Speaker: Kathleen Contrino

Program: Native plants, trees and bushes are critical to ecological resiliency and biodiversity and are important food sources for pollinators. They also have great medicinal value as used by indigenous populations for centuries. Kathy will discuss medicinal natives and their many uses while also touching upon some important herbs that can be grown in container gardens or sunny borders.

Kathy promotes the use of native plants in residential gardens in order to improve ecological diversity. She has been growing native plants and designing native plant gardens since 1997 and is a Master Gardener (Orleans County), working on her certification in Medicinal plants. An avid birder, Kathy participates in the Feederwatch program with Cornell University.  Currently she is recreating the Great Lakes ecosystem on her 10 acres in Akron, NY where she participates in the open gardens section of the Gardens Buffalo Niagara.