Photo by Max Licher: Tufted Evening Primrose
Another successful educational workshop! Over 120 people attended the 39th Annual KSB Native Plant Workshop held on Saturday, April 7, 2018 at the West Sedona School. We want to thank everyone who helped make this a more sustainable event by bringing their own mugs and water bottles. This helped us contribute to the creation of a Zero Waste Event checklist and certification with the Sustainability Alliance. Many businesses also submitted virtual coupons and flyers; please check them out and print those you want to use.
Mike Yarbrough, President of Keep Sedona Beautiful, updated the audience on the various projects that KSB promotes: Dark Skies Designation for both Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek, Litter Lifting (over 65 miles and 100 volunteers!) and the free to the public Speaker Series, Preserving the Wonder.
This year’s recipient of the 12th Herkenham Award was Hattie Braun, a past speaker here at 
the NPW and currently the Director for the Coconino Cooperative Extension. This award goes to those individuals, businesses or organizations that further the education and implementation of native plant landscaping. Originally from Pennsylvania, Hattie has lived and gardened in Flagstaff for the past 25 years. After enrolling in the Coconino Master Gardener program, she learned about both the joys and the challenges of gardening in our dry environment. She coordinates the Coconino Master Gardener program for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and has the good fortune to work on a variety of projects and topics including native plant gardens, invasive species, pollinator gardens, low-water landscaping, vegetable gardens and rain gardens.
The program continued with Hattie Braun as the first keynote speaker showing how native plants can be used successfully in your landscaping with a little planning resulting in a haven for native wildlife and working in harmony with the environment.
The second keynote was introduced by Hugh Denno, the Cinematographer, Producer, Editor and Director of the film Viva la Verde! This beautiful film showed how we can get involved and be stewards of our wildlife, our rivers and our water resources. This film will be shown multiple times over both this and next year in an effort to ensure a healthy future for the Verde and other southwestern rivers. https://vivalaverde.org/trailer
Six workshops were presented twice by Denise Gibbs, Jason Lavelle, Max Licher, Eric Moore, Garry Neil and Jeff Schalau.
Breakfast savories and apples were donated by Bashas.
Wildflower Bread Company donated sandwiches, chips and cookies for lunch.
Vendors Jay’s Bird Barn and the Verde Valley School were there to share their expertise as well as sell their merchandise.
The Silent Auction was a success with items ranging from plants to gift certificates. Please thank both the silent auction donors and the many business sponsors who support Keep Sedona Beautiful.
In the past Sedona Recycles has attended and brought their bins to help us recycle. This year, a new enterprise, Sedona Compost, attended with their 
compost buckets to help us recycle our food scraps as well as our compostable paper plates. They offer a service which will come to your home to pick up your scraps; for more information, please visit them at http://www.sedonacompost.com/ Their slogan: Improving Sedona’s sustainability one bucket at time!
A huge thank you to all the committee members who spent many hours insuring that the event would run smoothly: Barbara Saul and Gail Heyer for the coffee corner; Carol Adams and Mary Overman for the Silent Auction items; Georgia Munsell and Susan Murrill for the Business Sponsors; Lin Ennis for publicity; Rich Spinelli for the program; David Murrill for photography; Craig Swanson for the slideshow and video expertise; Dave Norton for loaning his equipment; Sarah Rowley for handling the Herkenham plaques; Michelle Snyder for creating the bid sheets; Jan Wind and Wendy Heald for answering questions and updating the website and Facebook posts; Bill Adams and Garry Neil for parking detail; Gerry Snyder for event set-up and EVERYONE for their work and expertise for set-up and the actual event! Many hands make light work and everyone did their job.
KEYNOTES
Hattie Braun: Unleash Your Garden’s Wild Side: Garden Design Using Native Plants
Viva la Verde! A film about doing your part to save rivers; Discussion led by Director/Filmmaker Hugh Denno
Workshop Presenters:
- Denise Gibbs: Monarch Waystations: Milkweeds and other Native Plants for Monarch Butterflies
- Jason Lavelle: Xeriscape Applications in the Verde Valley
- Max Licher: Native Plant Walkabout (Rain or Shine; maximum 15)
- Eric Moore: Landscaping to Attract Birds to Your Yard
- Garry Neil: Lichens 101 – Gaining an Appreciation of a Usually Ignored Organism
- Jeff Schalau: Environmentally Friendly Pest Management
Included in the price of admission were the two keynote speakers, a choice of two hour-long workshops from the six offered, breakfast savories donated by Bashas‘ (they also donated the apples), coffee and tea, and lunch of sandwiches and cookies donated by Wildflower Bread Company. There was also a Silent Auction with items donated by the community such as native plants, hand decorated gourds, tree services, landscaping assistance, as well as various gift certificates. Kinetico supplied water stations. We were pleased to see so many bring their own mug or water bottle.
Vendors were be Jay’s Bird Barn and the Verde Valley School, both certified by the Sustainability Alliance AZ at the Bronze/Conservationist level. They were happy to share their expertise as well as offer their merchandise.
Please support all the merchants as well as our business sponsors for their support of this and other Keep Sedona Beautiful events. This year we made our event even more sustainable so many businesses submitted electronic coupons and flyers that can be printed out when needed. Check them out!