Everett gardeners looking to bring more birds and butterflies into their yards can learn how Saturday at a workshop inside McCollum Park.
Retired Master Gardener Julie O'Donald will lead "Birds in Our Garden" at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Adopt A Stream Foundation's Northwest Stream Center, 600 128th St. SE.
The workshop covers which native plants attract birds, moths and butterflies, and how to design garden features that sustain habitat for pollinators and hummingbirds, the Daily Herald reported.
Admission is $10, or $8 for foundation members. Registration is available at streamkeeper.org or by calling 425-316-8592.
O'Donald, a native plant expert and community wildlife steward, grows more than 200 species of native plants in her own certified wildlife habitat garden.
She has tended that garden for more than 25 years, attracting birds, butterflies and beneficial insects. In 2012, the rare Western bumble bee was found there, according to a Washington Native Plant Society profile.
Her garden has been featured in Pacific Horticulture and The Butterfly Gardener magazines, as well as the book "Butterfly Gardening: The North American Butterfly Association Guide." O'Donald also volunteers with the Washington Butterfly Association, Kruckeberg Botanic Garden and the National Wildlife Federation.
At the Northwest Stream Center, she leads a group that manages a Native Wetland Plant Pollinator Meadow built on a former gravel parking lot. After the workshop, attendees can walk through that pollinator garden and explore a half-mile nature trail with an elevated forest and wetland walkway lined with native plants.
Plant sale discount
Everyone who attends gets a promo code for 15% off native plant purchases at the foundation's fall plant sale. Preorders are open through Oct. 4, with pickup at the Northwest Stream Center Oct. 13–17. Proceeds benefit the foundation's Fish and Wildlife Habitat Restoration Endowment Fund.
The center sits on 25 acres leased from Snohomish County Parks and Recreation inside McCollum Park. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
