Events

Registration is now open for the free, virtual Seventeenth Annual Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, which will take place on Sundays April 25 and May 2, 16, and 23, 2021 from 10:00 to 3:00.  Following the garden tour a companion event, the virtual Green Home Tour, will take place on Sundays June 6 and 13 from 10:00 to 2:00. 

The award-winning Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour will be kicked off with a presentation by the inspirational, best-selling author Doug Tallamy, feature twenty-five beautiful native plant gardens with Q and A opportunities with hosts offer "Ask the Experts" opportunities, and more.

In addition to "visiting" dozens of local native plant gardens, registrants will learn how design a native plant garden for color and interest throughout the year, garden for wildlife, lower their water bills, protect their family's health and the environment by gardening without using pesticides, and more.

What’s special about California native plants? They are adapted to our soil and climate, naturally water conserving, and easy to care for.  California native plants are better than non-native plants when it comes to attracting native birds, butterflies, and other forms of wildlife. And, as the gardens on the Tour show, these lovely gardens display a sense of place that is uniquely Californian.

Sunday, April 25, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)

 
Gardening for Wildlife

10:00 – 10:10 Welcome

10:10  – 11:10 “Nature’s best hope” by renowned ecologist Douglas Tallamy, author of “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope”

Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us.  Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can­—and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope.

11:10 – 11:30 ” Garden as if life depended on it: top Bay Area native plants for wildlife” by Stefanie Pruegel

11:30 – 1200 “Ask the Experts” Q and A with Doug Tallamy and local native plant experts Bob Sorenson, Glen Schneider, Kelly Marshall, and Stefanie Pruegel

12:00 -12:30 Bob Sorenson’s garden, Orinda: “Bringing nature home” by Bob Sorenson

12:30 – 1:00 Nancy Wenninger’s garden, Walnut Creek: “Gardening for birds” by Nancy Wenninger

1:00 -1:30 Jen Hurley and Dan Gaff’s garden, Alameda: “Gardening for Wildlife in a Small Garden” by Jen Hurley and Dan Gaff

1:30 -2:00 Tour of the Native Here Native Plant Nursery, located in Tilden Regional Park

2:00 – 2:30 “Bridgeview Pollinator Garden:  our own, local ‘Tiny World,'” Oakland: created by May Chen and narrated by Clytia Curley

2:30 – 3:00 Pat Rudebusch’s garden, Orinda: “Gardening for birds and bees” by Pat Rudebusch