Program Description

Want a piece of nature in your own back yard? By using a combination of California native and other compatible plants, you can create a beautiful garden that's a magnet for wildlife – as well as one that's water conserving, low maintenance, and ecologically appropriate.

Come hear and see how Chris and Trish Meyer converted what used to be an ivy-covered hillside garden in Sherman Oaks to a wildlife habitat for birds and butterflies. It’s a true case of grow it and they will come; Chris and Trish have spotted over 50 different birds from hummingbirds to hawks in their own backyard habitat.

Using digital photographs and video, they will share the secrets to their success, including designing a water feature built especially for the birds. They will also provide a list of desirable plants.

Talking Points

No, we don't use PowerPoint for our digital presentations (it's a long story...).

Wildscaping Events

We have a number of programs centered around the theme of gardening with native plants to benefit wildlife. Our presentations include a large number of high-quality digital photographs, as well as digital video of birds and butterflies, and a list of our favorites plants (download PDF). When available, some cute caterpillars will join us for show and tell!

Calendar

“Out of the Wild, Into the Garden” Symposium: Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, April 2008: We gave a presentation on Gardening for Butterflies at the 2008 “Out of the Wild” Symposium.

Summer 2008: Our event schedule is on hiatus right now as we adjust to our new home in New Mexico. We hope to adapt our programs with new photographs on gardening with native plants of New Mexico to attract birds and butterflies in the future.

Program Selection

Programs include:

Wildscaping Your Garden (1hr 15min) is our main program (see description to the right). It includes an overview of the Basic Needs of wildlife (food, water, shelter and so on), shows how we got started converting our garden to natives, then focuses on the specific plants favored by Songbirds, Hummingbirds, and Butterflies.

Wildscaping for Butterflies (1hr) introduces you to a selection of local butterflies and how to attract them to your garden. Most butterfly gardens include just nectar plants for the adult butterflies, but by offering “host” plants for the female butterflies to lay their eggs on, you can actually help increase their numbers.

Using a combination of digital photos and video, we will share our experiences in gardening for and raising butterflies: from eggs to caterpillars to adult. We typically raise and release over 100 Monarchs a year, as well as several other butterfly species. In addition to being an avid gardener, Trish Meyer has also served as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the North American Butterfly Association.

Wildscaping for Birds (1hr) follows the outline of the main program, but omits butterflies in order to focus more time on birds, goldfinches and hummingbirds. (1hr; designed for local Audubon Society meetings.)

Chris also has a program called Salvias Up Close and Personal (45min), covering native and non-native Salvias that do well in the southwest.

Bio: When they are not gardening, Trish and Chris run a motion graphics design studio called CyberMotion, catering to the film and video industry. They are also authors of a series of best-selling books on using Adobe After Effects, the standard software for creating motion graphics on the desktop.

Be sure to check our Other Events pages for other events going on around the Southland.