Native Plants for Homeowners Series

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Do you want to incorporate more natives into your yard but are afraid it will look messy or don’t know where to start?

You can support the environment in your own backyard—without losing control (or ornamental appeal). Native Plants for Homeowners will show you how. In this five-part series, we’ll cover everything from why native plants are important to how to integrate them into your own garden designs to how to transform gardens into native habitats. Adding native plants doesn’t have to mean completely converting your yard to a tall-grass prairie habitat. Instead, you can strategically close the gaps created by completely useless ecological spaces to create functional, self-sustaining systems that appeal to people and animals alike—right in your own backyard.

This series is designed for urban and suburban homeowners of all skill levels who want to use native plants in their landscaping. You don’t need to know anything about using natives starting out—we’ll teach you! Whether you’re redoing your landscaping, tackling a new-to-you yard, managing a public or community space, or just want to incorporate more native plants into the landscaping you have, this series will help.

You’ll walk away feeling more confident in your native plant knowledge as well as your ability to create a garden with native plants that meets your aesthetic preferences. You’ll also have a personalized native garden plan that’s self-sustaining and ecologically valuable and a list of resources and plant sources. And you’ll have met others in our area who are doing the same thing you are.

Classes run every Thursday in March from 6:30-7:45pm. See individual class descriptions below. While the five classes can be taken individually, we highly recommend taking the whole series, as each class will build on knowledge learned from the previous class.

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Class 1: Assessing Your Site
Thursday, May 25, 2023, from 6:30-8pm

First things first: You must understand your site before you’re ready to start building a garden. What type of soil do you have? How much moisture does your garden get? Do you get four to six hours of sun? What plants are already in your garden? All of these questions will play a role in deciding what type of native plant garden is right for you. In this class, we’ll dissect each of these questions to develop a better understanding of your space.

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Class 2: Choosing the Right Plants
Thursday, June 1, 2023, from 6:30-8pm

What motivates you to plant native plants? In this class, you’ll identify your goals for your garden and explore how these goals will influence what plants you choose. We’ll consider how the plants you choose have a direct impact on the type of insects and wildlife you attract to your yard. We’ll also discuss how you can integrate native plants into traditional garden settings with a focus on aesthetics. There’s a place for every type of native plant garden, and it all starts with choosing the right plants to fit your goals.

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Class 3: Developing a Design
Thursday, June 8, 2023, from 6:30-8pm

With your garden goals in mind, you’re ready to start putting together your design. In this workshop, participants will develop their own plant designs for their gardens. We’ll discuss how flower height, bloom time, color and ecological function will influence that design. You’ll leave this class with your own design in hand.

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Class 4: Getting Started
Thursday, June 15, 2023, from 6:30-8pm

Once you have a design, it’s time to get started. In this class, we’ll head outside and talk through the initial steps for installing a native plant garden. We’ll explore topics like site preparation, soil amendments, planting and invasive plant removal. Weather permitting, participants will have a chance to get their hands dirty putting some of these techniques into practice.

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Class 5: Long-Term Maintenance
Thursday, June 22, 2023, from 6:30-8pm

Native plant gardens get a bad rap for looking ratty and wild. While some people like that look, others have a different vision for their garden. In this class, we’ll discuss the long-term maintenance of your garden and how to balance ecological services for our pollinators with garden aesthetics. We’ll also explore how to maintain your garden to ensure the vitality of both your plants and the creatures that rely on them.