With the recent tease of sunny and unseasonably warm weather, we are excitedly looking ahead to plan our 2025 Member-to-Member (M2M) Yard Tours. M2M yard tours are a great way for members to share real experiences, ideas, successes and challenges with maintaining native plants in sustainable landscapes.
The M2M yard tours are coordinated by the WNY chapter treasurer, Devon Southall, who in the summer of 2023 ran FB group Buffalo Native Plant Garden “Meetup” with the same concept. This event series consists of Wild Ones WNY members opening up their native garden space for visits for other members. Member-to-Member (M2M) yard tours are a great way for members to share real experiences, ideas, successes and challenges with maintaining native plants in sustainable landscapes. “Cues-to-Care” ideas, native, weed & invasive plant identification, among other topics, are typical conversations that are a part of these visits. Even experienced native gardeners can find an opportunity to learn something new from each yard we have an opportunity to tour.
We aim to hold M2M yard tours from June-September on Sunday afternoons, but days and times are flexible and may vary based on host availability. Visits last from 45 minutes to an hour for each yard and will be scheduled, ideally, with other hosts in the area. Since these tours are mostly hosted at private properties and residences, the location will only be shared privately with WOWNY members and invited guests.
How to Get Involved
Hosting
Whether you joined today, or are a lifetime member and have hosted before, we would love to see your native plants! Please use this google form link to express interest and share some information about your garden. If you would like to host but you are feeling hesitant, the program chair(s) can arrange a visit before hosting for the general membership. Remember, the goal of these events is to build knowledge and share experiences with the community. So, if you have a newly seeded prairie or freshly planted plugs, it may be difficult to identify plants that aren’t developed, and therefore may be best to get on the calendar for next season. But, if you have an established native plant space—big or small—we would be so grateful for you to host a tour.
Attending
If you’d like to attend any M2M yard tours, the only requirement is being a member of Wild Ones Western New York. There are cases where hosts are comfortable opening visits to the general public, but this is not always the case. This event series alone is worth the membership. If you have other questions or are interested in learning more you can always feel free to reach out to [email protected]
Thanks to Wayne County Michigan Chapter for inspiring the idea for our newly chartered chapter (and where we blatantly stole the verbiage used above from, thanks!)
Hope to see you this summer!
Best,
Devon Southall, WOWNY treasurer