native plant gardening

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2022 Fall Native Plant Sale

September 8 – 18, 2022

Alta Peak Chapter’s 
Online Fall Native Plant Sale

The online link to order plants will go live on September 8 at 12 noon. Go to SALE.
See Plant List HERE.
Pick up plants on October 1, 2022 between 10-2 pm at Dry Creek Preserve.
Directions to Dry Creek Preserve: Located at 35220 Dry Creek Road, Woodlake CA 93286, Located outside of Lemon Cove: From Visalia, travel east on Highway 198. Take Highway 216 toward Woodlake. Follow 216 west 1/2 mile then turn north on Dry Creek Road. Preserve is located two miles up up Dry Creek Road on the right.
[Redbud tree in bloom © Barbara Brydolf]
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DIY Clinic: Landscaping with Native Plants on May 18, 2019

Offered by the Alta Peak Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS)

Saturday, May 18, 2019 from 9-2 pm

with California native plant specialists,
Melanie Keeley, CA Native Plant Horticulturist & Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP Botanist
Cathy Capone, Alta Peak Chapter Horticulture Chair and Garden Ambassador

Held at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, location details given with registration

Design your native plant landscape with the help of local experts at this spring workshop on landscaping with drought tolerant native plants. Participants will be treated to an informative, colorful presentation that will highlight the benefits of using native plants in the residential landscape, including principals of landscape design, and how to best combine native plants for compatibility and extended blooming in your landscape.

Following the presentation, participants will be provided drafting supplies and will additionally be given printed handouts and resources to refer to. Students will then be guided by Cathy and Melanie who will help in the selection and arrangement of the best native plants for your situation, giving you a low water, low care garden design of your own.

Native plants can be used to create any style in your garden – from cottage style to formal. You choose the design that suits your house, esthetic, and garden requirements. Design the garden to complement your home and your taste, using California climate-adapted native plants which require a lot less water and maintenance. Switching to native plants saves on water, fertilizer, pesticides, time and effort.

Spring is a perfect time to design a garden. You will have time, ahead of the fall prime planting time for native plants, to prepare your landscape for the change to a low-care, low-water use, pollinator friendly garden.

Pre-registration is required. Class size is limited.

CNPS Members — $55, $45 (early-bird special, enrollment by May 1)
Non-members — $75, ($65 early-bird special, enrollment by May 1)

Contact Melanie Keeley at 559-799-7438 to register.

Native garden photo from Cathy Capone

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Annual Native Plant Sale

The Alta Peak Chapter will hold its annual native plant sale on October 7, 2017, from 10-3 pm at the Three Rivers Arts Center on North Fork Drive. Chapter members will be admitted at 9 am for an earlybird opportunity to select plants. Also, Chapter members can pre-order plants at a 10% discount. Download pre-order form HERE.

Join the California Native Plant Society as an Alta Peak Chapter member at cnps.org

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DIY Native Plant Landscape Design Clinic

Plant photos by Melanie Keeley, from left to right:
yerba mansa (Anemopsis californica)
deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens) and Idaho bluegrass (Festuca idahoensis)
Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana)

Saturday, August 26, 2017, from 9-2 pm
Instructors: Melanie Keeley and Cathy Capone
College of the Sequoias in Visalia
(exact room will be given at time of registration)

Registration Fee: CNPS Members – $45, Non-members – $60.00
Pre-registration is required. Class size is limited.
Call 559-799-7438 for registration as well as questions.

The traditional garden of expansive lawns, and lolly-popped shrubs are a thing of the past. With California’s unpredictable precipitation, it is time for a new model that will work in this hot, arid climate. California native plants not only use a fraction of the water that typical gardens do, they are attractive and colorful as well. In this class, designed for native plant novices, we will help you learn

  • how to ditch your lawn
  • the best tried and true native plants
  • how to combine them for maximum effect
  • help you to design your own drought tolerant native garden.

With a plan in place, you can landscape your garden in manageable steps. It’s an opportunity to transition from a high care, water indulgent garden into a natural, sustainable low water use, beautiful garden.

By joining CNPS at this time, you’ll be eligible to pre-order native plants for the Annual Fall Plant Sale (October 7) at a 10% discount.


