Create Your Own Native Plant Landscape: Burlingame Library Event

Homeowners who want to replace their thirsty lawns with low-water native plants are invited to a hands-on workshop with landscape architect Juanita Salisbury on Wednesday, May 22, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Burlingame Public Library, 480 Primrose Road.

The program, “Design Your Own Native Plant Landscape,” is presented by the Citizens Environmental Council of Burlingame. It is cosponsored by the City of Burlingame and is funded by the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. Admission is free, but attendance is limited to 50 people. Please register at http://bawsca.org/conserve/programs/classes by May 17.

After explaining basic garden design techniques, Salisbury will invite participants to put pencil to paper and design their own garden. She encourages those attending to use Google Earth to zero in on the specific area where they’d like to design a garden, take a screen shot, print it out on an 8-1/2-by-11-inch sheet of paper and bring it to the workshop. Tracing paper, pencils and tape will be provided.

Salisbury started designing landscapes in 2009 after earning a Ph.D. in biopsychology and working for commercial and residential design firms. She now enjoys teaching others to create gardens. She recently began focusing on California native plant pollinator habitats and established the Primrose Way Pollinator Garden, the first of four pollinator habitat gardens in Palo Alto. With more than 6,500 California native plants to choose from, she will focus on plants that provide multiple resources for pollinators.

This program is the fourth of seven free “Green Programs on Hot Topics” presented by the Citizens Environmental Council of Burlingame (CEC) this year. CEC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to champion a more environmentally and economically sustainable community. For more information, visit http://cecburlingame.org or email info@cecburlingame.org.