Dear Friend of the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and Green Home Features Showcase,

I’m writing about the free talks in the nurseries that will be given on this Saturday, Nov. 9, during the last Native Plant Extravaganza of 2024, and also about the Nature’s Best Hope conference at which Doug Tallamy will be speaking on the following Sunday, Nov. 17. Tickets for this event are selling fast: to avoid disappointment, purchase yours now.

Last Native Plant Extravaganza of 2024, including Free Talks in the Nurseries

Now is the time to plant California natives. 

Shop in-person at this fall's last Native Plant Extravaganza this Saturday, Nov. 9, at East Bay Wilds (Oakland), the Watershed Nursery (Richmond), or Oaktown (Berkeley), or online either Saturday or Sunday, Nov. 9 or 10 at Green Thumb Works or our newest native plant nursery, Down by the Bay, and a percentage of your purchases will go to support the Tour. 

Free talks in the Nurseries on Sat. Nov. 9

12:00 “Container gardening with native plants” by Pete Veilleux, owner of East Bay Wilds, 2777 Foothill Blvd., Oakland

1:00 “Leave the Leaves & Other Fall Native Garden Needs”
Bring your native gardening questions for Watershed Nursery staff for a casual Q+A and discussion. We’ll discuss Leave the Leaves, a program by the Xerces Society for creating overwintering habitat for insects, and other fall/winter gardening to-dos.  This discussion will be lead by Catherine Worley, Assistant Retail Manager at The Watershed Nursery, 601 A Canal Blvd., Point Richmond

2:00 “Brighten up your garden and attract birds with these berry-bearing plants— snowberry, thimbleberry, currants, huckleberry, and more!” by Suzanne Carter, owner of Oaktown Native Plant Nursery, 702 Channing Way, Berkeley

“Nature’s Best Hope” Conference, with keynote speaker Doug Tallamy

When:  Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024

Where:  Mayer Theatre, Santa Clara University

Cost:  $50

View the agenda and purchase tickets here

Doug Tallamy, ecologist, inspirational speaker, and best-selling author of Nature’s Best Hope will be the keynote speaker at the conference “Nature’s Best Hope” which will take place at Santa Clara University on Sunday, Nov. 17, from 1:00-5:00. 

Tallamy points out that we are all focused on the climate crisis—as we should be—but that even if we could solve the climate crisis today we would still have a real and accelerating biodiversity crisis. North America has lost three billion breeding birds in the last fifty years, and insect numbers are in drastic decline nearly everywhere. The U.N. predicts that one million species will go extinct in the next eighteen years. 

“These losses are not an option if we humans wish to continue happily on this planet,” Tallamy says, ”for it is plant and animal diversity that creates the stable and productive ecosystems on which we depend. We are at a critical point of losing so many species from local ecosystems that their ability to produce and provide the oxygen, clean water, flood control, pollination, pest control, carbon storage, etc., that is—the ecosystem services that sustain us—will become seriously compromised.”

He points out in a clear and engaging way why we must—and how each of us can— successfully address the biodiversity crisis at the grassroots level. Tallamy’s message is that every property owner must improve the ecological integrity of landscapes under his or her control by adding native plants and restoring habitat around our homes, offices, or place of worship, in local parks and wherever else we can weed and plant has resonated with many in the Bay Area.  

I hope you’ll join me at this conference to learn what you can do, or to inspire you to accomplish new native plant-related projects.  In addition to Doug Tallamy’s talk, there will be presentations on gardening for wildlife in a home garden (mine!), the creation of a series of beautiful pollinator pathways in Palo Alto, and the partnership between the City of San Carlos and Master Gardeners that resulted in an attractive and inviting native garden being planted in front of the City’s offices, adjacent to the library. 

The Oakland Museum conference on Nov. 16 has already sold out: don’t miss your chance to hear Doug Tallamy and other change-makers—purchase your tickets now.  

I hope to see you there!

Warmly,

Kathy