Native Plant Garden at the CAL Fire Station in Three Rivers, California
Created and supported by the Redbud Garden Club, maintained by firefighters

 

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Special Program: Landscaping with California Native Plants

Making the Switch:
Landscaping with California Natives
for Regional Beauty and Water Conservation

Friday, September 26, 2014, from 7-9 pm

Alta Peak Chapter Fall Program presented by Melanie Baer-Keeley
To be held at College of the Sequoias, 915 S. Mooney, Visalia
Program will be in the Hospital Rock Building, Room 134. Park in lot 4, North of the COS Theater.
You will need to buy a daily parking pass from a kiosk in the parking lot.
Link to COS campus map.

Consider this presentation a short-cut to transforming your yard into a beautiful, natural haven, that is low care and uses significantly less water. Become familiar with which of California’s many native species work well in the Central Valley’s hot, dry climate. Learn best practices for landscaping with them, whether you are integrating them into an existing garden, or removing your lawn and starting from scratch. Drought tolerant native plants will be colorfully illustrated, showing growth habit and desirable characteristics. Maximize your garden’s blooming seasons, create habitat for birds and butterflies, and learn simple, manageable landscaping principals to enable you to make the leap into a less stressful, more sustainable way of gardening.

Melanie Keeley has many years’ professional experience focused on a variety of aspects involving native plants: education, conservation, cultivation, propagation, landscaping and even botanical illustration. She is currently Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ horticulturist/botanist and is also the president of the Alta Peak Chapter,

For more information call 559-799-7438.

Photo © Cathy Capone

photo © Cathy Capone

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Design and Plan a Native Plant Garden

Native Plant Garden Design Clinic

Held from 9-12 noon, choose from two dates, either
September 14, 2013 in Three Rivers
or September 28, 2013 in Porterville

The clinics will be taught jointly by Melanie Keeley and Cathy Capone.
Keeley is the Restoration Horticulturalist for Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks.
Capone is owner of Cal Natives Nursery in Porterville.

Pre-registration is required for clinics. Class size is limited.

To register for September 14, call 559-799-7438.
To register for September 28, call 559-361-9164.
CNPS members $10, non-members $25
California Poppy © Melanie Keeley[photo © Melanie Keeley]

Growing plants in our extreme climate is challenging and our amazing California native plants are proven survivors!  Having a simple planting plan with compatible plant selections will help make your landscape a beautiful success.  This workshop is a great opportunity to make progress in beautifying your surroundings, while creating bird and butterfly habitat in a natural and sustainable way. With a plan in place, you can break down the landscaping process into manageable steps or phases.

You will be introduced to a basic palette of native plants, and then you will be able combine them for compatibility and longest possible flowering.  Relevant and informative reference books and posters will also be available to purchase during each clinic. Plants will be available for sale at the Chapter’s Annual Native Plant Sale on October 5 at the Three Rivers Arts Center from 9:30 am to 3 pm.

Bring the following items (as best you can):

  • photos of the existing landscape
  • rough sketch of area to be landscaped, with a directional “North Arrow”, dimensions, noting sun and shade exposure and special features or concerns
  • soil sample (1/4 cup)

The Chapter will supply:

  • native plant and landscape design expertise
  • graph paper and pencils
  • beverages and snacks

Melanie Keeley has had a breadth of professional experience over the past twenty-five years, working on varied aspects of California native plants.  As restoration horticulturalist, she currently runs the Ash Mountain Native Plant Nursery at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, where she oversees the production of plants used to revegetate approximately two dozen parks-wide restoration projects.

As an independent consultant, Keeley has specialized in the cultivation and propagation of California native plants.  Some of the contracts she has undertaken include planning, supervising, and monitoring land restoration projects, floristic and surveys, education, interpretation, freelance author, and nursery development. With the Redbud Garden Club, she assisted with the design and installation of five public native plant gardens in Three Rivers. You can see these gardens at the Three Rivers Post Office, the Veterans Memorial Building, the CAL Fire Station, the Tulare County Fire Station and the Three Rivers Public Library. Keeley is currently President of the Alta Peak Chapter.

Cathy Capone is the owner of Cal Natives Nursery in Porterville, which she started in the late 1990’s. Her interest in gardening began early in life where gardening in the sand dune soils of the Sunset District of San Francisco was easy but much different than the Central Valley and Foothills. She completed coursework in arboriculture at Canada College. Extended time spent in the coastal redwood forests, both as a resident and later as a naturalist at an outdoor education camp, provided a native plant aesthetic to her landscape knowledge.

