Grow Native! Webinar: Dispelling Myths of Native Gardening

Increasingly, gardeners, farmers, community planners, and nature enthusiasts in the lower Midwest are choosing native plants. As this movement attracts enthusiasm, however, it also draws speculation. What is the truth about native plants… and what is misinformation? Join panelists Sajo Abdallah, Eric Eaton, Nina Fogel, and Scott Woodbury as they tackle live questions and set the record straight on many common native gardening misconceptions. Topics to be explored include native landscape design styles and maintenance, challenging assumptions around pollinators, small mammals, and insects, illuminating the differences among natives, nativars, and cultivars, tips on beneficial vs nuisance insect identification, and more.

Experts featured on the panel (left to right) include:

–Sajo Abdallah, Private Land Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and CoMo Wild Yards Program

–Eric R. Eaton, entomologist, writer, speaker, and lauded “Internet Bug Guy”

–Nina Fogel, Ph.D., Natural Heritage Database Specialist with MDC

–Scott Woodbury, designer, horticulturist, writer, speaker, and owner of Cacalia Design and Wilding

This free webinar, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and a live question-and-answer session. The webinar will be recorded, with a link to the recording sent to all registrants and posted to the MPF YouTube channel.

Cost: Free

Panelist Biographies

Sajo Abdallah currently works as a Private Lands Biologist for the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. She is a Texas native and received her Bachelor of Science in Animal Science with a minor in Conservation Biology from Sam Houston State University. Her current position allows her the opportunity to interact with the public through outreach events, while also bringing conservation practices to private lands by helping homeowners build pollinator habitat in their yards. Day to day, her focus is assisting Columbia, MO residents in crafting gardens that are both aesthetically beautiful and ecologically sustainable by utilizing natives. She is passionate about plants, pollinators, people, and combining all three to engage the community better.

Eric R. Eaton is the author of Insectpedia (2022), Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect (2021), lead author of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (2007), and co-author of the second edition of Insects Did It First (2018) with Gregory S. Paulson. Eric also maintains his blog, “Bug Eric“.

Nina Fogel manages data on species of conservation concern as Missouri Department of Conservation’s Natural Heritage Database specialist. She received her PhD at Saint Louis University where she studied bee diversity in residential native plant gardens.

Scott Woodbury received a BS degree in horticulture at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and has worked at various public gardens including the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve, Tudor Place in Washington D.C., Old Westbury Gardens in New York, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, and Castello Di Uzzano in Florence, Italy. He currently serves as advisor to the horticulture program of St. Louis Community College, Grow Native!, and Wild Ones St. Louis. Scott serves on the planning committees for the Partners for Native Landscaping conference and the small grants programs for The Deer Creek Watershed Alliance and MSD Project Clear.

Promotional image photos left to right by MDC and Ed Spevak