Tips and Tricks from a Wild Gardener
Monday, April 20th, 2026
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Kroc Center, 2500 Division Ave S, Grand Rapids, MI, 49507 Map
Public Welcome • Free Event/Speaker Presentation
Wheelchair Accessible • Public Restroom • Free Public Parking
Presented by Marty Arnold, author, past River City Chapter President, and current Plant Sale Chair.
This presentation will cover the following topics:
• Weird and wonderful plant names and how they came to be
• Don’t try this at home—confessions of a self-taught gardener
• What weeds can tell you
• Oh, deer! when Bambi gets hungry
• Plan B exotics!
• Why have a “PR garden”?
• Your back (and keeping it healthy)
• The best tools of the trade
• What grew in your yard in 1826 (Natural Features Inventory)
• Views from my soapbox
• Foraging
Marty Arnold served as president of WORC and on the national board of Wild Ones. She is currently the chapter’s plant sale chair. Major interests are writing fiction and rewilding her yard back to the savanna and woodland it once was. Her second novel, Charlotte’s Crossing, is a love story set in West Michigan and a plea to rethink how we landscape and garden today.
“Wrapped in a love story, Charlotte’s Crossing delivers the hard lessons we need to learn about the invasion of plants, animals and people since Europeans arrived in North America in 1492.” —Holly Reckord
Marty’s books will be for sale at the event (Cash/Check only).
Wild Ones River City will sell native plant and related books (Cash/Check/Credit Cards).
