Events

Learn practical tips for selecting, planting, mulching, pruning, and maintaining healthy trees in your landscape.

Presented by Aaron Toczylowski, ISA Certified Arborist and Maryland Licensed Tree Expert, this session offers actionable advice homeowners can use to keep their trees thriving.

This program is made possible with support from the Front Yard Garden team: Friends of St. Clements Bay, Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay: Leonardtown Butterfly Trail, St. Mary’s County Garden Club, and Univ of MD Extwnsion Master Gardeners. 
 

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.

Join us for our bi-monthly Garden Chat with a presentation by Unity Gardens. The presentation will include a brief introduction to Unity Gardens (Pat Mitchell), some content about native plant selection geared towards members who are already native plant enthusiasts (Mary Yee), followed by some information on applying for either a Unity Gardens grant or a Chesapeake Bay Trust mini grant (Richard Hergenroeder). 

All Wild Ones members are welcome to attend and invite a guest!

About the Speakers:

Pat Mitchell, Past President of Unity Gardens, is a midwestern transplant, but a long time Annapolitan and Bay-Wise gardener. She  is a retired law librarian who enjoys  Master Gardener projects, crafts, reading, travel and  learning about our local ecology and sustainable agriculture.  Pat especially enjoys kayaking and boating on the Bay with her husband, Geoff.  She believes that the Unity Gardens mission of empowering communities to improve their environment with native plants is a positive force in the community.  Each individual really can make a difference by landscaping wisely and working together, and can achieve deep and visible results for our Chesapeake Bay environment.

Mary Yee, Board Member, is a long-time native plant enthusiast and has been an active advocate for the environment in Anne Arundel County since she moved here in 2003.  Originally from Washington, DC and most recently from Montgomery County, Mary has been a Master Gardener since 2011.  Some of her favorite projects have been with Ask A Master Gardener, Bay-Wise, and co-chairing the Bee Project for six years.  Mary currently volunteers with the Greenhouse Team of Providence of Maryland and has been a Unity Gardens grant recipient for her homeowner’s association.  When not in the garden, Mary also enjoys reading and long walks with her fur baby.

Richard Hergenroeder, Board Member, earned degrees in civil engineering from Drexel University and also graduated from John Hopkins University. Richard was a Professional Engineer with firms that served the environmental and energy sectors. He is a Fellow of the Society of American Military Engineers and served on boards of homeowners’ associations, a recycling association, and state, county, and borough commissions.  He has enjoyed assisting two dozen landscape conservation projects in Anne Arundel County. His current projects are a flower farm for his church and a living shoreline for his home.  He volunteers for Wheels of Hope (Crownsville) and his church (Pasadena). Richard is part of Unity Gardens because it provides incentive for homeowners’ associations and faith communities to create habitat for pollinators. Richard believes these grants have a multiplier effect among the many members of these communities. 

Join Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay to celebrate National Seed Swap Day! We will be participating in the Seed Swap Festival at Mount Rainier Nature Center, co-hosted by Prince George's Parks and Recreation and Anacostia Watershed Society.

Who should attend?
Everyone is welcome. Never gardened before? Come and bring your curiosity! Gardened and saved seeds your whole life? Bring your seeds and stories to share.

What should you bring?
It’s not required to bring anything to the seed swap. If you have seeds you’d like to share, please bring them! If possible, bring them in a labeled container with the type, variety, and year grown. If you have extra ziplock bags, paper packets, or other potential seed containers for seeds you receive, bring those as well.

In addition to the seed swap, there will be activities as follows:

Story Time for children starts at 11:30am 

Craft starts at 12:00pm-12:30pm. 

Winter seed starting workshop by the Mount Rainier Public Library will run from 1:00pm to 3:00pm 

The event is free and open to the public. 

Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay members and volunteers gathered materials for display at the Twin Beaches Library. “Winter in the Garden” includes books for gathering information,  information on winter sowing of native plant seeds. Included are QR codes for connection to internet resources including Maryland's Best (Maryland Native Plant Program). 

Accessible for patrons to take are:  Wild Ones bookmarks, coloring pages of Maryland Native Plants and Maryland Native Plant Society booklets of Maryland Native Plants. 

Native seed winter sowing with horticulture management students

Native seed cleaning with horticulture management students

Tired of overlooking the beauty right outside your window? Barbara Martín of the St. Mary's County Garden Club will show you why plant identification is a rewarding skill!

