Native Plant Gardening Workshop Wrap-up

Karen Brower address the group before showing her amazing presentation on Penstemons. 

Thanks again to Catherine Cain and the Calypso Chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society for arranging such a wonderful native plant gardening workshop.  This year there were around sixty attendees, and it was a great, interested and engaged group.  I look forward to to the workshop next year.

Catherine Cain tells the audience to start blogging!

All the talks were wonderful and I especially liked Catherine's presentation on how to start a garden blog.  It was a veritable call to arms to the audience, as Catherine encouraged (and demanded) all the gardeners in the room to start blogging, tweeting and Facebooking.  And as she reminded people, having a computer is not an excuse for not having a blog (!)- they have one in the library.  I love that this chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society is embracing social media and technology- it is very progressive, and frankly rare in the society.

In fact, one of the speakers, Kathy of Blackfoot Native Plant Nursery, just started a blog of her own http://blackfootnativeplants.wordpress.com  (perhaps inspired by the workshop agenda).

Kathy from Blackfoot Native Plant Nursery sells some plants- the first plant sale of the year!

As promised, click here to download a .pdf of my presentation on wildlife gardening.

Click here to download presentation

Also, here are some links to posts on my blog that have more information about topics I covered

• How to build a native bee box (including a link to download a field guide to Montana Native bees)
• The ecology of quaking aspen in our yard 
• The ecology of yellow evening primrose
• Mixed feelings for bird feeders
• Hummingbird plants
• Growing a bird garden (also a link to download a copy of the article featuring our garden in Montana Outdoors).
• Bird house basics (including a little video of a nut hatch excavating a nest box)
• Spring cleaning for nest boxes
• How to build a brush pile
• Plant a standing snag for wildlife

It was an inspiring workshop, and a great way to get excited about gardening this spring.  As soon as I got home, I planted three fantastic looking wax currants (Ribes cereum) I bought from Catherine's nursery, Southwest Montana Native Landscapes, and some forbs I bought from Kathy.  It was good timing, too, because this morning my garden was covered by about 3" of snow- or, as I call it, time-release water.