Chapter Events

Our upcoming webinar with Basil Camu explores practical, evidence based ways to heal suburban and urban landscapes by working with trees, soil, and natural systems, drawing on real world practices from Leaf & Limb and community centered models for restoring life where we live, work, and play.!  

How much do you know about your local deer population, other than they like to eat your garden?  Master Gardener and Wild Ones President Sharon Burnham will speak at the Roanoke Home & Garden Show, presenting tips to manage your garden with less stress so that you have a garden to show off! She wrote the section on deer in the Guide to Gardening to Southwest Virginia Plants and will show examples of some of her favorite deer-resistant plants.

Come learn about the 5 critical components to making good compost from Davey Stewards of Star City Compost.  He'll talk about the proper C:N ratio in a compost pile, moisture content, airflow through the pile, inoculating the pile with decomposers, and size of the pile.  He'll talk about how people can ensure they are accounting for those components in backyard piles, as well as how it's addressed at Star City Compost. 

Star City Compost officially opened their doors as Roanoke's only composting facility in January 2024. Star City Compost provides residential and commercial services for composting responsibly, so food scraps stay out of the landfill and instead become nutrient-rich soil. With their strong mission, values and community building rooted long before that, the vision of creating an ecological infrastructure for the local community has come to life in the greater Roanoke area. 

Come prepared to learn and ask questions, whether you're new to composting, a seasoned composter, or even new to the idea of composting. We are lucky to have Star City Compost's wealth of knowledge with us.

We hope to see you there!

Join Joey Santore, creator of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, for a candid Wild Ones National Webinar examining how inherited garden aesthetics shape native plant landscapes. Drawing on field experience and real ecology, Joey challenges tidy design norms and explores why dense, irregular plant communities are often the most resilient and ecologically sound.

Learn about tools that can up your game in the garden – and some best practices on tool care and sharpening before the busy season. Bring those dull tools you have and get them sharpened by Any Edge Sharpening (for a fee) during the meeting. Your garden will thank you.

Learn propagation techniques from Ian Caton, owner of Wood Thrush Native Nursery and a local legend in the native plant world, located just down Hwy 221 in Floyd, VA. If you're not sure where you've heard of Ian before, check your Plant Virginia Natives SWVA guide - he has contributed to the first iteration of the guide and some of the great photos of native plants come from his observations.

Ian will be sharing what he knows about propagating native plants using cuttings, and we can't wait to learn how to multiply our native garden favorites for future seasons.

Read a little about Ian here, or check out Wood Thrush Natives's website.

https://www.lwladesign.com/people/ian-caton/

https://woodthrushnatives.com/

Can you reliably identify some of our common native trees? It can be an overwhelming task with so many different sources - field guides, phone apps, Google images, your friends' opinions! Each method is different and has varying levels of reliability.  In Part I of a two-part program, Professor Heather Butler will teach us how to apply some basic steps and tips for identifying the trees that surround us. You'll never look at the trees on your walks in the same way you did before.

 Prof. Butler is  an Assistant Professor of Biology and Program Head of Science at the School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Virginia Western Community College. She teaches Dendrology, Biology, and other subjects, and is the committee chair of the Bee Campus Committee.

Part I is open to everyone. Part II will include a field walk for members only to practice these identification skills and techniques, location, date and time TBD. 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!