This discussion focuses on various native plants commonly found in areas like roadsides and old fields. You'll gain a practical understanding of basic botany and learn how to apply this knowledge to the plants in your own yard. Barbara will share photos of unique local finds and discuss how these resilient natives can contribute to a healthier home landscape.

This program is supported by St Mary's County Garden Club, Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay Chapter and Front Yard Volunteers.

Native plant ID sign project presentation to Graphic Design students

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.!  

Join us for a fun and informative workshop on winter sowing seeds in milk jugs! 

Tuesday, March 3, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

La Plata Campus, ST Building Room 223

Sign Up Here:  Winter Sowing Workshop 2026 – Fill out form

We'll provide all the supplies you need — jugs, soil, seeds — and you'll be able to take home a mini nursery or two! The plants you grow can be added to your own gardens, shared with family/friends/neighbors, or donated to local gardens or plant swaps. Whatever you choose to do with them, it's just plain fun to winter sow and watch your seeds sprout and grow!

If possible, please bring at least one clean milk jug (clear or translucent, not solid white) to help replenish our supplies to keep these workshops going.

Seeds will be available due to the generosity of Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay (a native plant conservation group) and our own "Seed Box" CSM seed library.  Available seeds will include a variety of native plant seeds, vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Madeline Kaba will also be briefly discussing the "Seed Box" CSM Seed Library.

Special thanks to Brent Burdick, adjunct professor and Master Gardener, and Marlene Smith, President of Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay Chapter, for coming out to teach us!

This is a great way to cheer up and enjoy the promise of spring during the cold days of winter!  This presentation supports our Bird and Bee Campus Initiatives.

Contact Tracey Stuller, [email protected], for more information.

Celebrating the one-year anniversary of the CSM Seed Library with a Seed Swap!Thursday March 5, 2026
12-2 p.m.
La Plata Campus, LR Building, Room 205
Open to CSM Staff, Faculty, Students and the Public

Join us for a Seed Swap Party in celebration of the one-year anniversary of opening “The Seed Box,” CSM’s Seed Library! Whether you’re looking to pick up some seeds to plant this spring, hoping to clean out your collection from past seasons, or just want to spend time with other local gardeners, this event is for you! 

The Seed Box’s Seed Swap Birthday Party will be held on Thursday, March 5 from 12-2 p.m., on the La Plata Campus in the Learning Resource (LR Building), Room 205. Attendees may trade with each other or “check out” seeds from the seed library, which will have a new selection of seeds and an increased maximum allowance of seeds per person.

If you would like to bring seeds to swap or donate, make sure they are completely dry, in a sealed container, and labelled with as much information as is known (common and scientific name, year and location harvested, etc.).

This event is open to the public and does not require registration. Attendees may come and go at any time during the event.

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.

Many people are looking to add native plants to their gardens but don't know what to get or what is native for our area. This presentation will go over some of the most common native plants and where to plant them for success. Native Plants are essential because they are the foundation of the ecosystem. Native Plants are those that an ecosystem depends on in order to thrive. We can help fight the biodiversity crisis one yard at a time.

Join chapter members Robin Madel and Sue Williams for this informative presentation which includes information on the Coastal Plain ecoregion; critical area; right plant, right place and suggestions for various situations (sun/shade). 

Included will be take-home copies with information on local sources, internet sites for research and the Maryland Native Plant Society Booklet on suggested native plants. 

For accessibility accommodations, please contact us at least 2 weeks before the event. 410-535-0291. 

Join us for our bi-monthly Garden Chat with a presentation by chapter secretary Miranda Yourick, owner of Earthly Delights Native Gardening. 

All Wild Ones members are welcome to attend and invite a guest!

Description:

While natural spaces are wild and beholden to the laws of nature, gardens are constructed by humans who wish to embody particular aesthetics.  Perhaps you want a naturalistic look but need to appease the HOA? Maybe you want a cottage garden like your grandmother's but filled with native plants instead of the traditional roses and foxgloves? Miranda will introduce you to some guiding principles for designing your garden as a place of comfort, excitement, and beauty that reflects your personal style and practical needs while also supporting the wildlife in your backyard.

About the Speaker: 

Miranda found her passion for native plants after buying her first home in 2023. Beginning with zero gardens, she stumbled through the process of creating them and made a ton of mistakes along the way. A chance encounter led her to volunteering at the USGS Bee Lab with Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, where she soaked up as much information as possible about propagating and identifying native plants. Miranda is no stranger to learning scientific names, as she holds a PhD in Biology where she studied the genetics of fishes. Miranda has more than a decade of teaching experience in traditional classrooms, community outreach, and hands-on learning.

