Announcing schedule for award-winning native garden days

Join the WildBunch, Volunteers Who Turned Historic Brushwood Center's Gardens into a Community Gem

RIVERWOODS, IL -- A recipient of the Conserve Lake County "Conservation at Home" award, Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods' native garden's stunning variety of indigenous flowers, grasses, and shrubs is a source of immense pride for the historic nonprofit. Delighted not only for the garden's beauty that inspires the many artists that use its plants and visiting creatures as their creative subjects, Brushwood Center is honored to support native insects and animals with the shelter and nourishment that the garden provides.

Of course an award-winning garden requires award-winning care and Brushwood Center has an incredible group of dedicated volunteers that tend the garden from first to last frost. This group of gardening and nature enthusiasts is known as the Brushwood WildBunch. WildBunch volunteers meet monthly to provide Brushwood Center's garden with top-quality care--edging, mulching, planting, and weeding to keep the garden pristine--and to learn how native gardens support local insects, birds, and animals. While these passionate volunteers take their gardening seriously, they keep the Brushwood WildBunch light and fun with monthly happy hour excursions to local restaurants.

WildBunch volunteers are a great support for Brushwood Center. Not only do they ensure a healthy garden every year, they also support Brushwood Center's annual Smith Nature Symposium benefit, making sure the garden, and the Brushwood Center home, is ready for the hundreds of attendees that will tour and enjoy the grounds.This year's Smith Nature Symposium is May 20 at Brushwood Center. Brushwood Center and it's historic garden is located 21850 N. Riverwoods Rd. in the Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods, IL.

Upcoming Brushwood WildBunch Garden Workdays: 4/25, 5/18, 5/30, 6/27

For the Brushwood WildBunch workday schedule and for more information on becoming a Brushwood WildBunch volunteer, visit brushwoodcenter.org/Programs/Nature/BrushwoodWildBunch.html

For information about garden walks, tours, and other opportunities with Brushwood Center's garden, contact Brushwood Center at 224.633.2426 or at info@brushwoodcenter.org. Brushwood Center is located at 21850 N. Riverwoods Rd., Riverwoods, IL.