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Mark your calendars for BCWA’s Native Plant Sale and FREE Speaker Series at Coy Middle School from 10am-2pm on Saturday June 14th! Shop our vendors and learn about native plant topics from subject matter experts.
All vendors will be outdoors in the school’s courtyard. The speakers will present indoors in an auditorium accessible through double glass doors from the courtyard. In the case of rain, all vendors will be moved indoors.
Scroll down to see the list of confirmed vendors and the speaker schedule!
Speaker Schedule
Patrick Higgins
10:30am-11:15am
Title: Milkweed Was Just the Beginning—Now What? Level Up for Greater Impact
Description:
You’ve planted milkweed and dipped your toes into native gardening—now it’s time to take things further. In this energizing talk, we’ll explore how to build layered, living landscapes that go beyond the basics. From reducing lawn and banishing pesticides to adding water features, wood, and soft landings, this session offers creative strategies to maximize the ecological value of your yard.
Expect practical tips, fresh ideas, and a few friendly challenges along the way—like planting more than you planned, trying unfamiliar natives, and rethinking tree and shrub spacing. Whether you’re ready to connect your yard to a larger movement or just want to make your space more alive, you’ll leave inspired and equipped to make a bigger impact.
ABOUT PATRICK
Patrick Higgins is an environmental scientist and marketing professional with a passion for conservation, native plants, and community engagement. He holds a degree in Environmental Science from The Ohio State University, specializing in Watershed Resources, Policies, and Planning. His career has included roles with the National Park Service at Mt. Rainier, the Ohio EPA, an environmental consulting firm, and as Director of the Upper Little Miami River Restoration Project.
Building on this experience, Patrick joined YSI, Inc. (a Xylem brand), where he now serves as Senior Manager of Digital Marketing & Marketing Technology. In this role, he oversees web development, e-commerce, social media, video production, and analytics, combining his technical expertise with a creative approach to storytelling.
He is also the owner of Patrick Goes Native LLC, offering native plant-inspired landscaping, invasive species removal, and educational outreach to promote biodiversity.
Kara Maynard
11:45am-12:30pm
Title: How Native Plants Clean our Water and Mitigate Stormwater Runoff
Description: Let’s learn how to use our native plants to slow down water flow, clean it, and send it back down to recharge our ground water tables. We will discuss what plants are best used for these practices and how to create rain gardens and erosion control foundations all while creating habitat and beauty in our yards and gardens.
ABOUT KARA:
Kara started her life as a lover of the outdoors and wild spaces. All through her childhood she felt a responsibility to be a good steward to the earth. This generally meant picking up trash and encouraging her family to recycle. During her time in the US Navy, Kara’s shipmates would tease her about the amount of recycling she would constantly be shuttling from the ship to the local recycling facility in her great-grandparents old station wagon. After college (where she majored in Classical Humanities) she found a love of gardening. It was around this time when Kara started thinking about sustainable gardening practices and found the book, The Landscaping Revolution: Garden With Mother Nature, Not Against Her by Andy and Sally Wasowski at the local library. This set her on the course to start gardening with native plants and creating habitat in her own backyard. For over 16 years she has been utilizing native plants in her gardenscapes, bringing nature home, and sharing her passion for native plants with everyone she meets.
Kara is the owner of Deeply Rooted Landscapes, a native plant nursery and design firm focused solely on utilizing native plants for habitat creation. Deeply Rooted Landscapes was founded in 2019 as a one woman operation and has grown to a team of 11 offering services such as; consultations, garden design, installation, garden maintenance, invasive plants removal, educational workshops/talks, and a fully stocked native nursery center open by appointment only in Tipp City, Ohio.
Dan Lambardo
1:00pm-1:45pm
Title: Eat Your Weedies: Edible and Medicinal Invasive Plants, and How to Forage Them
Description: We’ll examine some common “weeds” and talk about how to identify and use them as food or medicine. This practice makes protecting natural spaces, and even weeding your garden, a fun and rewarding experience!
ABOUT DAN:
Dan Lombardo is the education/outreach coordinator at Mission of Mary Cooperative, a sustainable urban farm in the Twin Towers neighborhood of East Dayton. Dan grew up in the woods, bogs, and beaches of Puget Sound in Washington State, where he worked as an environmental educator for over ten years. As an avid forager in his home biome, learning to forage Southwest Ohio was a vital part of making Dayton his new home.
He’s enthusiastic to learn all he can about the natural world, and ecstatic to share what he learns with anyone who will listen. As an environmentalist and highly food-motivated social primate, he believes that one solution to the spread of invasive species is incorporating them into our diets!
Registered Vendors & Product Description
We will continue to add to this list as vendors register now through May 12th.
Cojack Photography– Nightscape Photography art prints. Coasters, bookmarks, ornaments. Emphasis on the wetland parks at night, and 2024 total solar eclipse.
Deeply Rooted Landscapes- Native Plant Nursery
Down Nature's Path- Native Plants selected for wildlife value
Goldfinch Garden Design- Goldfinch Garden Design is an ecological design + build company that uses native plants to create ecologically rich, visually striking spaces that boost biodiversity, support pollinators, and add joy and value to local properties.
Lucky Rabbit Curios– Lincocut prints, original artwork, greeting cards.
Meadowsweet Ecological Landscapes- We are a native plant consulting, design, and landscaping company with a small nursery. We will have native trees, shrubs, plants, and potentially some wreaths made with dried native plant material.
Milkweed Patch, LLC- Native Plants!
Native Ohio Plants, LLC– All native plants sold in containers; mostly one gallon trees and shrubs and some one quart wildflowers
Nature Inspired Photography– Canvas, framed prints, notecards and magnets of photos of plants, birds, insects and animals, taken by Catherine Coldiron, mostly in southwest Ohio.
The Herbchick LLC- Herbs (what’s available fresh this time of year + dried), herbal based body care, hand dipped incense, assorted accessories
Swallowtail Ridge Farm & Botanicals- Hi! I’m Laura. I’m the farmer and maker behind the products at Swallowtail Ridge. My herb farm in southwest Ohio is designed according to the three permaculture ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Share of Abundance. I grow and forage plant allies to create unique, truly natural self-care products, such as soaps, tallow balms, herbal salves, teas, facial oil, and more! My personal wish is that when you use one of my products, you feel how connected you are to the Earth and how well she supports us. My hope is that this would lead to a deeper, more reciprocal relationship with this beautiful planet we get to call home.
Wild Birds Unlimited (Kettering/Huber Heights Location)-Hummingbird Feeders, Nature Oriented Books and Gifts, and Bird Feeders
Non-Profit Booths
Hikerbabes of SW Ohio– Hiking information booth
Dayton Area Wild Ones- Dayton Area Wild Ones is a regional chapter of Wild Ones, a national organization that teaches about the benefits of using native plants to create natural landscapes. The primary goals of DAWO are to educate and support homeowners as they develop their own native landscapes, to educate the public, and to enhance public spaces in our local communities.
Enjoy the music of Emerald Alliance while you shop our vendors!
Emerald Alliance is a duo from Dayton, OH that consists of Moroni Lane and Mando McPickin. They share a vision to apply music to uplift and unify humanity. This musical collaboration is bringing forth a movement of Community and their songs speak as a Catalyst of change. With music, Emerald Alliance hopes to create conversations and find new ways to heal as a human family.
Thank you to our event sponsor!
Adam Horseman, Montgomery Insurance & Investments
Visit the event webpage: https://beavercreekwetlands.org/event/nativeplants/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Jacob Coy Middle School, 1786 Dayton-Xenia Rd, Xenia, OH 45385, United States,Beavercreek, Ohio
