Events

Come join us at Marc and Tracy's Bees & Blooms Garden Walk.  

Marc’s interest in prairies and native gardens started about five years ago. Over the years, he has worked on cultivating native grasses and flowers in the back half of the yard. Tracy has always enjoyed vegetable and flower gardening and has started to drink the kool-aid on the importance of native flowers and grasses. 

Tracy planted a native flower bed around the electrical boxes in the backyard about four years ago, and it's really beautiful. There are also native flowers and grasses planted around the vegetable garden and the bees. Marc started another native flower garden above the fire pit about two years ago, and it is getting better each year.

Four years ago, Tracy took a beekeeping class and started beekeeping. She usually has two
hives and both she and Marc love to sit and watch the bees bring in pollen, drink from the
birdbaths, and fly around the yard. Tracy harvests honey in the fall—last year she harvested
140 pounds. 

Both Marc and Tracy love spending time in their backyard with the bees and the blooms!

This event is free, open to the public, and open yard style. Come and go as you please.  

The Loess Hills chapter of Wild Ones is a non-profit organization that promotes planting native landscapes, both small and large, in Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Native plants attract pollinators and other wildlife, enhancing your home and the environment. 

Come see over twenty species of native forbs and grasses, almost entirely sourced from or donated by the Loess Hills Wild Ones, as well as seven species of native shrubs can be found in the garden. These native plants promote healthy soil and carbon sequestration, provide food sources for beneficial insects, and support songbirds and other cherished wildlife.

Depending on this summer's weather conditions, the following species could be flowering during your visit: 
Black-eyed Susan, Butterfly Milkweed, Common Boneset,Culver’s Root, Cup Plant, Early (False/Oxeye) Sunflower, Lead Plant (considered a shrub), Marsh (Rose) Milkweed, Meadow Anemone, New Jersey Tea, (considered a shrub). Nodding Onion, Ohio Spiderwort, Pale Purple Coneflower,Prairie Coreopsis, Prairie Onion, Prairie Sage, Purple Prairie Clover, Purple (Sweet) Joe Pye, Rattlesnake Master, Spotted Joe Pye, 
Wild Bergamot (Bee Balm, Wild Petunia, Yellow (Gray-headed) Coneflower, Zigzag Goldenrod.

Also note our native grasses and sedges: Common Oak Sedge, Little Bluestem, and Prairie Dropseed.

Native trees and shrubs along the back of the garden include: American Elderberry, American Hazelnut, Chokecherry, Serviceberry/Juneberry, Wild Plum, Ninebark, and Aronia (Chokeberry). 

Agape Community Garden is located on West 15th St, 1.5 blocks west of Hamilton Blvd

The Morningside Garden tour includes two different styles of native plant gardens.

The Ponders' Prairie Patch is adjacent to the beautiful S. Ravine Park, and features purple coneflower, butterfly weed, little bluestem, black-eyed susans, and many more native plants. The garden is ever-evolving by human design and wildlife meddling.  🙂

Located at 3301 Walden Ave, Sioux City.

Tom & Cheri Stewart have created an ever-expanding, backyard native garden paradise that's both beautiful and ecologically significant.  In 2022, the Stewart's Hilltop Garden was awarded Sioux City's Yard-of-the-Year.   

Located at 2801 S. Cecelia Street, Sioux City.

Come walk the gardens and enjoy the pollinators who are also visiting!  

Then relax on a garden bench while enjoying some refreshments.  

Or shop the native plant sale at the Hilltop Garden and pick up a few natives for your own yard.  Proceeds from the plant sale go towards funding native plant gardens and educational programs in the Siouxland region.

Both garden walks are open yard style.  Stop in to look around, and come and go as you please.

The Loess Hills chapter of Wild Ones is a non-profit organization that promotes planting native landscapes, both small and large, in Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Native plants attract pollinators and other wildlife, enhancing your home and the environment. 

Join Us at Sara's Garden Walk where there is a mix of garden habitats including petite woodlands with Sweet Cicely, Smooth Solomon Seal, Virginia Water Leaf, Snowberry and Ivory Sedge.

There is the shady rain garden with Marsh Marigold, Swamp Rose Mallow , Cardinal Flowers, Sedges and many other moist or shade loving plants.  

In another area there's a small stumpery with a few Ferns that are continuing to expand and behind the stumpery Yellow Jewel Weed grows naturally.     

These 3 gardens are backed by the Perry Creek bank.

In the front yard, are sunny areas with many native plants such as Liatris, Prairie Rose, Michigan Lily, Coneflowers, Coreopsis, Prairie Clover, Wild Indigo and Sedges. On the side of the house there are  more shade-loving plants including Columbine.  

There's also a non-native herb garden and small vegetable garden.    

This is a Free Event, Open to the Public.  

The Garden Walk is Open Yard style.   Come take a look around, come and go as you please.

The Metzger native gardens were started in Spring of 2020 by Danielle & James and are ever expanding with each passing year. Each garden has a name and was designed by Danielle using plants mostly from Loess Hills Wild Ones native plant sales.

Most of the rock borders for the gardens were transported from Danielle’s father’s farm located in Buena Vista County. Danielle has a love for grasses and sedges.  Her favorite wildflowers are the different species of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea) and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Her love of the Monarch Butterfly is what sparked and ignited her joy of native gardening.

The garden tour is free, open to the public, and open yard style. Come and go as you please.  Refreshments and restrooms will be available.

The Loess Hills chapter of Wild Ones is a non-profit organization that promotes planting native landscapes, both small and large, in Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Native plants attract native pollinators and other wildlife, enhancing your home and the environment. 

Come join us at the Sioux City Railroad Museum and the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center Garden Walks on Saturday, August 23rd from 9am - 12pm.

The Sioux City Railroad Museum Garden Walk is from 9am - 11am and is located at 3400 Sioux River Rd, Sioux City, IA, 51109.

LaVone and Dotty welcome you to the native plantings at the Sioux City Railroad Museum!  We are in our 5th year, so we still have some sleeping, creeping & leaping going on!  

This 31-acre site was previously an industrial area of the Milwaukee Road "Shops" where steam and later diesel engines, and train cars were maintained and repaired from 1920-1965.

The Siouxland Historical Railroad Association attained the site in 1995 (which had been a junkyard for 15-20 years) and began the long process of restoring historic buildings and developing educational displays. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places, earning the honor in 2016.

Our seven gardens are named for buildings on site such as Engineer's Tool Shed or Car Shops Garden, or a feature of significance such as the Wig Wag Garden or the Grand Scale Train Platform.  They each contain a large variety of native plants for partial shade, shade, partial sun, full sun.

La Vone & Dotty, who designed and installed the gardens, will be available to answer your questions.

Afterwards, check out the native Pollinator Gardens at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center from 10:00 am to Noon, located at Sioux River Road, Sioux City, IA 51109.

New native plants were added in 2021 with the help of Loess Hills Wild Ones (LHWO) and Sioux City Garden Club grants and many volunteers. It has been exciting to see the transformation of our three-tiered gardens over the past few years. The nature center and LHWO volunteers assisted with the planning, planting and maintenance of our garden beds. We’ll share the design plan and information about the native plants that grow and flourish here.

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!