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  • Oct 18, 2014 from 4:00am to 9:00am
  • Location: Walnut Creek
  • Latest Activity: Oct 30, 2020

Join renowned environmental educator Judy Adler in this in-depth tour of her half-acre Walnut Creek garden. Judy’s suburban garden, part farm, part classroom, part nursery, and part nature preserve, features happy chickens, a rainwater harvesting system, a pond, and many California native and/or pollinator friendly plants. Judy’s was one of the first gardens to be certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, and it is now certified as a habitat for pollinators by the Xerces Society.

Contemplating incorporating chickens in your garden? Tour Judy’s coop and get the scoop on space, light, predator protection, nest boxes, and more.

Curious about pond construction and management, or installing a rain harvesting system? Judy’s rain water storage system stores more than 10,000 gallons of winter rainwater for summer use. Rain water is used to refill her large pond, and also to irrigate the edibles in her garden and orchard. Learn how-to, why, and the cost of installing a rainwater-harvesting system.

Interested in incorporating native plants with edibles and Mediterranean plants? The garden contains more than 400 plant species, many of them native to California, drought tolerant, and attractive to wildlife. Judy’s garden has been planted with more than thirty-five fruit trees, canes, and vines, including a number of unique varieties, such as Nubiana plums, Stella cherries, Seckel Pears, Sanguinelli blood oranges, Minneola tangelos, kiwis, Hachiya persimmons, and Fuji apples. The eclectic collection of plants in this garden is sure to delight. Bring your questions!

Want to learn more about the importance of saving seeds, and how to do it? Tour the recently-constructed seed-storage shed and learn how to prepare and store seeds.

Browse the Adler Horticultural Library, and receive printed resource information on the topics discussed throughout the day. Bring a brown bag lunch, and enjoy it in the garden. Plants from Mountain Mama’s Nursery will be available for sale during breaks, at lunch, and following the workshop.

You can count on Judy to share, with great honesty and humor, the reason for and real story behind each of the sustainable features of her 30 year old garden.

Judy Adler is an environmental educator and consultant who has received numerous prestigious awards for her work. She teaches ecology to hundreds of schoolchildren during unique outdoor field trip experiences through her business, Diablo Nature Adventures.

Pre-registration is required at www.BringingBackTheNatives.net

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