Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and Green Home Features Showcase - Livestream

Doug Tallamy will kick off this event by describing what you can do in your own garden to restore nature. Kathy Kramer will provide a retrospective on the Tour’s first 20 years. In a series of garden visits passionate garden owners and the talented designers of the Bay Area’s most beautiful and inspiring landscapes will take us on private tours of their gardens. Come learn how you can attract birds and garden for pollinators, plant milkweed for monarchs, garden for color and interest throughout the year, electrify your home, and more.

Agenda:

10:00-10:15 Welcome, Kathy Kramer, Tour Coordinator

10:15-11:30 “Answers to FAQ about how to transform yards into ecologically valuable gardens” by renowned ecologist Doug Tallamy, author of “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope”

11:30-12:00 “How my husband and I transformed our yard from an ecological wasteland into a beautiful, native plant garden??"and the wildlife we have seen in it” by Kathy Kramer” by Kathy Kramer, San Pablo garden

12:00:12:30 “Gardening on the wild side, for wildlife’s sake” by Anita Pereira,: visit this Richmond garden on Saturday, May 3, 2025

12:30-1:00 “The Skyline Gardens Restoration Project: From weeds to wildflowers!” by Glen Schneider (fill out this volunteer form if you would like to help restore this area to greatness!)

1:00-1:30 “From a 1950s garden to a contemporary garden of California native plants with a flagstone path leading to a pinwheel tiling patterned patio” by Lois Simonds of Gardening With Nature’s Design, video by Ellyse Morgan and Tam Starita. Visit this Berkeley garden on Saturday, May 3

1:30-2:00 “Easing the biodiversity crisis one garden at a time: here’s how one renter did it” by Deborah Underwood, San Francisco garden

2:00-2:30 “Pruning native plants” by Leslie Buck: video by Ellyse Morgan
Leslie Buck will demonstrate basic pruning techniques and cuts that look so natural you can’t tell your native plants have been pruned.

2:30-3:00 “AB-1572: The ‘non-functional turf’ irrigation ban, and how it will fundamentally reshape the California landscape” by Rebecca Pollon

Registration required at weblink to watch on Zoom.  Also available on YouTube.

Additional session on Sunday, April 6.  In-person tours on May 3 and 4.