Going Native Garden Tour 2019

South: Sat, May 04, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

North: Sun, May 05, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

 A free tour of native gardens in Santa Clara Valley & Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area

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Going Native Garden Tour 2019

South: Sat, May 04, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm
North: Sun, May 05, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

Since 2003, the Bay Area's pioneering native garden tour has showcased gardens featuring California native plants. This community-based tour is free of charge to the public. Each tour features up to 60 gardens, most of them private home gardens, which are open on tour day in a do-it-yourself, open house format.  Native plant sales at select gardens. Free of charge to the public. Registration required at GNGT.ORG. Organized by the California Native Plant Society (Santa Clara Valley Chapter) in association with UCCE Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County.

Native Horticultural Symposium - 2019

Gardening for Biodiversity in a Climate Crisis

Date and Time: September 21, 2019, 9am - 5pm.

"Garden as if life depended on it." -- Doug Tallamy

The symposium featured keynote speaker, Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, and Bart O’Brien, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn.

The insect Armageddon, the collapse of the western Monarch butterfly, The Sixth Extinction—we are losing species at an alarming rate. Contributors to this crisis include invasive species, the ubiquitous European lawn, non-native landscapes and the loss of wild areas. Landscape professionals and home gardeners can act to turn this trend around. This one-day symposium showed you how to be part of the solution. 

Videos of the presentations at the 2019 symposium are linked below:

• Restoring the Little Things that Run the World - Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology University of Delaware and author of Bringing Nature Home 
• The Insect Apocalypse, Pollinators, and Climate Change - Angela Laws, The Xerces Society, Monarch and Pollinator Ecologist
• Urban Survivors: Butterfly Conservation in the City of San Francisco - Liam O’Brien, Leptidopterist, The Green Hair Streak Project
• Resilient Bee Landscapes - Kimberly Chacon, Landscape Design, PhD student UC Davis, Bee Habitat Analysis and Design
• What You Can Do Now - Bart O’Brien, Director, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, CNPS Fellow and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn

Venue: Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

Native Horticultural Symposium - 2016

Creating Habitat in the Dryland Garden

The symposium was held on Saturday, September 17, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. 

Landscaping with California native plants is a proven technique for creating low-water, low-maintenance gardens that also provide refuge for wildlife and repair the damage to our urban and suburban areas.  As gardeners, we appreciate pretty flowers and beautiful greenery, but a garden can also provide movement by feeding and housing our fellow creatures. Watching hummingbirds nectar, seeing a caterpillar grow and change, and viewing baby birds as they leave their nest for the first time are delightful experiences that transform how we view our gardens’ role within the local ecosystem.

Videos of the presentations at the 2016 symposium are linked below:  

• The Importance of Being Local for Habitat and Design: Judith Larner Lowry, author and owner of Larner Seeds, talks about the deep reasons to use locally native plants in the habitat garden from the perspectives of the purist, the bees, and the designer.
• Native Bees Need You!: Sara Leon Guerrero, researcher at the Urban Bee Lab, U.C. Berkeley, describes how native pollinators benefit our gardens, showing some of the most common local bees with their favorite nectar and pollen-rich plants to grow in your garden.
•  The Butterflies of San Francisco: How They Relate to Your Garden: Liam O’Brien, illustrator, lepidopterist, and conservationist, describes the butterflies in the tiny geographical area of San Francisco.
• Hedgerows as Habitat: Frederique Lavoipierre, Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, shows how you can take a boring, monoculture hedge and transform it into a magnet for wildlife.
• Designing your Habitat Garden: Bart O’Brien, author and Manager, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, describes easy, practical steps which you can take now to create a landscape rich in wildlife and movement.

Native Horticultural Symposium

Gardening for Biodiversity in a Climate Crisis

Date and Time: September 21, 2019, 9am - 5pm.

"Garden as if life depended on it." -- Doug Tallamy

The symposium featured keynote speaker, Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, and Bart O’Brien, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn.

The insect Armageddon, the collapse of the western Monarch butterfly, The Sixth Extinction—we are losing species at an alarming rate. Contributors to this crisis include invasive species, the ubiquitous European lawn, non-native landscapes and the loss of wild areas. Landscape professionals and home gardeners can act to turn this trend around. This one-day symposium showed you how to be part of the solution. 

Talks and Speakers:

• Restoring Nature’s Relationships - Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology University of Delaware and author of Bringing Nature Home 
• The insect Apocalypse, Pollinators, and Climate Change - Angela Laws, The Xerces Society, Monarch and Pollinator Ecologist
• Urban Survivors: Butterfly Conservation in the City of San Francisco - Liam O’Brien, Leptidopterist, The Green Hair Streak Project
• Resilient Bee Landscapes - Kimberly Chacon, Landscape Design, PhD student UC Davis, Bee Habitat Analysis and Design
• Taking Action for Biodiversity- Bart O’Brien, Director, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, CNPS Fellow and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn

Venue: Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

Previous Symposiums:

• 2019 - Gardening for Biodiversity in a Climate Crisis
• 2016 - Creating Habitat in the Dryland Garden