Events

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

In this special collaboration, Robin Wall Kimmerer, author, botanist, and founder of Plant Baby Plant, joins youth leader and Nurture Natives founder Esther Bonney for an intergenerational conversation about belonging, reciprocity, and native plant action. 

Together, they will explore questions such as:

How do we create opportunities for young people to have a voice and feel empowered, even when they are not homeowners or decision makers?What kinds of relationships and mentorships help people stay engaged in native plant work over decades?Why do stories, shared practices, and community invitations matter just as much as plant lists?

Robin and Esther will reflect on what invites people into this work, what keeps them here, and what elders and youth have to teach each other.

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

Come help us install a pollinator garden in this central La Mesa location. We will be working in stages to add landscaping,  a rock stream, a meandering path, native plants, signage, a mural, and a little library. Help is welcome at every stage, e-mail [email protected] for more details.

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.!  

It's Nature Day at Mt. Helix Park  again! This was one of our very favorite festivals last year. The park itself is beautiful, the view amazing, the vendors all lovely nature supporters, the crowd fun-loving - what more could you ask for?! A butterfly release, you say? The had that too! Come join us for food and celebration at this family friendly festival.

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.

Come help us prepare for our upcoming ribbon-cutting festival! We'll be meeting early, before the heat of the day 🙂

Come help us prepare for our upcoming ribbon-cutting festival! We'll be meeting early, before the heat of the day and there will be pastries 🙂 Come ready to weed (tools and gloves provided).

A high-energy community celebration featuring music, local food vendors, and interactive workshops.

We are officially opening our latest community pollinator garden with a fabulous festival! Join us as we cut ribbons for the garden, the little library, and other features. There will be expert speakers, exhibitors representing local plant and animal species, food, crafts, games, and community fun! Bring the whole family and explore the importance of local pollinators and the plants that support them.  

Join us as the City of San Diego celebrates Arbor Day by planting trees at Gompers Park.

https://www.sandiego.gov/event/arbor-day-gompers-neighborhood-park

Join award-winning author, photographer, and educator Rick Darke for What Is Wild and Why It Matters, a free national webinar on Tuesday, April 28th at 10 am CT. Discover how inviting a bit of authentic wildness can create a vibrant landscape that sustains you and local biodiversity. This national event is presented in collaboration between Wild Ones and Homegrown National Park.

https://www.facebook.com/events/887961570609737/

The festival features fun programs, hundreds of vendors and exhibitors, crafters and demonstrations that will help you become a better gardener and learn how to conserve our precious resources. The renowned Cuyamaca College Ornamental Horticulture department holds its biggest plant sale of the year at the festival. Spring Garden Festival is one of the most popular festivals in San Diego. Annual attendance now exceeds 7,000 community visitors. We hope to see you there!

This garden tour gets better every year, and last year was amazing. I ate vegan tacos, heard local jazz I could dance to, and photographed a girl with a monarch butterfly that rode around on her the whole festival. And more...!

Pollinator Week is an annual celebration held in support of pollinator health in North America created and managed by Pollinator Partnership. It's a time to raise awareness for pollinators and learn about how to protect them. Click the link to see the schedule of events 🙂

https://www.rcdsandiego.org/san-diego-pollinator-week

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScG9nBUWL0kf75hdg0uTZKNnB3fWhKkWBCuThNv7b1JrPfxcQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=107052498092981771755

We will be celebrating San Diego Pollinator Week by taking our Chapter Meeting on the road! Join us at Mission Trails Park as we learn about Bats: The Forgotten Pollinators on a short nature walk at dusk. Kids will receive a free mini lightsaber to celebrate May the Fourth...B with you (The B is for Bats!). And we will learn about the force bats use to catch their prey: echolocation!  Please register on this form 

This annual event is a collaboration with the Santee Historical Society and the San Diego River Park Foundation. There will be an on-site garden with milkweed, hopefully Monarch Butterflies, and an area for kids' arts.

We will be rescuing native plants from Grant Elementary and planting them in our Morley Field location. Join is in Mission Hills for the first half, or Balboa Park for the second half. Contact [email protected] for more information.

We just got a bunch of Elegant Clarkia from Caterpillar Chow and will be planting it at our three garden locations. We will start at Parking Lot "C" in Old Town, then head to the Native Plant Demonstration Garden in Morley Field, and finally out to the Vista La Mesa Pollinator Garden. Come help at any location and receive a free plant! Call (619)940-9754 for details.

This will be a mini pollinator garden install into raised beds. The preschool would like it on their records for the 25-26 school year. This will also be the 2nd school in Lemon Grove to to have a Wild Ones install. Easy weeding from existing beds, trimming up vegetable garden beds. Adding soil to pollinator beds, and planting.  

This school just opened in 2025 and is the first new school campus in Lemon Grove in several decades. The campus is strictly part-time preschool and full time TK children. This garden is primarily funded by the Lemon Grove Lions Club. 

Chelsea is particularly proud of this project because earlier lobbying at the City-level for more pollinator plants in the landscape design came to fruition in this project. Teachers will be assisted by additional learning materials like books, life cycle models, and nature learning activity booklets provided by the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. When children learn to appreciate and delight in the wonder of Nature they tend to be better stewards of our earth.

