Creating a Bee, Butterfly & Bird Restaurant and Building Community Along the Way

Is your garden a ‘bar’ that only offers nectar to adult butterflies but no food for their offspring? Do the birds and bees visiting your garden have everything they need to raise the next generation? Learn how you can create a “Bee, Butterfly and Bird Restaurant” by growing the ‘keystone plants’ that feed your local ecosystem. In the process, you can:

• Attract more bees, butterflies and birds to your garden
• Boost your fruit and vegetable yields
• Help save local species that are in decline
• Engage with neighbors to build back habitat throughout your community

Join us for this lively discussion as we explore opportunities to boost biodiversity in our own gardens and simple ways we can educate and engage others.

Jennifer Dirking has been an organic gardener for over 40 years, but only recently transformed her garden from a food desert to a habitat oasis in her suburban San Carlos neighborhood. Inspired by Doug Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope, she has reached beyond her garden fence to develop partnerships and inspire hundreds of others throughout the Bay Area to begin their own native gardening journey. Her simple tactics involving free wildflower seeds and promotion via social media provide a model for other individuals and organizations that want to reach further into their communities as well. Jennifer is our Wildflower Ambassador Program Chair.