Northwest Flower and Garden Festival
Each year, the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival showcases beautifully designed gardens to educate and inspire attendees. This year, King Conservation District and NW Bloom Ecological Services have teamed up to create the Orca Recovery Garden with support from Puget Sound Conservation Districts and other community partners.
The Orca Recovery Garden showcases the connection between designed landscapes and the health of surrounding ecosystems and wildlife. It highlights how simple actions we take at home can multiply into significant impacts that benefit wildlife all the way down the watershed to our iconic Orca.
The garden will include over 50 different native and useful plants that provide an array of benefits to the environment like stabilizing and building soil, creating wildlife habitat, and retaining and cleaning water. Other sustainability practices like raised bed gardening and composting bins will also be on display.
KCD will have a booth display, and several speakers at the festival, that along with the garden will connect over 60,000 attendees with resources from their local conservation districts to help them enact beneficial conservation practices in their home and garden.
Presentations at the Festival
KCD staff will be giving two talks at the festival:
The Benefits and Beauty of Landscaping With Native Plants
Rainier Room, Sunday March 1, 4:00pm
Learn about the countless benefits that native plants provide for landscape aesthetics, wildlife habitat, water quality and more! Attendees will get advice on the best ways to reduce plant mortality, save money and improve your landscape’s overall health & happiness.
Presented by KCD Senior Resource Specialist Jacobus Saperstein and KCD Urban Riparian Habitat Stewardship Coordinator Ashley Allan.
Soil Health 101: Evaluation and Managing Your Soil for Healthier Plants
Hood Room, Sunday March 1, 12noon
What’s the difference between healthy soil and just so-so soil? KCD staff will discuss the physical, biological and chemical indicators for soil health, including the role of soil structure, soil organisms, plant essential nutrients and pH. Management factors that impact soil health and actions to improve soil health will also be covered.
Presented by KCD Senior Resource Specialist Jay Mirro and KCD Resource Planner Megan Weldon.
Volunteering
Help KCD promote local food, healthy forests and clean water at the 2020 Northwest Flower and Garden Show February 26 through March 1, 2020, at the Washington State Convention Center. Volunteers will get free entrance into the show and earn plants from KCD’s Native Plant Sale! As an ambassador, you’ll help educate the public about local conservation efforts and resources. Sign up for an orientation if you’re interested in helping.