2025 St. Louis Urban Gardening Symposium

May 31, 2025

This event has passed. Be sure to check out our upcoming events.

Missed the symposium? Check out this year’s keynote presentation by Dr. Ed Spevak on “Pollinators and Plants: Rewilding our Gardens for Bees, Birds and other Wildlife,” as well as the workshop session by Sean Gunsten titled “Less Work, More Nature: Design and Build a Lower-Maintenance Native Garden.”

See you next year for SLUGS 2026!

Join us Saturday, May 31st, 2025 for this year’s St. Louis Urban Gardening Symposium in Brightside St. Louis’ Demonstration Garden at 4646 Shenandoah Avenue.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Ed Spevak, Curator of Invertebrates at the Saint Louis Zoo and Director of Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Institute Center for Native Pollinator Conservation (CNPC). He will share his expertise in native plants and pollinators. You will be amazed at how much he knows about bees!

The symposium will begin with an uplifting story from Green Jean Ponzi, a 30-year veteran of Missouri Botanical Garden’s EarthWays Center team. Based in the City of St. Louis since 2000, the EarthWays Center grows options for a healthy, vibrant, biodiverse and beautiful environment for all!

Following our keynote speaker, concurrent workshops led by experts in their respective fields will help gardeners learn how to plan, plant and care for a neighborhood or home garden. There will be opportunities to “Ask the Experts” between sessions and to purchase native plants after the workshops!

Concurrent Workshops

Plant Health Care – Evan Parker, MDC

It is important to learn the best management practices for keeping your plants healthy and your garden looking its best.  Learn from an expert to identify common weeds, pests and diseases and how to minimize damage to your plants.

The Dirt on Soils – Mark Grueber, MDC

Having healthy soil is the first step in creating a healthy garden.  Different plants prefer different soil conditions and knowing the nutrient content, physical properties, pH and contaminants present in your soil are important for the health of your plants.

Less Work, More Nature: Intro to Native Plant Design- Sean Gunsten, Brightside St. Louis

Join our beginner-friendly seminar and learn practical tips and techniques to make an attractive native plant garden that supports local wildlife and thrives with minimal maintenance. Design will be emphasized as we cover best practices in site selection, plant choice, and plant placement that optimize both beauty and ecological impact while reducing work. We’ll also cover simple methods of site preparation, installation, and maintenance that will help you more easily enhance your landscape while making a meaningful impact on the environment.

Neighbors Naturescaping Q & A! – Mary Lou Green, Brightside St. Louis

Are you interested in participating in Brightside’s Neighbors Naturescaping program? Do you have questions about the process? Best practices and tips will be covered in this session and you’ll have the chance to go straight to the source to get all your questions answered!

Milkweeds & Monarchs – Dr. Ed Spevak

Enjoy an in depth workshop all about the variety of milkweeds native to our region and how to support monarchs in your home or community garden project.

Charge:  $10 per person

Neighbors Naturescaping Participants and Volunteers:  Register early! Neighbors Naturescaping participants can take part in this event at no charge. Please sign up below to register for the Symposium.

Parking and Shuttle:  Parking is limited by the Demonstration Garden, so we encourage you to use our complimentary shuttle service! Additional parking is available at the St. Louis City Water Division, located at 1640 South Kingshighway, 63110. Please park at the rear of the building, and enjoy shuttle rides to and from the symposium.

Here is the event flyer ready to share!

Register for the St. Louis Urban Gardening Symposium

Join us for the St. Louis Urban Gardening Symposium on Saturday, May 31st from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Complete the form below to register for this exciting event on gardening with native plants, which includes special guest speakers, concurrent workshops, time to “Ask the Experts” and a native plant sale.

If you have questions or need help registering, please call the Brightside office at 314-772-4646.

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