Lectures

Is your garden a 'bar' that only offers nectar to adult butterflies but no food for their offspring? Do birds and bees that visit your garden have everything they need to raise the next generation? By growing California native plants that feed your local ecosystem you can: 

• Attract more bees, butterflies, birds and other wildlife to your garden

• Help save local species that are in decline and possibly facing extinction

• Enjoy a lush, low water landscape

• Engage with neighbors to build back habitat in your community

Join us for this lively discussion as we explore the best California native plants for boosting biodiversity in our gardens and beyond. 

Image: (c) Jeff Silva

There are few things more rewarding than drawing birds to your garden and providing all the elements they need to survive and raise their young. For many gardeners, just a few simple changes can make all the difference. 

In this talk, we’ll take a look at gardening from a bird’s perspective and then delve into the ten elements that can transform your garden into a bird paradise. Your bird-friendly garden can not only benefit the birds, but also host more butterflies and other pollinators, save water, and save you money at the same time. We hope you’ll join us for this lively conversation!

Image: Anna's Hummingbird with California Fuchsia (c) Anne Parsons

Pollinators are essential for a thriving garden ecosystem, but often cannot access all of the elements they need to flourish and raise the next generation. Few people realize that in addition to the imported European Honeybee, there are 1,600 native bees in California, 8,000 species of native beetles, 1,368 native butterfly and moth species, and countless flies and other pollinators. Each of these native species have co-evolved with our native plants and have developed specialized relationships. By unlocking the secrets of these connections, and designing gardens that foster them, we can increase insect abundance in our gardens. This abundance will increase pollination, create pest management systems, increase crop yields, and save declining bird species. 

Learn how you can create a beautiful low water ‘paradise’ for these bees, butterflies and other pollinators in your garden, and boost your fruit and vegetable yields in the process.  Attendees will receive a free packet of California native wildflowers for pollinators to try out in their own gardens.

Image: Petal Cutter Bee(CC-BY-NC) Robin Gwen Agarwal

Butterflies and moths used to be so plentiful that they filled our gardens with a kaleidoscope of fluttering color. Now, the skippers, swallowtails, painted ladies, ceanothus silk moths and monarchs seem to have disappeared overnight.  But we can bring them back by growing the plants that nourish them at every stage of their development.  

In this lecture we’ll help you:

~Understand the butterfly and moth life cycle

~Examine your own garden situation 

~Design your garden space

~Discover ways to include sunning rocks and mud puddles

~Identify the ‘keystone’  native plants that feed the most butterflies

~Inspire your friends and neighbors to garden for butterflies as well

When you put together all these elements to create the ultimate butterfly garden, you’ll experience your outdoor space in a whole new way!  

Image: Silvery Blue Butterfly (CC-BY-NC) Robin Gwen Agarwal

Here is a YouTube video of this talk:

 Creating the Ultimate Butterfly Garden