Designing gardens is an exercise in art and science, both of which Miranda is enamored with. She hopes to help create natural spaces that delight the senses while supporting habitat for wildlife. When not gardening, you can find her listening to audiobooks from the science-fiction or horror genres, hiking (stopping often to look at everything), or learning enumerable new crafts. One such craft is linocut - which is how she designed the Earthly Delights logo.

Favorite native plant - Wild Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis

Join of for a screening of the film, The Little Things That Run the World, at the College of Southern Maryland Bee Campus LaPlata Campus. You don't want to miss this important message, including cameo appearances by Sam Droege, the leading voice in native bee conservation.

Watch the trailer here.

The Little Things that Run the World introduces viewers to a diverse group of scientists, nature lovers, gardeners, farmers, and general bug enthusiasts in exploring the importance of flying insects amid rapid declines in their numbers.  This most numerous group of animals on the planet by far – three quarters of all species – have also been called the “glue of life” on Earth. They literally hold ecosystems together.  Insects were the first animals to evolve flight nearly 440 million years ago, and they survived all five of the known mass extinctions since then. But, there is evidence that the pace of decline among insects in parts of the world today is fast approaching the levels of previous catastrophes. What this means for the rest of life on Earth, including humans, is the focus of The Little Things that Run the World. The film documents the mysteries of the declines along side creative and heroic human efforts to change the course of evolutionary history. What is causing this extinction crisis?  What can be done to reverse the trend? The Little Things that Run the World attempts to find answers to those questions and more.  

Chapter member Tracey Stuller invites us to participate in the spring pollinator garden cleanup for the College of Southern Maryland Bee Campus pollinator garden.

Explore the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Pollinator Garden with magnifying glasses and children’s binoculars looking for and identifying birds and bugs in the garden. We can loan our guests magnifying glasses and binoculars but if you have your own, please feel free to bring them.

Tots in the Front Yard family garden walks will be led by Master Gardener volunteer Deb Pence and other volunteer community garden enthusiasts in the Leonardtown Library’s “Front Yard Garden.” Activities and guided walks are developed for 3–6 year-olds, but the whole family is welcome to join in the explorations. Children must be accompanied by an adult, and parents should note there will most likely be exposure to nuts, seeds and other plant parts as well as a variety of pollinators, so please be advised for potential allergens.

Registration is requested but drop-ins will be welcome. Walks will be approximately 30-40 minutes and loosely scheduled for 10:00 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Upcoming Walk Themes:

Saturday April 4, 2026: Birds and Bugs: Big and Little - Explore the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Pollinator Garden with magnifying glasses and children’s binoculars looking for and identifying birds and bugs in the garden. We can loan our guests magnifying glasses and binoculars but if you have your own please feel free to bring them.

Saturday May 16, 2026: Colors in the Front Yard - A scavenger hunt in the Front Yard looking for all the colors in the rainbow and more!

Saturday June 13, 2026:: Shapes in the Front Yard- Join us as we look high and low for all sorts of shapes found in our Leonardtown Library Front Yard Native Plant garden. 

Saturday July 11, 2026: Easy Peasy Tree and Flower Identification - Explore the Leonardtown library’s Front Yard garden and learn to identify 4-6 (more or less) easy to identify trees, shrubs or flowers found in our native gardens and Maryland’s natural landscapes.

Saturday August 22, 2026: Water in the Front Yard Garden! - Come prepared to get a little wet as we review “What Plant’s Need to Grow” and talk about the importance of nurturing our plants and gardens in the heat of summer with different watering methods and systems.  

Saturday September 5, 2026: Pollinators in the Front Yard - An end of summer investigation looking for pollinators in our favorite native plant garden.

Saturday October 3, 2026: Fall in the Front Yard! - Enjoy exploring the fall garden’s colors, smells, sights, sounds and perhaps tastes In the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Garden. 

Saturday November 14, 2026: Sleepy Seeds in the Front Yard 1 A Fun exploration of seeds and fruits found in the garden for flowers, shrubs and trees. We have flower seeds & pods, shrub fruits and tree nuts to look at, feel and learn to associate with our garden plants.

AGE GROUP: | Upper Elementary | Toddler | Preschool | Lower Elementary | Baby |

You might think native plants won't work in your yard, but in this presentation, Robin Madel and Sue Williams, with Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, will illustrate how there is a right plant for all those problem spots you might have around your yard.

