EcoGardenista

  Free Wildflower Seeds! Sometime in November 2021, I stumbled upon a simple model for inspiring people to try native gardening - give away free seeds, and leverage social media in the process. In the beginning, I simply gave away seeds to friends, family, and people on my block. But the most successful seed giveaway was on Nextdoor, which made distribution easy (I'd drop off seeds at a Little Library near my house or mail out to people). The seeds were popular but by themselves were not going to inspire people to create habitat gardens. So, I included a handout (below) with the images and info below, and also invited people to join the "Bring Back Bay Area Bees, Butterflies and Birds." group that I started on Nextdoor. I heard from many people that they found the resources very useful. And, within 8 months, over 325 people had joined the Nextdoor group and started sharing plants, seeds and tips with each other. grow wildflowers - grow butterflies! Butterflies and mot...

Monarch in Palo Alto, May 2022  Grow Narrow Leaf Milkweed, Grow Monarch Butterflies! Below is the handout that I have been sending out with packets of Narrow Leaf Milkweed seeds. I thought it would be a good idea to save it here so that it is universally accessible.                Narrow Leaf Milkweed Plant                       Monarch Chrysalis     Monarch Caterpillar By planting these seeds, you’re helping to save monarch butterflies from extinction.  Thank you!   While adult monarchs gain nourishment from a variety of nectar sources, their young eat only asclepias (milkweed) .  While many types of  milkweed grow across the United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area just  Narrow Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) has grown here historically. Since tropical milkweed can harbor disease, it is best to stick to local natives.  By growing th...