Events

Join Wild Ones National Board President Loris Damerow for a special presentation as part of Week 3 of the 2025 Less Lawn More Life Challenge, “Native Plants Planted Right.” Loris will walk us through the basics of native plant gardening- from choosing the right plants to planting and maintaining them with confidence.

Join us on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 5 p.m. CT for the YouTube Live premiere of this 30-minute webinar. Native plant experts from  Wild Ones, Plan it Wild, Homegrown National Park, ReWild Your Campus, and others will be active in the live chat throughout the presentation and for 30 minutes after the webinar, giving you plenty of time to ask questions and engage! 

This event is designed for newcomers to native gardening and is part of the national Less Lawn More Life Challenge, hosted by Plan It Wild in collaboration with Wild Ones, iNaturalist, Homegrown National Park, Pollinator Partnership  and many others! 

See more about the Less Lawn More Life Challenge:  https://www.lesslawnmorelife.com/ 

Water Conservation with Native Plants

Dustan Compton, Regional Conservation Program Manager, for the Tarrant Regional Water District provides a local water resource outlook, discusses the need and benefits of water conservation, and explains the role that native plants in your landscape can play in a comprehensive water conservation strategy.  

Attendees will learn individual best practices for water conservation and receive information about the upcoming the Texas Water-Efficient Products Sales Tax Holiday from Saturday, May 24 through Monday, May 26.

About Our Speaker

Dustan Compton is the Regional Conservation Program Manager at Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) with eighteen years of experience focusing on water conservation programs, community outreach and regional coordination. TRWD supplies water to more than 2 million North Texans.
 

Discover Plants That Do More Than Look Good:  Talking “Plants with Purpose” by Monika Maeckle.

Join Wild Ones DFW: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes, and co-host Wild Ones South Central Texas for a special online presentation featuring author Monika Maeckle, who will introduce her new book, Plants with Purpose: Twenty-five Ecosystem Multitaskers, recently published by Texas A&M Press (May 19, 2025).

In this engaging session, Maeckle explores a fresh approach to plant selection by asking practical and ecological questions of each featured species:

Can you eat it or make tea from it? Does it serve wildlife or offer health benefits? Is it low maintenance or have a compelling cultural story? Does it provide a unique service to your landscape?

Every plant included in the book had to answer "yes" to at least three of these criteria—not including beauty. As Maeckle argues, in a time of increasing ecological urgency, aesthetic appeal alone is no longer enough. Our landscapes deserve—and ecosystems require—plants that work harder.

Whether you're a gardener, naturalist, or simply plant-curious, this presentation will inspire you to think differently about what grows in your yard and why.

About the Author:
Monika Maeckle is a San Antonio-based gardener, monarch butterfly tagger, and founder of the Texas Butterfly Ranch website and the city’s annual Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival. With a long career in media, she also co-founded the San Antonio Report, where she remains a contributor. Maeckle’s passion for pollinators led her to work closely with the National Wildlife Federation to designate San Antonio as the nation’s first Monarch Butterfly Champion City and to launch a pollinator habitat initiative that now boasts over 1,100 registrants.

She raises butterflies and native plants in her Mariposario garden and at her family’s Llano River ranch, where she and her community have tagged more than 10,000 monarch butterflies—over 60 of which have been recovered in Mexico. Plants with Purpose is her second book and reflects her deep commitment to restoring ecological function to our landscapes through plants that offer more than just good looks.

Event Details:
Thursday, June 19, 2025
7 PM to 8 PM CDT
Via Zoom

Don’t miss this opportunity to reimagine your landscape with purpose-driven, multifunctional plants.

We hope to see you there!

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!