We open our program this year with The Slow Water Team of Marianna Hartsong and Ryan Matson. Their topic, PLANTING RAIN, explains their vision of planting small Green Infrastructures all over town to slow, plant and spread water, truly transforming our ecosystem, returning it to a hydrating rather than a dehydrating system.

Our second keynote speaker, Agriculture and Natural Resources and County Extension Director for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Jeff Schalau will close our program with BALANCING OUR GOALS: NATIVE PLANTS, WILDLIFE, FUNCTIONAL ECOSYSTEMS AND YOUR LANDSCAPE. Trying to be the best stewards of our beautiful area, this talk deals with some of these conflicting goals as we work to create functioning native landscapes in the real world.

Seven hour-long workshops are being offered with participants choosing two from this selection:

1. Carol Chambers: Nocturnal Neighbors–Bats in Your Backyard

2. Loni Shapiro: Successful Container Gardening for Veggies, Flowers, and Herbs

3. Dena Greenwood: Attracting Birds to Your Backyard

4. Hattie Braun: Native Plants 101

5. Jeffrey Adams: Watershed Regeneration from the Ground Up (demonstration limited to 20 per session)

6. Feather Jones: Native Plants of the High Desert, Their Medicinal and Cultural Uses

7. Tom DeGomez: Bugs and Crud on Native Trees

This year’s Silent Auction has a wide variety of items from a fused glass sculpture to brunch for two, gift certificates for restaurants, massages, facials, native plants, auto detailing, or framed photos. Please check out the items as the list is constantly being updated.

Jay’s Birdbarn and Verde River Growers will again be offering gardening books and native plants to take home and plant.

Advance tickets are $25 for KSB members, $35 for the general public; an additional $10 if you purchase your tickets at the door. Included in the price of admission is breakfast savories donated by Wildflower Bread Company, coffee and tea, two keynote speakers, choice of two workshops from the seven offered, lunch donated by Weber’s IGA and the Silent Auction.  Go to https://www.keepsedonabeautiful.org/our-programs/native-plant-workshop for more information.

Keep Sedona Beautiful, Inc., acting through the stewardship of its members and volunteers, is committed to protect and sustain the unique scenic beauty and natural environment of the Greater Sedona Area.