathways and gathering places will inspire you to design a native garden that you, and the birds, bees, and butterflies that will visit your garden, will enjoy for years to come.

Bring your questions:  we’ll be posing questions from viewers to Kelly throughout the presentation. In addition, native plant landscape designers Ethan Bodnar, owner of PlantKind, and Sandra Nevala-Lee, owner of Green Thumb Works, will be waiting in the chat to answer your questions online.

Choose Your Own Adventure follow-up to Kelly’s talk

Sunday, June 30, 10:00 -12:00 visit Kelly’s home garden in Clayton, then join me for an optional pay-for-your-own lunch at a nearby restaurant with outdoor dining

Native Plant Resource Team members are invited to join me on Sunday, June 30 from 10:00-12:00 on a “Choose Your Own Adventure” to visit Kelly’s garden in Clayton, followed by pay-for-your-own lunch at a nearby restaurant with outdoor dining.  You must be a Native Plant Resource Team member to attend the garden visit and lunch.

Joining the Native Plant Resource Teams (NPRT) is free, and you can sign up here: Join Us! (nativeplantresourceteams.net).

The address for Kelly’s garden in Clayton and the lunch location will be sent to NPRT members a few days before our visit.  I look forward to seeing you there!

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Join us in July for this online talk:

You Can Do It:  10 Steps to Creating a Bird-Friendly Garden (Online)

Presenter:  Brian Dirking

Tuesday, July 23, 6:30 – 8:00 pm 

Register for Brian’s talk here.

This interactive online workshop will explore gardening from a bird’s perspective and then delve into the ten elements that can transform your garden into a bird paradise. Send your questions in advance through the registration page, or ask them during the talk!

Several free outings associated with these events are currently being planned:  they include bird-watching walks, a visit to a private native plant garden, a beautiful public garden, a BYO picnic lunch with other native plant fans, and more.  These events will be promoted to members of the Native Plant Resource Teams:  please join the Teams if you would like more information.  (It’s free to join!)

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The Native Plant Resource Teams have a beautiful new website! 

The Tour has started a new program, the Native Plant Resource Teams, to help people interested in native plants meet each other, and find inspiration and information that will help them garden with natives. It’s free to join:  we hope you will!

Team members are interested in creating pollinator pathways, sharing seeds and plants, encouraging their city officials to incorporate more native trees into the urban landscape, meeting with other native plant fans, creating native gardens in HOAs, and more. Members have met in each others’ gardens, at parks and on-line, held pruning and seed and plant exchange workshops, visited native plant nurseries and restoration sites.

While anyone can browse the website as a guest, in order to access the calendar and Zoom links—or to meet other members who live in your city or shares your interest—(home gardening, sharing seeds and plants, and so on), you’ll need to join—it’s free! 

Sign Up Here to Join the Native Plant Resource Teams

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Regular Monthly Meeting of the Berkeley / East Bay Native Plant Resource Team (NPRT) July 1st, 2:00-4:00 pm

On July 1 the Berkeley / East Bay NPRT will enjoy an afternoon tour of Bonnie’s garden.  We’ll also update each other on local native gardening news, discuss garden/home fire safety, share our experiences on recent NPRT field trips, and we’ll plan an upcoming bike/hike to visit native plantings in the Berkeley public parks.

Berkeley Native Pollinator Garden Bike/Hike July 26th, 2:00-4:00 pm

This spring, the Berkeley / East Bay Native Plant Resource Team joined Berkeley resident Erin Diehm, park neighbors and Transition Berkeley to help maintain several pollinator gardens that have been created in City of Berkeley public parks.

Come see how these gardens are coming along!  Bring your bike or e-bike, bike helmet, water, windbreaker, and a light snack to share with others.  We’ll bicycle to four or five of these native pollinator gardens.  If you prefer to drive your car, no worries! Meet up with the group at the starting location to synchronize your trip or possibly carpool with others. Details will be posted to Native Plant Resource Team members.

Although these events are free, you must be a Native Plant Resource Team member to participate in the monthly meeting, or the bicycle trip.   Sign Up Here to Join the Native Plant Resource Teams

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New Tri-Valley Native Plant Resource Team has formed!

Native plant enthusiasts in the Tri-Valley have formed a Tri-Valley Team, and you are invited you to join them for the kick-off event, which will be held on Saturday, July 13, from 10:00-1:00, at 981 Alden Lane, at the Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore. The group will meet on a deck under the shade of a native oak.

Please see the flyer here—we hope you’ll share it.

At this event you can learn about native plant gardening, volunteer opportunities, and share your ideas for speakers, workshops, and events that you would like the Team to organize. A number of partner organizations will be hosting tables, and they will be eager to talk with you. We will serve refreshments, and welcome donations of individually wrapped snacks.

If you and your family are able to attend the kick-off event, please complete this RSVP Form to help the group prepare.

The goals of the all-volunteer Tri-Valley Native Plant Resource Team include:

– Providing locally relevant information to help home gardeners create
successful native plant habitats
– Advising the Tri-Valley municipal staff on how native plants and habitat restoration fit in with their Climate Action Plans and other goals, such as lower water use and maintenance costs
– Partnering with other organizations to start native plant nurseries,
maintain existing public native plant gardens, and do outreach about native plants
– Initiating and partnering on Green Schoolyard projects, such as pollinator
gardens and Green Pocket (Miyawaki) Forests.

Please join this team!  Sign Up Here to Join the Native Plant Resource Teams.