"Yards Alive" launched in 2025 with a goal of empowering area residents to envision outdoor spaces that were alive with biodiversity, creativity, and individuality. We are back for 2026 with a line up of collaborative partners, timely topics, and opportunities to connect. Check out what's coming up below!
When landscapes are designed and tended with pollinators in mind, the advantages extend well beyond helping these vital creatures, who are crucial to our existence. This thoughtful approach also enhances our natural environment, protects our waterways, and promotes community health and resilience. That’s a significant impact packed into a pollinator patch! But how we plant - and how we nurture - matters. Plant choices, garden layouts, landscaping practices, connectivity, wintertime habitat, and more all factor in to how well a yard, neighborhood, and community support the biodiversity of the region.
In this interactive session, Cindy and Ed Moura co-owners of Prickly Ed’s Cactus Patch will be joined by Dr. Rachael Bonoan from the Bonoan/ Providence Pollinator Lab, Casey Johnson, Coordinator of the Rhode Island Plant and Insect Community Network, and Kevin Ormerod of Bluestem Meadows to peel back the layers on what local experts wish more people understood about the things residents and community leaders could - and should - be doing to better help the “little things that run the world” and in turn, help all of us. Honest reflections, funny anecdotes, inspirational stories, and resources and tools you can use will all be part of this lively evening spent exploring the ways you can really bring more life back to your yard and to our community this season - and why you should want to. Free to all but registration is required.
“Corridor Gardening” - the act of connecting habitat by planting for pollinators and songbirds in community spaces and right at home - is on the rise. There are now “Pollinator Pathways” in 321 communities in 26 states. Join the Swansea Conservation Department, Providence Pollinator Lab, & Prickly Ed’s Cactus Patch as we get Swansea “on the map”!
Location: Swansea, MA Public Library
Join us on Tuesday, April 7th 2026 from 5-7pm
Refreshments will be served
Free & Open to All who want to join in the fun! 🦋 Registration info coming soon…
It’s nearly time to get those shovels into the ground! But, before you do, join us for a lively send off into garden season on Thursday, April 16 at 6:30 pm with an ecological gardening trivia night designed to be equal parts education and fun! Learn lots of new facts, tips, and tricks all centered on the theme of gardening in partnership with nature in ways that enhance community health and resilience.
Test your knowledge on fun facts about everything from healthy landscaping practices to native plants, pollinator, wildlife and bird friendly gardening, coastal planting, wetlands protections, stormwater management, and much more. Grab a few friends to play as a team or just come on your own and make some new friends in the process - all are welcome!
Our trivia host will be Adeline Bellesheim, Swansea Conservation Agent and Environmental Guru by day and All Star Trivia Host after dark! She will be joined by the team from Prickly Ed's Cactus Patch Native Plant Emporium. Snacks and prizes will be part of the lively send off to the most vibrant garden season yet!
Free and open to adults. Registration is required and spaces are limited!
One of the ways Wild Ones seeks to accomplish their mission of promoting native plants and landscaping is by providing learning opportunities for both seasoned gardeners and those who are new to gardening and/or the native plant movement alike. All of their webinar opportunities are free and open to the public to attend.
Grow Native Massachusetts works to inspire people to action across the Commonwealth, on behalf of the native plants and the diversity of life their support. Since 2010 they have been offering a wintertime learning series featuring timely topics presented by experts in the field.
The Pollinator Pathway is a grassroots initiative creating connected corridors of pesticide-free, native plant habitats on public and private land. It supports bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators by providing essential food and shelter, mitigating habitat loss across over 300 towns in 11 states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Pathway team periodically hosts webinars on a number of topics that will be of interest to gardeners working to build back habitat at home.
Hosted by Margaret Roach - A Way to Garden - this three part wintertime 2026 virtual learning series will tease apart important aspects of what goes into creating a garden that thrives ecologically while also being beautiful.