Events

Discover how ecological landscaping with native plants can make your landscape more resilient and help address the climate crisis. This webinar will highlight practical, evidence-based approaches to designing and maintaining landscapes that build resilience to climate change and support native biodiversity. Join Wild Ones for a free webinar, “EcoBeneficial Landscape Strategies for the Climate Crisis,” featuring environmental horticulturalist and ecological landscape designer Kim Eierman.

The Hickories is a multi faceted farm,  their activities  include being a certified organic grower of vegetables,  fruits and flowers, as well pasture raised meats. They build biodiversity by offering restoration seeds from the Eco59 Region and are now home to the Northeast Seed Collective.  

Owner Dina Brewster will take us on a tour their operations, with an emphasis on the native seed project.

Participation limited to 30 people.  

Please consider carpooling as parking is limited.

The Hamden Town Center Park Stormwater Retention Project is the largest of its kind in New England.

This event combines an indoor presentation with CT Wild Ones Board Member Jim Sirch and a soite4 walk with Save the Sound Watersheds Project Manager Nicole Davis. This two-part presentation is designed to help the public better understand how the project, filled with hundreds of Connecticut native plants, works to infiltrate polluted stormwater runoff from Dixwell Avenue to make Town Center Park safer for children and families. Meet at the Hamden Public Library program room on the first floor.  

This program is free an open to the public, registration not required.

Rain date is Sunday, September 28, same time.

Our annual meeting of the chapter takes place during the last quarter of each year.  By moving the date up to October, we hope this will allow more members to attend.   The historic Dudley Farm provides a convenient and lovely setting for our event.  We will hold our potluck and business meeting on the main floor of the Munger Barn, rain or shine.  Share your latest native planting project or initiative during our Members Forum.  If you would like to share some photos or video or would like to talk for a few minutes, please email [email protected].  We look forward to your ideas and feedback on how to keep our chapter growing and thriving.

Please RSVP at the registration link below.

All members are welcome at chapter Board business meetings. Email chapter in advance to receive Zoom link if you wish to attend.

Even after reading books and attending talks, many still have pressing questions about ecological landscaping. In this talk, Tallamy addresses common concerns on biodiversity, invasive species, native plants, and conservation strategies, providing practical guidance and motivation to restore nature in everyday spaces. 

The Arboretum’s Horticultural Director Anna Fialkoff will lead a field walk in the Arboretum's Native Plant Collection to collect seed from a variety of native plants.  She will help participants identify plants with seeds and determine which have ripe seed ready to collect.  Participants will go home with several types of seeds to try propagating.  Meet at the Arboretum Center for Education and Research (ACER) at 33 Gallows Lane.   This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required due to limited capacity. 

SAVE THE DATE!  Menunkatuck Audubon and Community Placemaking Engagement Network (CPEN) will host another fun fall event to teach people about the diversity and importance of pollinators and their ecological relationships with native plants.  Wild Ones will have an information table advocating gardening practices that support pollinators. There will be a free workshop for native seed sowing in plastic milk jugs.  Each participant will be able to take home a milk jug  sown with native plant seeds with instructions for how to care for it over the winter so that the seeds will germinate next spring.   This event will take place, rain or shine.  

All members are welcome at chapter Board business meetings. Email chapter in advance to receive Zoom link if you wish to attend.

Smaller American Lawns Today, SALT, is a movement introduced in June of 1997 by Dr. William A. Niering, professor of botany at Connecticut College. The SALT mission is to decrease the size of lawns in America by restoring home grounds to more harmonious, productive, ecologically sound and naturalistic landscapes. SALT offers an alternative vision of the monocultured lawn. As Dr. Niering wrote, “There’s nothing wrong with dandelions, there’s something wrong with people.”

This annual conference is organized and hosted by Connecticut College Arboretum and sponsored in part by Wild Ones Mountain Laurel Chapter.  Wild Ones members receive discounted registration.

SAVE THE DATE.  Information specific for the November 8, 2025 conference will be posted here when available.

Our 2024 Conference, “To mow or not to mow: Creating your home meadow” sold out.  

An archive of SALT conferences may be found at the link.

Details coming soon! 

All members are welcome at chapter Board business meetings. Email chapter in advance to receive Zoom link if you wish to attend.

Designing with native plants isn’t just about what you grow, it’s about how you shape your space. In this hands-on workshop, Zoe Evans (Plan it Wild) and Heather Evans (Design Your Wild) guide you through the process of creating a cohesive yard plan that supports both your lifestyle and biodiversity.

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! This will be a paid webinar with all proceeds supporting the Seeds for Education Program. 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!