We'll hold the workshop from 10am to 12pm, followed by a light lunch from 12pm to 12:30pm, then head outside for a work day in the Nature Center native plant beds from 12:30pm to 2:30pm.

Registration is recommended, but not required.
 

Join Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay to celebrate National Seed Swap Day! We will be participating in the Seed Swap Festival at Mount Rainier Nature Center, co-hosted by Prince George's Parks and Recreation and Anacostia Watershed Society.

Who should attend?
Everyone is welcome. Never gardened before? Come and bring your curiosity! Gardened and saved seeds your whole life? Bring your seeds and stories to share.

What should you bring?
It’s not required to bring anything to the seed swap. If you have seeds you’d like to share, please bring them! If possible, bring them in a labeled container with the type, variety, and year grown. If you have extra ziplock bags, paper packets, or other potential seed containers for seeds you receive, bring those as well.

In addition to the seed swap, there will be activities as follows:

Story Time for children starts at 11:30am 

Craft starts at 12:00pm-12:30pm. 

Winter seed starting workshop by the Mount Rainier Public Library will run from 1:00pm to 3:00pm 

The event is free and open to the public. 

This is a private event for the local Girl Scout service unit, organized by The Girl Scouts of Northern Calvert County.

We will be partnering with Nurture Natives to host age-appropriate activities related to Monarchs and Milkweed, including:
      Coloring pages and masks
      Lifecycle of a caterpillar
      Pollinator Race game
      Educational display

If available, butterfly milkweed plugs for scouts to pot up and take home. 

Join us on Saturday, April 18, from 10:00 a.m. to noon for a Native Plant Giveaway! Come pick up free plants for your home and learn how you can make a positive impact on our local environment.

The event will also feature informational brochures and booths where you can explore topics like native gardening, birding, and environmental stewardship.

This event supports Saint Nicholas' new project to construct two bioswales on their property. These landscape features will help filter stormwater, reduce flooding, and contribute to a healthier Chesapeake Bay.

Come all tall and small Good Earthlings to celebrate A "Good Earth" Day! Join us in our side parking lot for vendors and hands-on fun. We will have tons of activities for kids and adults:

Global Wines- Organic Wine Tasting (inside)
Back Porch Coffee Co.- Fresh roasted coffee pour overs
Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay Chapter - Dedicating the new front garden
Anchored Roots Farm- Regenerative Flower Farm
Make Your Own Pinch Pot for Kids- with artist Sarah Houde
Butterfly Walk Mascot- Molly the Monarch
Sunward CSA- Regenerative Agriculture
Start Your Own Seeds for Kids- with Valerie Deptula
King's Rest Farm- Regenerative Agriculture
Plein Air will be painting live!
Deez L'town Bees- Pollination & Beekeeping Demo
And More!!!

To become an Earth Day vendor please message [email protected]

To volunteer during our workdays in early April to renovate and plant the new native pollinator garden, contact [email protected]

April weather can be fickle, so if it rains, we will be cancelling with no rain date.

Nurture Natives and Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay will be participating at the University of Maryland’s annual springtime open house, Maryland Day! Stop by our booth to learn more about native plants. More details to follow on potential plant giveaway.

The University of Maryland's daylong event opens the campus to the community for nearly 400 free events showcasing arts, science, agriculture, sports and so much more. Don’t miss this unforgettable day of fun and discovery!

Details to follow

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.

Would you like to make choices in your home landscape that invite birds and butterflies into your yard and help protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay?

Learn about the process of transforming a lawn into a native plant garden. Master Gardeners will discuss how Leonardtown Library's Front Lawn was transformed and how you can take those lessons home.

The "Front Yard" team will share strategies and resources for homeowners who are interested in transforming swathes of turf grass into garden areas that beautify their property, reduce stormwater runoff from their yards, and create habitat for Maryland native birds, butterflies and other pollinators.

The Front Yard is a community project supported by Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, Friends of St Clements Bay, St. Mary's County Garden Club, St. Mary's County Master Gardeners and The Leonardtown Butterfly Trail.

Registration opens April 14.

Come and explore the beauty of native plants at the Parkette Pollinator Patch in Leonardtown. Meet members of the Leonardtown Butterfly Trail team (Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, St. Mary's County Garden Club, St. Mary's County Master Gardeners) to learn about the native plants in the pollinator patch. Learn about monarch butterflies and the other pollinators that visit the gardens.

ECOBAY will also be onsite with native plants for sale.

