Native Garden Tour Needs Volunteers

EL CERRITO, CA- The Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour is seeking volunteers who will spend a morning or afternoon greeting tour participants and answering questions.

Thirty gardens located throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties will be showcased on this tour taking place on Sunday, May 1.

Benefits to volunteers include invitations to Garden Soirees, in which tour gardens are open for leisurely, private viewing by hosts and volunteers; a pre-tour meeting with the owner and private tour of the garden you will be staffing; a guaranteed tour reservation for the half day you are free; a Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour t-shirt; and, perhaps best of all, heartfelt thanks for helping to educate the general public about the many pleasures and benefits of gardening with California native plants.

Gardens will be assigned on a first-come basis.

To volunteer, complete the registration form on the website, registration closes April 24.

For more information e-mail Kathy Kramer at Kathy@KathyKramerConsulting.net, or call 510-236-9558 between 9am and 9pm.

Information about the free garden tour:

• As always, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour is free! (Though donations are requested, and needed.)
• 10:00–5:00 on Sunday, May 1, 2016. (Please DO NOT visit these gardens on Saturday, April 30, as the hosts will be busy preparing for the big event on the following day. The free tour takes place ONLY on Sunday, May 1, 2016.)
• This is a self-guided tour of 32 fabulous private gardens that provide habitat for wildlife, are pesticide-free, conserve water, and contain 60% or more native plants. Half a dozen nurseries will be selling native plants on the week-end of the Tour.
• After registering, you will receive a garden guide in the mail; register early to receive your guide by mid-April. The guide contains more than enough tickets for two people, as most people see 4 to 6 gardens. (Twenty tickets are located on the last page of the guide). Every adult (age 16 and older) must provide a ticket at the greeting table before entering a garden. You may register a maximum of 4 people using one garden guide. If your group is larger than 4, please fill out another registration form.
• Registration is required in order to receive a garden guide, which contains garden addresses, maps and directions. The Tour is expected to fill, so register early to avoid being disappointed.
• Native plants will be sold at a number of the gardens on the day of the Tour. In addition, a number of native plant nurseries will be open from 10:00-5:00 on the weekend of the tour. See the Native Plant Sale Extravaganza section of this website (coming soon!), or the matrix at the back of the garden guide, for details.
• More than 50 free talks will be given throughout the day. The garden guide contains the schedule. Early in April the talk schedule will also be posted at the top of the “View the 2016 gardens” page.
• Preview the 2016 gardens to see photographs of each garden, view extensive garden descriptions, and download plant lists.
• Handicapped-accessible gardens can be found by looking at the last column in the “Gardens at a Glance” matrix at the back of the Tour Guide, or by looking for the “Access” symbol in the printed garden guide on each garden description page.
• Volunteers are needed! Both Greeters (who don’t need to know anything about native plants) and Garden Assistants (who do need to be knowledgeable about natives) are in high demand! Learn more

Announcement and photo by the Bringing Back the Natives