Events

Hands-On workshop to learn how to sow native seeds in mini containers that can be grown outside this Winter season.  In the Spring, you'll have native seedlings ready to plant! 

Bring 1 - 2 empty, clean milk/water jugs.  Soil and Native Seeds will be provided.

Inclement Weather Alternate Date: January 18th* (Same Time & Location)

* Check our Facebook page if the weather is questionable.  

Rod Tondreau, from Western Iowa Tech's Biology department, will present how to germinate native grass and wildflower seeds. Examples of some of the more difficult seeds to start will be included in the discussion. 

All are welcome to join this free virtual panel discussion exploring the vital roles of native, solitary, and honeybees in pollination and biodiversity. Featuring experts Sam Droege (USGS), Dave Hunter (Crown Bees), and Dr. Lora Morandin (Pollinator Partnership), this event will discuss into the challenges pollinators face, the balance between managed and wild bees, and actionable ways to support all pollinators.

Gain insights from over 90 years of combined experience and learn how to advocate for pollinator habitats through planting native species, participating in community science, and adopting responsible management practices.

Come see our own Danielle Metzger, Wild Ones, Loess Hills chapter secretary,  present “Residential Landscaping with Native Plants” at Sioux County Extension's Native Plant Day.  Danielle will be sharing her experiences about what has worked well in her native gardens at 11am.  

And while you're there, why not stay for all the Native Plant programs?  It's gonna be a fun day filled with many nuggets of information on how to use native plants in areas small and large.   

For the complete Native Plant Program description, see this flyer:

https://www.extension.iastate.edu/lyon/native-plant-day-march-1-2025

Register by February 27th:

Learn how to help our essential native pollinators on Saturday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center. 

Jamie Beyer will present the program, Pollinator Friendly Plants and Habitat Pollinators include butterflies, hummingbirds, native bees and honeybees. Beyer will share EASY and FUN ways to help these critters like planting beautiful nectar producing plants. The HARD part is creating a different attitude and habits such as less mowing and less use of herbicides/pesticides. Truly, this should be the easy part since it requires less work. 

There will be two basic themes to this presentation; “In nature, diversity is the key to stability” and the other is “the more you know the less you mow”!!

Beyer is a Lifetime Master Gardener, a beekeeper, and water garden consultant from Boone, Iowa. He has received numerous accolades for his efforts over the years including from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Iowa Beekeepers Association. 

This presentation is co-sponsored by the Loess Hills Wild Ones and the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center. The program is free and open to the public.

Public gardens hold tremendous power to influence landscaping norms and inspire change. By showcasing the beauty, functionality, and ecological value of native plants, these spaces help foster biodiversity, advocate for sustainable practices, and engage communities in environmental stewardship. 

This webinar will explore how public and demonstration gardens serve as powerful tools for native plant advocacy. Attendees will learn how gardens move beyond aesthetics to spark action—turning appreciation into engagement and inspiring participants to replicate these practices in their own communities.

We will hear insights from Nicole Machuca, Environmental Social Scientist at the Field Museum, on how public gardens influence behaviors, foster stewardship, and connect people to conservation efforts through research and community engagement. The Wild Ones Capital Region NY and the Wild Ones San Diego (CA) Chapters will share their experiences building native plant demonstration gardens and how these spaces drive community engagement, education, and advocacy. And We'll finish with a conversation exploring how public gardens create a lasting impact beyond planting day moderated by Kelly Kapuzzi, Demonstration Garden Char with the Wild Ones Hocking Hills (OH) Chapter.

Loess Hills Wild Ones will share details of the native plants that will be available at the upcoming Spring Plant Sale. This is a great way to learn more about native wildflowers and grasses which can help you plan your own garden.

The program will also feature a rollout of the grants available for individuals and local organizations to apply for native plants.

Join us to clean-up a section of Lincoln Way along Sioux City's South Ravine Park.  We'll meet at the gravel parking lot at S. Ravine Park which is just East of the intersection of Lincoln Way and S.  Lewis Boulevard in Sioux City, IA.  

Hi-visibility vests and large orange plastic bags for collecting trash will be provided.  Bring your own water, trash picker, garden gloves, and wear sturdy walking shoes.    

This is always a very worthwhile event and we hope you will join us for a little productive outdoor recreation.

