Inspiration for Your Jersey-Friendly Yard 

Join us at the second annual Jersey-Friendly Yards conference and be inspired to make your yard more "Jersey-Friendly" - healthier for us and our native wildlife!

Register Now! 

Inspiration for Your Jersey-Friendly Yard will feature the 8 steps to "landscaping for a healthy environment" and the many resources and tools of the Jersey-Friendly Yards website.

This year’s conference will offer a series of morning workshops (see details below). The afternoon Keynote Speaker is Kathy Salisbury, Director of Temple University's Ambler Arboretum and a past president of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. 

Fall is the perfect time to add native plants to your landscape.  Visit the conference's native plant sale. Pinelands Direct, Steve Kristoph Nursery, and Earth First Native Plant Nursery will have a great selection of plants ready for fall planting.  Get expert advice from the growers and some native plants to add to your yard.  Conference exhibitors will offer plenty of information about landscaping for a healthier environment.

The event will open at 8:15 a.m. for sign-in, morning refreshments, native plant sale, and exhibits. The speakers will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m.  

Directions to Ocean County College, parking information for the Gateway Building, and a campus map are all available on the college website (www.ocean.edu).

Workshops Sessions

The six workshops below will be repeated during each of three 45-minute sessions - you will have the opportunity to attend a total of three out of the six workshop choices. During registration you can indicate your first preference for each workshop session.

A. Plan Before You Plant:  Garden Design with Native Ericaceous Plants
What to plant where?  Sometimes it’s hard to get started on a new garden project. Steve Kristoph, owner of Steve Kristoph Nursery, will share his expertise on garden planning and design and his vast knowledge about native Ericaceous plants.

B. Start with Healthy Soil:  Don’t Treat Your Soil Like Dirt!
What is happening beneath my feet? Eileen Miller, owner of Healthy Landscapes, will give you the dirt on soil. She will show you how to assess the soil in your yard and keep it healthy.

C. Water Wisely:  Rain Gardens 101
Will a rain garden work in my yard? Shari Kondrup, Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority’s Source Water Outreach and Education Coordinator, will explain the basics of designing and installing a rain garden at home.

D. Fertilize Less:  Organic Land Care
How can I go organic in my yard? Richard McCoy, owner of Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services, will share his tips for organic land care, including how to grow healthy turf organically and replace high-maintenance lawn areas with native plantings.

E. Minimize Risks When Managing Pests:  Integrated Pest Management in Your Yard
What is IPM anyway? Master Gardener Educators Georgina Price and Phyllis Delesandro will show you how to identify and monitor garden pests and manage them using safer methods of control.

F. Create Wildlife Habitat:  Pollinators in Peril - Native Plants to the Rescue
How can I create a haven for pollinators? John Black, President of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey, will explore just what we mean by “native” plants and how pollinators depend on them. This workshop will cover what type of plants are necessary to truly support and attract our native pollinators.

Keynote: Buds, Blooms, Berries and Bark – Native Plants for Multiple Seasons of Interest

After the lunch break, our Keynote Speaker, Kathy Salisbury, will talk about native plants that delight throughout the year. 

Buds, Blooms, Berries and Bark – Native Plants for Multiple Seasons of Interest

Frequently in New Jersey, space in our yards is limited. We must be choosy when it comes to plant selection.  Kathy Salisbury’s rule is “if I can’t eat you, you must be interesting in at least three seasons to live in my yard” and so she started collecting native plants with multiple seasons of interest. Sometimes this requires thinking differently about a plant’s features and it always results in a more dynamic landscape. Kathy will cover some of her favorite native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that delight throughout the year while challenging us to redefine interesting.

Kathy is the Director of Temple University’s Ambler Arboretum and a past president of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey.

Registration and Payment

Seats will go quickly, so register now for this great event!  After submitting the registration form, please be sure to complete your registration by paying the conference fee through this Grunin Center ticketing site. 

Registration will close when capacity is reached, or by October 16th, whichever comes first.  Payment must be received no later than October 16th.

Event Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible through their generous support.

    

          

                                                      

       

 

                                                 
Partial funding provided by the Watershed Institute
of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.  

                          

 

 

Register Now!