Events

A panel of 4 experienced gardeners will field questions about gardening in urban environments: compacted soils, spaces surrounded by asphalt, areas currently covered by turf grass and weeds. How do you start and how do you manage your garden in the years to come?

We invite our members and friends to join us for a casual conversation about everything gardens, plants, nature and beyond.

Our mission states that we are "an environmental organization that promotes the use of native plants in private gardens and public landscapes." Our March meeting focuses on the public side of these efforts: on the resources available to gardeners through grants, certificates, workshops and other support.

We also want to draw attention to the public spaces in our urban parks and greenways. Almost everywhere they offer opportunities to create the kind of landscape that our mission commits us to. We'll talk about the support that the city of Lexington makes a ailable to individuals and groups who want to restore a degraded park space, install and manage a stream buffer along a creek or design and plant a pollinator garden. We will also discuss the rules that govern such undertakings.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, the speaker at this event, is a well-known ecologist whose book "Braiding Sweetgrass" has been widely read and became very influential among the native plant movement and beyond. Her book makes a passionate argument for the value of plants to our lives. Plants  sustain our lives in a multitude of ways for which they deserve our gratitude and our care.

We are offering this presentation as our April event, since it falls on the day of our regular monthly meeting. 

Paid parking at $2 per hour is available in UK's Parking Structure #5, also called the Cornerstone Garage, at 409 So. Limestone. The garage has an entrance and an exit on So. Limestone and on Upper Street.  It's a 5-minute walk from the Singletary Center. 

A great many invasive plants have been removed at this preserve by a group of dedicated and energetic volunteers. And it shows: now that those honeysuckle bushes are gone, a stunning display of wildflowers covers much of the forest floor in spring. We will walk from the upland parking areas on an old road that descends into the creek valley, and then along the creek which is among the most beautiful waterways in the Bluegrass. We'll admire the spectacular rock faces that form its banks, and hope to catch a large population of Virginia Bluebells in flower. The uphill trek back to the parking lot is steep and may require several stops to catch one's breath. (Limit: 15 participants, pre-registration required).

We invite our members and friends to join us for a casual conversation about plants, gardens, nature and topics beyond.

Many invasive plants have been removed at this preserve by a group of dedicated and energetic volunteers. And it shows: now that those honeysuckle bushes are gone, wildflowers emerge from the forest floor in spring. We will walk on the Holder trail from the upland parking area into the creek valley.  We'll admire the spectacular rock faces that form its banks, and catch late blooming flowers as well as budding trees and shrubs. This hike requires downhill and uphill hiking over a distance of about a mile each way. The slope of the trail is moderate, but steady. (Limit: 15 participants, pre-registration required)

Participants can bring their surplus plants in pots or, if dug up on or near the day of the exchange, wrapped in moist newspaper and plastic. . Plants must be native or native cultivars. All plants must be labeled.

Participants who have no plants to offer (yet) can contribute a beverage or something to eat. All participants get to choose multiple plants to take home.

Our annual plant exchange is also a party. Participants may want to bring some food or drink to share.

We charge a small fee for participating in the plant exchange, since this is our only fundraiser. Wild Ones Members pay $5, non-members pay $8. Cash is very helpful.

Eve Podet and Mike Finucane started making an all-native-plant garden more than 20 years ago. It was hard work because very little information was available about garden-worthy native plants. But they kept adding to their collection and their garden is now a showcase of forbes, shrubs and trees arranged around beautiful hardscaped spaces. 

This visit will focus on the many well established woody plants in this garden: viburnums, dogwoods and others. A particular highlight is a bottlebrush buckeye near the front driveway.

We invited Alicia Bosela of Ironweed Nursery to be our speaker. She will also have plants available for sale. 

At the beginning of summer, gardens are lush and full of promise. It's easy to forget that change in the garden is as inevitable as the arrival of September. With a little planning the fall display of colors, forms and textures can be stunning, not to mention the frantic activity of insects buzzing over flowers to provision their nests for winter.

Alicia will provide guidance on how the display of the fall garden can be enhanced and managed.

This visit to a private, mostly native plant garden is open to Wild Ones members and friends. Ann Witherington, the owner and a former biology teacher, is an enthusiastic gardener always willing to learn something new and try it out. The rain date for this event is Sunday, June 4, 2-4 pm. 

https://lexington.wildones.org/garden-tour/

This garden tour presents 6 front yard gardens some of which include flower beds in the strip between a sidewalk and the street. The goal is to highlight publicly visible spaces that everyone can enjoy. 

