We all love birds and would like more of them in our yards, but how do we go from lawn to habitat? Francesca undertook a 10-year journey to convert a rather barren Bethesda yard into a lawn-less, bird-centered habitat. She will talk about her favorite plants, including the unkillable native 10, and discuss the must-remove dozen. Whether your goal is to enhance the current landscape, create a hybrid native-cultivated plant environment, or take on a wholesale redo, Francesca will explore ways to provide the essentials—shelter, water, and food—that will increase the biodiversity of your yard and the birds who visit.

Francesca Grifo has a PhD in botany from Cornell University and has taught a variety of classes at Columbia, NYU, American University, and Georgetown. She is the scientific integrity official at the Environmental Protection Agency. This talk connects her three great loves: biodiversity conservation, gardening with native plants, and birds.