Last year, the Museum debuted the Nature Trail, a free outdoor exhibit that showcases native plants from Southern California and the Baja California peninsula. This year, the team in charge of maintaining the garden proposed adding more species. The best way to get it done? Throwing a party, duh!
The garden team put on a successful planting party: 148 community members from all over San Diego County, Baja California, and even Orange County visited the Nature Trail and got to work. In little over an hour, 660 new plants were added, including 150 endemic species and 12 trees.
Events like these help our local community cultivate a sense of ownership over public spaces like the Nature Trail, while appreciating and learning about native plants. The planting party also helped enhance the garden’s ecosystem by adding endemic and new plant species to the garden. Increasing the diversity of plants in any native garden will invite a more diverse array of wildlife into the space.
Want to learn more about how to plant native, build habitat, and save water? Visit:
Many of the plants that were placed in the ground this spring were generously donated by Mike Evans, who runs Tree of Life Nursery. Most of the plants Mike donated were collected over the span of three decades and planted in containers, so when he learned about the opportunity to donate them, he was delighted to share his incredible collection with The Nat. Thanks, Mike!
We also appreciate the invaluable help of Sam Tall, owner of City Farmers Nursery, who co-led the planning and organizing of this event. Thank you for all you do for our community.
The landscaping plan was a team effort, but Greg Rubin (a native plant landscaping legend) did an amazing job overseeing the design of the north entrance, and the placement of the riparian plants. Thanks, Greg!
The event was only possible thanks to the support of key community partners and leaders like Lucy Warren from Master Gardener Association of San Diego, Patrick Montgomery from Native West Nursery, Laurie Egan-Hedley from the Barona Cultural Museum, our very own Curator of Botany Jon Rebman and Director of Research Library and Archives Ari Hammond, Forever Balboa Park, Holly McMullen from South Western College, and of course, our Nat Garden Corp Volunteers.
The participants took a lovely group photo!
A Garden Corps volunteer talks about native plants using an herbarium sheet.
An attendee carefully places a plant in the ground.
Planting is for all ages and abilities, and can be a fun family activity.
Our participants were hard at work, but team work makes the dream work.
All smiles as we put new native plant species in the ground.
Posted by The Nat on May 5, 2025
Subscribe to our blog. Receive an email once a week that recaps the latest blog posts about our research, exhibitions, cool science news, and more