After moving to Porterville, Capone became actively involved with the Tule River Parkway Association and held the position of President of the association for a decade. During this time the need for locally specific native plants became apparent.  She has written and managed a number of grants for tree planting and small park development

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Annual Native Plant Sale in Three Rivers

Saturday, October 5, 2013
from 9:30 am to 3 pm
(Head start for California Native Plant Society members: Doors open at 9 am)
Admission is free and open to the public.

beautify your surroundings
create a bird and butterfly habitat
make a water-wise garden

Cal Native Plant Photos © Melanie Keeley

Now in its twentieth year, the sale will held inside the Three Rivers Arts Center located just over the bridge on North Fork Drive in Three Rivers. Follow signs on Highway 198 to turn on North Fork Drive (Anne Lang’s Emporium is on the corner.)

10% Discount on plants for pre-orders made by September 16
for California Native Plant Society members only.
Download pre-order form here.
Call Janet Fanning at 559-561-3461 for questions about pre-orders.

join-renew_154

In addition to a great selection of California native plants from Cal Natives Nursery and Intermountain Nursery, the Chapter will be offering a wide variety of inspiring books on topics related to native plants, wildlife and habitat gardening, natural history, regional plant identification….so, stop, shop and enjoy our book sale on Saturday as well. Volunteer horticultural experts will be on hand for questions and to give helpful advice.

The Chapter also needs volunteers to help, on Friday, October 4, at 10 am to unload and set up plants, and on Saturday during the sale itself. Please call Melanie Keeley, at 559-799-7438, to join the volunteer list.

While California’s native plants have graced gardens worldwide for over a century, few of the landscapes designed for our state’s gardens reflect the natural splendor for which California is famous. By gardening with native plants, you can bring the beauty of California into your own landscape while also receiving numerous benefits. Native vegetation has evolved to live with the local climate, soil types, and animals. This long process brings us several gardening advantages:

  • Save Water: 
Once established, many native plants need minimal irrigation beyond normal rainfall.
  • Low Maintenance:
 Low maintenance landscaping methods are a natural fit with native plants that are already adapted to the local environment. Look forward to using less water, little to no fertilizer, little to no pesticides, less pruning, and less of your time.
  • Pesticide Freedom: 
Native plants have developed their own defenses against many pests and diseases. Since most pesticides kill indiscriminately, beneficial insects become secondary targets in the fight against pests. Reducing or eliminating pesticide use lets natural pest control take over and keeps garden toxins out of our creeks and watersheds.
  • Wildlife Viewing: 
Native plants, birds, butterflies, beneficial insects, and interesting critters are “made for each other.” Research shows that native wildlife prefers native plants.
  • Support Local Ecology: 
As development replaces natural habitats, planting gardens, parks, and roadsides with California natives can provide a “bridge” to nearby remaining wildlands.

The California Native Plant Society, through its nearly 10,000 members and 33 regional chapters, has been working to represent the public’s interest in protecting California’s beautiful native plants and their habitats since 1965. Run by professional staff and volunteers, CNPS is a 501(c)3 organization active in promoting public education about native plants and the use of sound plant science in advocating for conservation of natural areas throughout the State of California. To learn more about CNPS, please visit our website at cnps.org.

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Alta Peak Chapter Program
: Native Plants in the Urban Garden

“Native Plants in the Urban Garden”
presented by Cathy Capone
April 16, 2011 at 11 am
Cal Natives Nursery in Porterville

Our Chapter program is combined with an all day open house at the Cal Natives Nursery in Porterville. As part of our recognition of California Native Plant Week, a new annual observance Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California for the third week of April, Cathy Capone will open her native plant nursery and demonstration garden in Porterville for a CNPS tour, from 10:30-3 pm. This could serve as an introduction to how our local natives look in garden settings.

The Chapter Program starts at 11 am, when Cathy will talk about how to mix native plants within an urban garden framework. Using natives, as minimal to low water use plants, can create a wildlife friendly, low maintenance garden. Cathy will conclude her program with a guided tour of the nursery. She will be on hand all during the day to answer questions about growing and propagating native plants.

Plants and CNPS books and posters will be available for sale.

Bring a sack lunch and spend time with friends on the patio. Coffee, tea, and lemonade will be provided. Children are welcome, however, there isn’t a child safe play yard, so supervision is needed. Please park on the street, as there is limited on site parking.


Directions:
806 W. Westfield Ave in Porterville
Traveling on Hwy 65 through Porterville, take Henderson Ave exit, turn left. Travel east on Henderson 1/4 mile, turn left on Indiana. Go 1/2 mile to the end of Indiana. Indiana stops at Westfield Avenue. House is directly across intersection, with white block fence and tall trees. Please park on the street.
Call 559-361-9164 for more information.