“Restoring Native Habitat Around Your Home” ~ A Workshop Series
Are weeds knocking at your door?  Do you want to restore a little bit of the Methow’s natural beauty around your house?  Not sure what to do with all that dirt and bare ground after your construction project?

If you are like most of us, you could probably benefit from a new series of fun and informative monthly workshops we are co-sponsoring with Rob Crandall of Methow Natives.  The “Restoring Native Habitat around the Home” workshop series is based on the Methow Conservancy’s handbook “Restoring Shrub-Steppe in the Methow Valley,” and starts in April.

The monthly workshops will provide landowners with hands-on experience in planning, designing and implementing native plant restoration and landscaping projects around your house.  Through this series you will learn do-it-yourself, low-cost strategies to beautify your surroundings, attract birds and butterflies, and help native plants thrive.  Topics include site design, plant identification, weed control, irrigation, seed collection and propagation.

During the series, we will design and install a small native plant landscape while covering specific monthly topics.  Field trips to both native habitat and ongoing restoration projects will widen our horizon on the possibilities of native restoration.  As a class, we will have the opportunity to look at participants’ potential projects and give input.  The course is designed to help both full-time and part-time residents living in a variety of habitat types in the Methow Valley.

The course will be led by Rob Crandall, owner of Methow Natives nursery. Rob has ten years of experience with native plant restoration in the valley.  Well known as a local environmental educator, Rob loves to share his enthusiasm and passion for native plants.  We hope you will leave the workshop series with a deep appreciation for our native plant communities and a renewed desire to restore habitat in your neck of the woods.

Classes will be held April through October, once a month on a Saturday, from 9:00 am to Noon at Methow Natives.  People can attend the entire series or individual classes.  Each class has a sliding-scale fee of $10 - $20, payable to Methow Natives when you attend.  Classes are limited to 12 people, so pre-registration is encouraged but drop-ins are welcome.  To pre-register for all or part of the series, please call Mary at the Methow Conservancy at 996-2870 or email info@methowconservancy.org.

The tentative outline of workshop topics includes:

April 11th - Design Basics for the Native Plant Garden
Site analysis; long term goals; “hardscape” considerations; begin work on native landscape bed.

May 9th - What to plant?
Native plant identification; how to choose plants; continue working on native landscape bed.

June 13th - Weeds, weeds, weeds
Weed identification; weed control strategies

July 18th - Native Seed collection
Seed collection field trip to local shrub-steppe hot spots

August 8th - Tour of potential landowner projects
If you are so inclined, the class will take a tour of potential projects and give input and maybe even a little weeding help.

September 12th - Water and irrigation systems

October 10th - Getting ready for next year
Seeding and fall planting