Grow Your Garden Beautifully – With Native Plants
Walter Reeves, Tara Dillard and Laurie Fisher, CEO of Buck Jones Nurseries, headline Georgia Piedmont Land Trust session 

SNELLVILLE, GA (March 16, 2010) - Do you want a beautiful landscape around your home – yet one that supports the birds, pollinators and other wildlife that are so desirable – and necessary – in your surroundings? The Georgia Piedmont Land Trust (GPLT) will sponsor Grow Your Garden Beautifully – With Native Plants, a two-part session on Saturday, April 10th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Mary Kistner Nature Center near Snellville. The event will demonstrate that gardening with native plants can result in an eye-catching landscape that also supports an amazing array of wildlife.

The main session, starting with a picnic lunch, courtesy of Whole Foods Market, will feature Walter Reeves, the Georgia Gardener and host of WSB radio’s Saturday morning gardening show, talk about selecting and gardening with native plants. Joining him will be well known landscape designer and author Tara Dillard to talk about designing with native plants; and Laurie Fisher, CEO of Buck Jones Nurseries, to talk about the availability of native plants.

Earlier, the morning session will feature volunteers from Monarchs Across Georgia (MAG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering conservation of Monarch and other butterfly species, demonstrating how to create a butterfly-friendly garden in a container and in your garden. Participants will create their own container gardens to take home.

The choices we make in our gardens are more important than ever to assure sufficient habitat for the continued survival of a host of bird and pollinator species that we take for granted. This is the finding of important research by Douglas W. Tallamy, Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, published in his 2007 book, Bringing Nature Home (Timber Press). 

The GPLT session will demonstrate how homeowners can accomplish this beautifully. To register for the session, go to www.gplt.org to register. Prepayment is required. The fee for the full day is $55; for the morning session only (no lunch included), $30; or for the afternoon session including lunch, $25. All proceeds go to support GPLT’s conservation work.

The Mary Kistner Nature Center is located on a 50-acre farm located south of Snellville off Lenora Church Road in Gwinnett County. The Center results from the wish of long-time Gwinnett resident and well known local artist Mary Kistner that her property be protected from development and provide a quiet place to learn about nature and its beauty. Some information used for the session results from a resource inventory conducted at the Kistner Center through a grant from the Georgia Forestry Commission.

In just twelve short years the Georgia Piedmont Land Trust (www.gplt.org) created a remarkable track record, putting nearly 900 acres of land under protection in one of the most rapidly developing regions in the country. Originally named the Gwinnett Open Land Trust, reflecting its origins, it achieved milestones despite the daunting challenges of intense development pressure and rapidly escalating land costs. Today, our name reflects our expanded service area -- the Piedmont region of Georgia. Our land conservation strategy is based upon the realities of our landscape, some of which is urbanizing before our eyes, while other parts remain suspended on the hopes of land owners who share a commitment to save and nurture the beauty and peace of rural woodlands, clean water, and perhaps pasture and farmland.