Presented in partnership with the Petaluma Arts Center and Recology San Francisco and Santa Rosa, It’s Not Trash: Reclaiming and Transforming honors artists who repurpose discarded materials to create work centered on sustainability, storytelling, and community restoration. Reuse Alliance, in collaboration with community participants, will be creating and exhibiting a textile-based art installation at the upcoming exhibition, opening this fall at the Petaluma Arts Center. This summer, they are hosting a series of skill-based workshops centered around transforming and repurposing textile waste collected from clothing swaps and their new creative reuse store at the Reuse Hub. The installation, texTILES, will be featured…

Program: Many of our Marin landscapes are filled with plants from across the globe—chosen over the years for their beauty, availability, or practicality. Today, more gardeners are rethinking those choices and looking to create landscapes that truly support the local ecosystem. California native plants offer a natural fit. Adapted to our climate, they thrive with less water, minimal fertilizer, and can handle our long, dry summers. Just as importantly, they’ve evolved alongside local birds, insects, and wildlife—providing essential food and habitat right in your backyard. Join us for this hands-on pruning workshop, where you’ll learn how to care for both woody…

Program: Ground covers serve many functions in the landscape, including suppressing weeds, reducing erosion, replacing lawns, softening hardscapes, and filling in large expanses. Native groundcovers have the benefits of being adapted to our environment and supporting native biodiversity. In addition, they often require little maintenance or water. In this presentation, we will discuss seventeen of our favorite native groundcovers. Speakers: Kathy Hunting, a Master Gardener since 2014, is an environmental health scientist by training. She lives on a sunny acre in Point Reyes Station where her garden is full of tasty vegetables and fruits. She also attempts to grow ornamentals that the…

Program: Composting, the mystery of gardening! Join us and learn how to compost using kitchen and table scraps, dry and moist plant material to create nutrient-rich organic matter. Compost will improve your soil and plants, while at the same time reducing the waste in our landfills. Speakers: Joan Irwin has been a UC Master Gardener since 2003. She presents frequently on composting, organic gardening and community gardens. She learned to love gardening from her grandmother in Michigan and has gardened in the Bay Area for 40 years. Joan has degrees from the University of Michigan and UC Berkeley. Cost: FREE Sponsors: Marin Master Gardeners…

Program: Discover the world of perennial vegetables—long-lived plants that return year after year, providing nutritious food with minimal effort! This presentation profiles a number of delicious vegetables you can grow here in Marin and explores a “plant-it-once” system that builds soil health and biodiversity. Learn about these hardy, sometimes drought-resistant plants to potentially include into your garden. They are productive, beautiful, and can keep you in food all year long. Speakers: Keri Pon has been a UC Marin Master Gardener since 2011. She has been involved with the Edibles Guild since 2013 and has also worked with the Indian Valley Organic Farm and…

Floral Fandango, A Global Celebration! Visit the Hall of Flowers at the Sonoma County Fair, and take a whirlwind trip to visit celebrations around the world. The Floral Fandango Flower Show is included with Fair admission and opens daily at Fair opening: August 7-8-9 and 15-16 at 10 a.m.; August 10-14 at noon: sonomacountyfair.com/pages/tickets The Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership is partnering with the UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County for the fourth year to create a water smart educational demonstration garden in the Garden Courtyard outside the Hall of Flowers. Find the Garden Courtyard between Linwood Avenue (Mexican Village)…

Discover native plants, explore the grounds, and experience art, community, and conservation at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation annual fall open house! Join for a festive, free autumn celebration at the Laguna Environmental Center. Take a guided walk through the native plant demonstration garden at 11:00am or 12:00pm, explore the beautiful grounds, and visit Spirit of My Homeland, a new exhibit in Heron Hall featuring the work of artist Gloria Armstrong. The exhibit celebrates cultural connection, family, and place through artwork rooted in lived experience and local landscapes. As part of the day’s festivities, the Milo Baker Chapter of the…

Learn how to create and maintain a firewise, sustainable garden that supports biodiversity while meeting County code requirements. This workshop covers plant selection, placement, and maintenance practices that preserve and even enhance wildlife habitat — while keeping your property and neighborhood fire-safe. Topics include: Firewise landscaping recommendations for the 0–5′ (including new State Zone Zero regulations), 5–30′, and 30–100′ defensible space zones, with specific plant recommendations for each. Practical strategies for reconciling sometimes-conflicting guidelines, so you can achieve a landscape that’s beautiful, biodiverse, water-wise, energy-saving, and fire-safe all at once. A grounded understanding of what sustainability really means for a…

The newly released 2026 Residential End Uses of Water, Version 3 study from the Water Research Foundation offers clear evidence that federal water efficiency standards lower costs, reduce water use, and improve long-term water system sustainability. The study updates one of the most important long-running datasets in the water sector and confirms a noticeable trend: indoor residential water use has dropped significantly over the last quarter century. Indoor water use in single-family homes has fallen by 44% since 1999, with the biggest reductions coming from improved efficiency in toilets, clothes washers, and faucets. These are all products that have been shaped over time by…

Rooted in the Watershed Guided Hike Event Series: Join One Tam staff for the summer Rooted in the Watershed guided hike series, where they travel from peak to Pacific through the forests of Marin County. Starting on Mt. Tamalpais, they will follow the water all the way out to Lagunitas Creek, stopping at several forest types on the way. This series encourages folks to reflect upon how our parks are connected through the watershed they share, and how, through collaborative management, we can foster more resilient landscapes.  ***These hikes have a registration cap; RSVPs are required! Event details including meeting…

Join Daily Acts in learning about summer pruning at one of their most mature demonstration gardens, The Cavanagh Center Food Forest, home to a diversity of fruit trees of varying species and ages. You’ll leave this program with a better understanding of : Pruning best-practices Winter pruning vs summer pruning (with an emphasis on summer cuts) How seasonal pruning benefits tree health and production They’re pleased to be collaborating with Clare Riesman, local arborist and farm & garden educator to learn how to make summer pruning cuts on stone fruit (plums, apricots), pome fruits (apples, pears), figs, and pomegranates. *Note* This program will include an outdoor…

Did you know that landscape irrigation accounts for 50% of the average household water use in California? Irrigating efficiently to reduce your outdoor water use can help save water and money. The Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership is recognizing Smart Irrigation Month this July, which highlights the benefits of efficient irrigation products and services. July has been designated as Smart Irrigation Month because this is the month that traditionally has the highest irrigation demand. The Sonoma-Marin Water Saving Partnership developed the Irrigation Scheduling Tool to simplify and increase the accuracy of irrigation controller scheduling. This web-based tool retrieves data from local weather stations,…