This year we will have our annual picnic in the garden of Wild Ones board member Linda Klink. Linda's garden backs up on Veteran's Park where she and her husband, with the help of neighbors and their HOA,  planted 130 trees. The trees are 3 years old and their diversity is stunning. Linda and Russ Turpin of EcoGro, who was a consultant, will talk about the project.

Please bring food and drink for yourself and, if you want, something to share as well. We will eat first and then look at the trees.

Linda's house is in the cul-de-sac. Park in the street, walk toward the house, then down the driveway directly into her back yard.

This 16 acre city park is tucked away between a residential street and a railroad track. It is entirely wooded and stretches along a tributary of Wolf Run. This creek starts out in a lovely pool fed by an underground water source and then meanders through the valley. There is no park infrastructure and for decades, Preston's Springs Park received very little management. In recent years, volunteers under the guidance ot the Friends of Wolf Run have cleared almost all the honeysuckle from the valley and slopes. The abundant wintercreeper remains a tough challenge. Members of the volunteer group will be our guides through this hidden gem of a park.

Be sure to look for the Historic marker located between a church and a private house on Dunkirk Drive. Park in the street and walk down the slope behind the marker toward the park entrance

The Josephine Sculpture Park was founded on farmland that had been taken out of production at the end of the twentieth century. It is now a park that offers exciting art displays as well as landscpape restoration projects in various states of completion. Native woodlands, savanna and most recently a large meadow are growing where honeysuckle and mowing cycles ruled the land. Our Wild Ones chapter has supported this private enterprise in their effort to bring back the Bluegrass and dedicate the land to a cause that is compatible with our local flora. We will take a walk around the park, talk about the restored landscapes and look at new and older sculptures.

We'll have lunch on the park grounds at about noon. You are welcome to join us; please bring your own food and drink. 

Hisle Park is beloved by Lexingtonians who regularly retreat to its uncrowded wide open spaces, and it is always a revelation for those who visit it for the first time. We will take a leisurely walk on wide mowed paths, take in the lush prairie-type vegetation, identify a few plants, look for butterflies and other pollinators, and talk about the Nature that is returning to the Bluegrass after 200 years of intensive farming. 

The Inner Bluegrass has been farmed for over 200 years. When European settlers arrived and staked out their homesteads, they cut down oaks, hickories, sugar maples and much else to plant their farms and gardens. And they did this with determination. 
Now, some of that land is returning to "nature", for example at Hisle Park. Trees are reestablishing themselves in areas that are not managed to keep fields open. But what we see is not the Nature of 200 years ago. How does the land respond to the huge disturbance that was inflicted upon it so long ago? Is this a place where the Bluegrass can heal itself?

Come and join us for a leisurely walk at Hisle to see the trees that are growing there now.

The park address is 3551 Briar Hill Road, Lexington. When coming from Lexington, use the first entrance into the park. Drive through the gate and follow the driveway to the parking lot in front of the barn. This is where we will meet.

So, you have decided to plant a new tree on your property. But what constitutes a good tree for your garden and for all the people who spend time there? The decision should probably not be left up to your landscaper. This leisurely tree walk at Wellington Park discusses the trees that grow well in the inner Bluegrass and are commonly planted in front and back yards.

Join Wild Ones Honorary Director Heather Holm as she explores the nesting habitats, life cycles, pollen collection, brood rearing, and general characteristics of some of the most common native bees in eastern North America, while highlighting the pollination of native plants and the mutualism between native plants and native bees.

When creating and managing thriving habitats for native bees, many factors such as seasonal phenology, nesting strategies, and flower preferences must be considered—and with approximately 3,600 species in North America (north of Mexico), there are many unique aspects to keep in mind when managing successful landscapes for bees. 

A number of our Wild Ones members volunteer in Lexington parks. They plant and manage stream buffers, design and install pollinator gardens and care for them, remove invasives and replace them with native plants, and more. The LFUCG Department of Parks and Recreation needs this kind of neighborhood engagement to make our parks the best they can be with limited resources. We will invite Wild Ones members and other volunteers who actively work on plant management and natural restoration in the city's parks to share their enthusiasm and experiences.

Join us for an enlightening webinar featuring authors, Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, as they present their latest book, "The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants." This comprehensive compendium is a treasure trove of knowledge for gardeners looking to incorporate native prairie plants into their landscapes. Neil and Hilary will delve into the making and application of this essential guide, sharing rich historical and ecological insights about prairie ecosystems, all while showcasing stunning images of prairie flora.