We are pleased to announce our 2026 INSY Tribal Earth Day with this year's theme, “Maat KinypUuyaaw” (The Land Gives Knowledge). We want to emphasize our non-human relatives and the knowledge that can be shared by connecting with the land. Being in nature helps us learn from the land and respect the knowledge it offers. Whether this comes through restoration, recreation, or agriculture, the time spent outside helps us to be better humans. Nature has been shown to promote physical and mental health, strengthen community bonds, and remind us of our obligation to be good stewards of the land.

Come to our next crafting make-and-take at Hayley's house and go home with a fabulous creation and happy tastebuds. These get-togethers are always a highlight, and today we will be creating plant propagation vases and plant stakes out of copper wire and decorative beads. Please RSVP to [email protected] so we know how many folks to plan for 🙂

We've been working hard at our Old Town location around Parking Lot "C" in Old Town. The City hasn't managed to start charging for parking there yet, and the more beautiful and educational we can make it, the more likely it will stay free. We will be planting more succulents and weeding and watering the native plant gardens we have already established. Stay for lunch in this historic San Diego site! Tools, gardening gloves, and native plant education provided. Please RSVP to [email protected].

We have been growing and diversifying the California Native Plant Demonstration Garden all year, and we would love to invite you to help out. We will be weeding, watering, and generally beautifying the garden in preparation for the upcoming summer. Tools, gardening gloves, and native plant education provided. Come check out this hidden gem. Please RSVP to [email protected].

Join us as we celebrate the third annual Garden Fair at the Natural History Museum. There will be lots of local conservation groups sharing their work and fun activities for the whole family. Help keep Balboa park Wild 🙂

The Vista La Mesa Pollinator Garden is looking incredible. We will be meeting to add a few more species and do some light weeding. Come check out what is flowering and see if any pollinators have moved into the native bee hotel! Tools and gloves provided, please RSVP to [email protected].

Connect with a community of creative individuals and dive into native seeds and crafting event!

Bring a craft/project that you are working on, or need help finishing, along with any crafting supplies you would like to swap or share!

Not working on anything yet? Don’t worry we've got you covered!

RSVP: (619)-957-5107

You planted native. Your neighbor has opinions. Maybe your HOA does too. If you’ve ever felt like the hardest part of native plant gardening is the conversations, not the gardening, you’re not alone.

Wild Ones is thrilled to share this upcoming free webinar as part of the 2026 Less Lawn More Life Challenge. Join Lorraine Johnson for a practical conversation on navigating HOA rules, addressing neighbor concerns, and fostering community conversations about native plant gardening and ecological landscapes.

Tending Nature is a documentary series that explores how, for a thousand years, land has provided for Native peoples and how tribal groups have actively shaped and tended (cared for) the land. Through in-person interviews, the series highlights current projects that are trying to solve ongoing environmental problems by integrating traditional knowledge from tribal groups with Western science.

Join us for an inspiring evening on the Farm with live music, community partners, a panel conversation, and a special outdoor screening under the stars.

https://coastalrootsfarm.org/event/farm-film-and-music-series-july-2026/

NatureScape is a free, public event designed to engage residents with sustainable landscaping practices and environmental stewardship. Come see us present a talk on the Benefits of Insects and also table at this event in Chula Vista.

This event brings together community partners for a day of food, fun, and learning about how to grow your own food in San Diego, including the importance of local pollinators. It is completely free for families to attend this event at a true hidden gem right in our own backyard.

Native plants are the foundation of habitat, but wildlife need more than food to thrive. Join ecologist and Certified Wildlife Biologist Shaun McCoshum, PhD, to explore how nesting sites, shelter, water, soil conditions, and other often-overlooked resources can transform a yard into a functioning ecosystem that supports biodiversity year-round.

Registration link coming soon.

What does it really take to turn a conventional lawn into a thriving native meadow? Join Owner & Principal, New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL), Sara Weaner Cooper for a candid look at her family's ongoing lawn-to-meadow transformation featured in The New York Times and BBC. Drawing from three years of hands-on experience, Sara will share the methods, lessons learned, successes, and challenges of converting turfgrass into a dynamic native plant community. Participants will gain practical insights into site preparation, planting, management, and the ecological principles that guide successful meadow establishment, along with realistic expectations for how these landscapes evolve over time.

Registration link coming soon.

Our Bat Walk at Mission Trails Park in May was such a success, we're headed back with the San Diego Spider Society to learn about another incidental pollinator species with a short nature walk at dusk. There will also be bats, and maybe some UV reactive scorpions - something for everyone! Please register on the form here to let us know you are planning to attend. Hope to see you!

Come learn how to gather and process prickly pears for jam, check out this up-and-coming neighborhood farm in Emerald Hills, meet the sheep and goats, and go home with some jam. There will be jamming out to music after the food jamming portion concludes. Register to receive exact location. Registration for food jam is limited with a $10 fee, but all are welcome to come jam out to local musicians and taste the fruits of out labors. 

Bats are among the most important and misunderstood wildlife in our communities. Join experts from Bat Conservation International to explore how native plants, healthy insect populations, and thoughtful landscape design can help support bats. Learn about the ecological role of bats and discover practical ways to create habitat for North America's night flyers right in your own backyard.

Registration link coming soon.

Monarch butterflies depend on a network of habitats stretching across North America, and home landscapes can play an important role in their survival. Join experts from Monarch Joint Venture to explore the science behind monarch conservation, including the importance of milkweed, nectar resources, and regionally appropriate habitat. Learn practical ways to support monarchs through native landscaping and help sustain one of the world's most remarkable migrations.
 

Registration link coming soon.