10.24 7:00-8:00PM

What We Sow: The Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds

Gardens and gardeners are powerful agents for positive change in the world, helping to address challenges as wide ranging as climate change, habitat loss, cultural polarization, and individual and communal health and well-being. Jennifer Jewell, host of the national public-radio program and international podcast Cultivating Place, will explore that power through the lens of SEEDS: how they grow, where they grow, who grows them, who sells and/or controls them, and their care up and down the seed-sheds of our world. 

Jennifer will share fascinating stories of seeds and seed-keepers from her newest book, What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds (2023). These stories are both cautionary tales and guiding lights in ways we can all sow, seed, and grow our world more beautiful, more delicious, more biodiverse, and more brave.

Her books, What We Sow and Under Western Skies, are proudly sold at our Shop at Barton Springs Nursery.

11.14 7:00-8:00PM

Lawn Free: How I Transformed My Lawn into a Prairie Garden

Why settle for a boring, thirsty lawn when you can create a dynamic prairie garden that changes with the seasons and benefits the environment? That’s exactly what Michael McDowell thought when he set out to create his Plano prairie garden in the suburbs 20 miles north of Dallas. Michael will show how he transformed his yard from a lawn-dominant landscape to a lawn-free prairie garden and how his vision continues to evolve as he and the garden mature. He’ll share his tips for gardening on a budget (hint: propagation and patience), explain how he’s stayed on good terms with neighbors and off the radar of property standards officers, and show how resilient prairie plants are in spite of extreme weather and other challenges.