Free Atlanta Event Alert for May 18 - The Habitat Friendly HOA Yard

On Sunday, May 18 from 2-4 the Georgia Native Plant Society – North Metro Atlanta Chapter and the Georgia Native Plant Society are hosting Laura Markson from Nurture Native Nature and Carolyn Cush, from the GNPS advocacy committee for a free event called The Habitat Friendly HOA as part of a Managing the Native Landscape in HOA Communities educational program. The talk will be held in Community Room 132 in the Alpharetta City Hall (2 Park Plaza, Alpharetta, GA, 30009). It is free, open to GNPS members and the public, and no registration is necessary.

The essential need to view our yards as an ecologically functional source of life offers each of us the opportunity to repair the natural world where we live. Join Laura Markson and Carolyn Cush to explore how to create a Habitat Friendly HOA Yard. They will explain the reason change is needed and the ways to increase biodiversity and offer safe wildlife habitat within the boundaries of typical HOA rules.

Considerations include adding basic elements such as native plants and water sources along with tips for doing no harm. Included will be suggestions on how to be an advocate for moving the needle towards more sustainable options in your own HOA. Wherever you are in your journey of creating a welcoming place for wildlife, Laura and Carolyn will inspire you to make a least one change in your own yard and include resources to get you started.

About the Speakers:

Laura Markson, a lifelong gardener, and passionate advocate for nature transitioned her conventionally landscaped in-town Atlanta yard into a rewilded haven for birds, insects, and other wildlife with native plants as the foundation. She helped get the Intown Chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society off the ground as a start-up committee and inaugural board member. Laura formed the nonprofit Nurture Native Nature to educate and raise awareness about ways to support wildlife habitat where we live through her blog Nurture Native Nature, social media postings, workshops, and speaking outreach to group throughout Atlanta.

Carolyn Cush began her interest in native plants during 2021 while living in Florida on a stormwater lake within a voluntary HOA that was polluted by fertilizers and excess nutrients. Her background is actually in marine biology and has been the Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System (GoMDIS) curator for the past 13 years. Determined to help the lake, she joined the board and discovered the root cause was actually HOW people were choosing to maintain their yards - pesticides, over-watering, over-fertilizing and few, if any, native plants adapted to local conditions. She began educating through social media and in-person volunteering to restore not only her yard to 80% natives but also the front entrance of the community. Adding a free little library provided an additional opportunity to leave volunteer native plants and seeds for neighbors to enjoy. Her family was relocated to Georgia for the military, where she has continued her passion to educate and restore her own yard within a more restrictive HOA, adopting plants that mainly fit within the confines of the HOA rules and adding additional cues to care. Utilizing the common clubhouse space, she and other native plant enthusiasts held a native plant event with a plant sale and speakers to encourage neighbors to garden in a more environmentally friendly manor, while staying within the confines of the current HOA rules. She met Laura when she asked her to be the speaker for this event! She joined the GNPS advocacy committee where she hopes to create a toolkit for both HOA homeowners and boards/management companies.