*Due to the impact of the excessive heat/drought conditions on the meadow, this program has been canceled.*

Join us in exploring a home garden and meadow designed for native plants and pollinators!

PVAS Host: Larry & Penny Stritch

Free and open to the public. This program is for adults. Registration is required and limited to 10 participants.

PVMN Continuing Education Credit Eligible

Join Penny and Larry Stritch for an educational tour through their garden, which includes many native plants and was designed with pollinators in mind! If you love to learn about pollinators and their habitat, this is a field trip you will not want to miss!
Participants should wear comfortable walking shoes and bring drinking water, a sun hat, and sunscreen.

Directions to the field trip location will be provided by email the week before the program.

We encourage you to check out the recording and additional resources provided by Larry during his April 2024 presentation: Planning for Native Plants & Pollinators: https://www.potomacaudubon.org/education/adult/monthlyprograms/

Pace: Leisurely (meandering, many breaks to stop and observe)

Terrain: Uneven ground, terraced garden

Distance: Less than 1/2 mile total

Register Here!

About our Hosts:

Larry Stritch learned gardening as a young child from his mother and grandfather.  He earned a PhD in botany at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1985.  He then worked for the Illinois Department of Conservation for a few years before switching to the U.S. Forest Service.  He was the National Botanist for the USFS from 1998 until his retirement in 2016.  Since moving to West Virginia in 1998, he has filled his yard with many trees and woody plants, and also flower gardens and a prairie project.  His two main goals are to have something in bloom at all times of the year and to attract pollinators.

Penny Stritch did not have gardening experience in her childhood, but did appreciate what little of nature she found in Cook County, Illinois Forest Preserves and on yearly summer camping trips.  She has always loved butterflies and photography, and was able to put the two of those together when the Stritch gardens started attracting lots of insects.  She has documented 67 different species of butterflies on their property.