Plants native to Evanston
speaker series
@ Allison Sloan

Nature is Not a Weed! How to Identify and Preserve Remnant Native Plants in Your Home Landscape

Wednesday
February 17, 2027
6:30 pm
-
7:30 pm
Zoom

About our topic

Allison invites us to give a gift back to nature by designating a part of our yards as the Back to Nature section. She will outline what this means: leaving the leaves, no pesticides, no landscapers, no mowing, and other easy, do-less steps. Walking you through iNaturalist and the Illinois wildflowers site, Allison shows you how to Bioblitz your garden by identifying species of plants growing in it. She will share her experience in her own yard and those of other Evanston landscape clients: Removing all non-native plants and letting only natives grow back, every year native plants multiply and new native species show up. Natives appear that she did not plant, possibly just because she cleared space for them. The return gifts: many more pollinators and birds.

About the speaker

Allison Sloan is owner of Shady Grove Wildflower Farm, a former natural areas steward at Harbert Payne Woods, a certified Openlands TreeKeeper and a bird rescue volunteer with Bird Friendly Evanston. Since 2017 she has been restoring her turfgrass lawn on Wesley near Main Street back to native habitat for birds, pollinators and people.

Sponsored by Natural Habitat Evanston

We are an all-volunteer community group of about 1,500 members, spreading the word on creating habitat for insects, birds, and other wildlife. We aim to change the culture of lawns: leaving your leaves is the simplest first step; the second step is adding a native shrub or tree to shrink your lawn. We show how to transition from turf with low-cost cardboard methods, which keystone native plants to choose, that insects chewing on leaves is a ‘win’ (don't reach for pesticide), how turning off unnecessary lights saves insects and birds (and human health), and how to make your windows bird-friendly (because if you are going to invite birds to your yard, give them safe passage). We plant a lot of native trees and shrubs, especially at schools, parks and in the 2nd and 5th Wards. We encourage people to think outside the lawn with No Mow May. Our Pollinator Pledge is a central focus of all our outreach and education, and a great way to spread the word to your neighbors.
Natural Habitat Evanston is a program of Climate Action Evanston.