Alicia Houk is the founder and gardener of the Wild Garden Alliance. She has a master’s degree in pollination ecology and has been designing and installing native pollinator and bird gardens for public spaces for the past nine years. She has been teaching in the environmental science field for over a decade with her recent seven-week Wild Garden Workshop focused on ecology and ecological gardening. In the gardening world we are hearing more and more about gardening with native plants. Why are native plants important and what role can our gardens play in supporting local ecology? Highlighting beautiful plants and amazing creature stories, Alicia’s talk will explore the beauty and science underpinning ecological gardening as well as the potential for each gardener to make a difference at home and as part of a larger cultural shift toward long-term conservation of nature.