Many people are looking to add native plants to their gardens but don't know what to get or what is native for our area. This presentation will go over some of the most common native plants and where to plant them for success. Native Plants are essential because they are the foundation of the ecosystem. Native Plants are those that an ecosystem depends on in order to thrive. We can help fight the biodiversity crisis one yard at a time.

Join chapter members Robin Madel and Sue Williams for this informative presentation which includes information on the Coastal Plain ecoregion; critical area; right plant, right place and suggestions for various situations (sun/shade). 

Included will be take-home copies with information on local sources, internet sites for research and the Maryland Native Plant Society Booklet on suggested native plants. 

Bring your native plants and seeds to trade with other gardeners at our inaugural spring native plant swap at the “Front Yard” native gardens. 

This free event offers both experienced and new gardeners a chance to add native plants to their yards. In doing so, you will be creating habitat for our native birds, bees and butterflies.

If you're new to gardening with native plants, this event is the place to get started! Meet and chat with native-plant enthusiasts, view native plants in the Front Yard gardens, and take home free plants and seeds! 

If you're an experienced native gardener, please spread the joy by bringing your favorite plants and seeds to swap and share.  

Strange as it sounds, we're trying to prevent the spread of invasive weeds and jumping worms, so please follow these simple steps when bringing your plants to the event: 

Dig up your plants. 
Shake the dirt off the roots. 
Gently rinse the roots clean.  
Label each plant (include the botanical name if you can). 
Bring them to the Swap & Share in a bucket of water or wrapped in wet paper and tucked in a plastic bag.

For more information, contact Liz Curtz, Friends of St Clements Bay, at [email protected] or Marlene Smith, Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, @ [email protected]
Participating partners include St. Mary's County Master Gardeners, Butterfly Alley, the Leonardtown Butterfly Trail, Friends of St Clements Bay, Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, and the St. Mary's County Garden Club.

Explore the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Pollinator Garden with magnifying glasses and children’s binoculars looking for and identifying birds and bugs in the garden. We can loan our guests magnifying glasses and binoculars but if you have your own, please feel free to bring them.

Tots in the Front Yard family garden walks will be led by Master Gardener volunteer Deb Pence and other volunteer community garden enthusiasts in the Leonardtown Library’s “Front Yard Garden.” Activities and guided walks are developed for 3–6 year-olds, but the whole family is welcome to join in the explorations. Children must be accompanied by an adult, and parents should note there will most likely be exposure to nuts, seeds and other plant parts as well as a variety of pollinators, so please be advised for potential allergens.

Registration is requested but drop-ins will be welcome. Walks will be approximately 30-40 minutes and loosely scheduled for 10:00 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Upcoming Walk Themes:

Saturday May 16, 2026:: Colors in the Front Yard - A scavenger hunt in the Front Yard looking for all the colors in the rainbow and more!

Saturday June 13, 2026:: Shapes in the Front Yard - Join us as we look high and low for all sorts of shapes found in our Leonardtown Library Front Yard Native Plant garden. 

Saturday July 11, 2026: Easy Peasy Tree and Flower Identification - Explore the Leonardtown library’s Front Yard garden and learn to identify 4-6 (more or less) easy to identify trees, shrubs or flowers found in our native gardens and Maryland’s natural landscapes.

Saturday August 22, 2026: Water in the Front Yard Garden! - Come prepared to get a little wet as we review “What Plant’s Need to Grow” and talk about the importance of nurturing our plants and gardens in the heat of summer with different watering methods and systems.  

Saturday September 5, 2026: Pollinators in the Front Yard - An end of summer investigation looking for pollinators in our favorite native plant garden.

Saturday October 3, 2026 : Fall in the Front Yard! - Enjoy exploring the fall garden’s colors, smells, sights, sounds and perhaps tastes In the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Garden. 

Saturday November 14, 2026: Sleepy Seeds in the Front Yard - A Fun exploration of seeds and fruits found in the garden for flowers, shrubs and trees. We have flower seeds & pods, shrub fruits and tree nuts to look at, feel and learn to associate with our garden plants.

AGE GROUP: | Upper Elementary | Toddler | Preschool | Lower Elementary | Baby |

Join us for our bi-monthly Garden Chat.

All Wild Ones members are welcome to attend and invite a guest!

Details to follow

Prepare to be amazed, get your hands dirty, and have loads of fun as we learn about the beauties of nature together! This is a FREE event for families of all ages. Read more about this event and view our schedule at: https://www.neighborhoodcreativeartscenter.org/nature-fest
​
Registration is free and requires no credit card details

Details to follow

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!