Celebrate Iowa Wildflower Month by joining us for a walk through this woodland to view the diversity of spring wildflowers. Brian Hazlett, local native plant expert and Briar Cliff Biology Professor will lead this walk along the Carolyn Benne trail in Stone State Park. 

Meet at the Carolyn Benne trailhead/Stone Park Lodge parking lot (near GPS Coordinates: 42.560658, -96.466828). 

Wear sturdy walking shoes. The trail meanders a creek bed with some hilly areas. 

For more information on the location, click the link to the Stone State Park map and look for the Carolyn Benne Trail (#9).  

https://www.iowadnr.gov/media/1216/download?inline

Sponsored by Woodbury County Conservation & Loess Hills Wild Ones.

Members Only Plant Sale Preview Event.  Members get reduced pricing and first choice of plants today only. 

Here's the list of plants that will be available from LHWO:

https://loesshills.wildones.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2025/05/2025-Simple-Plant-List.pdf

If you're not a member, but want to join us, click the “Join” button on our homepage: 

https://loesshills.wildones.org

Spring Grant Awards will be announced at 5:30 p.m.

Special guests from Siouxland Prairie Farms of Rock Valley will also have native ecotype plants for sale from their native plant farm.

Proceeds from the sale are used for numerous native plant gardens and projects in the region, including individual and community grants to assist with native plantings.

Shop for native wildflowers and grasses at the Spring Public Native Plant Sale.

Here's the list of plants that will be available from LHWO:

https://loesshills.wildones.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2025/05/2025-Simple-Plant-List.pdf

Special guests from Siouxland Prairie Farms of Rock Valley will also have native ecotype plants for sale from their native plant farm.

Proceeds from the sale are used for numerous native plant gardens and projects in the region, including individual and community grants to assist with native plantings.

Join Wild Ones National Board President Loris Damerow for a special presentation as part of Week 3 of the 2025 Less Lawn More Life Challenge, “Native Plants Planted Right.” Loris will walk us through the basics of native plant gardening- from choosing the right plants to planting and maintaining them with confidence.

Join us on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 5 p.m. CT for the YouTube Live premiere of this 30-minute webinar. Native plant experts from  Wild Ones, Plan it Wild, Homegrown National Park, ReWild Your Campus, and others will be active in the live chat throughout the presentation and for 30 minutes after the webinar, giving you plenty of time to ask questions and engage! 

This event is designed for newcomers to native gardening and is part of the national Less Lawn More Life Challenge, hosted by Plan It Wild in collaboration with Wild Ones, iNaturalist, Homegrown National Park, Pollinator Partnership  and many others! 

See more about the Less Lawn More Life Challenge:  https://www.lesslawnmorelife.com/ 

Join us to explore, learn, and relax in the heart of the Loess Hills in Monona County, Iowa for the 49th Anniversary of the Loess Hills Prairie Seminar (LHPS)!

​ The LHPS is a free, come-and-go event, which runs throughout the weekend of May 30th - June 1st.  

Participate in just one session, an entire day, or the whole weekend.  

If you want to stay overnight, there's Free Camping*, a Hotel, Airbnbs, and a few Monona County Cabins available to rent.

Friday, May 30th - 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Saturday, May 31st- 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Sunday, June 1st - 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM  

​*Free Primitive tent camping & car camping on site. No electrical hook ups. No running water. Potable Water and Porta-Johns available.  A solar-powered phone charging station will also be available.

Check out these links for more info on the 2025 LHPS Event Schedule, Description, and Locations: 

https://www.loesshillsprairieseminar.com/copy-of-last-year-s-schedule

https://www.loesshillsprairieseminar.com/

https://www.loesshillsprairieseminar.com/_files/ugd/3ad5ed_d937e29ba9934a438853ac6ec9dc950a.pdf

In 1925 Cheri's grandparents built their own house and worked on a small farm. The old barns are gone and the brome is slowly being replaced with prairie plants.  But old memories are treasured while new ones are made.

Please join us at this Members Only Event to commemorate this milestone with a Hilltop Native Garden Walk and Open House! 

Refreshments will be served with cake cutting at Noon.

The Old House and Hilltop Gardens are located at 2801 S. Cecelia St, Sioux City. 

We will also host a plant exchange that can include natives, non-invasive ornamentals and house plants.

Members Only Event.

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!