Charlotte Torgovitsky is a long-time supporter of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) and board member of the Marin Chapter of the Native Plant Society. She volunteers her time to teach workshops about pollinators and their relationship with native plants, habitat gardening, and propagation at our nursery. Charlotte is an expert gardener and propagator, and she runs a volunteer-powered plant nursery called Home Ground Habitats. She has many educational resources available on her website. While her speciality is working with plants, her enthusiasm for gardening is based on a love for all wildlife, big and small.

Upcoming Events with Charlotte Torgovitsky 1

Photo: Charlotte holds a banana slug at Samuel P. Taylor State Park

Charlotte has taught several workshops at SPAWN headquarters over the past two years. In the Fall 2016 and Winter 2017, Charlotte led a habitat gardening workshop series that focused on creating habitat for pollinators. In Fall 2017, Charlotte co-led a two-part habitat gardening workshop series with SPAWN that focused on habitat enhancement in Oak woodland, grassland, and chaparral plant communities, and riparian zones.

The garden we planted in front of the nursery during the pollinator gardening workshop is now thriving. It is a joy to observe visitors to the garden. This past fall we received a visitor on our narrow-leaf milkweed – a Swallowtail butterfly! Narrow-leaf milkweed is the locally native species of milkweed, and is an important host plant for many pollinators, including Monarchs, Swallowtails, and bees.

Swallowtail Butterfly Upcoming Events with Charlotte Torgovitsky

Photo: Swallowtail on Narrow-leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) in SPAWN Pollinator Garden

In addition to volunteering her time and expertise with CNPS Marin and SPAWN, Charlotte teaches a five-month series of classes about seed collection and other aspects of plant propagation in conjunction with the Marin Resource Conservation District, at the Red Barn Nursery in Pt. Reyes. Topics covered in her classes include seed harvesting, weeds, edible plants, insects commonly found in gardens, and propagation by division. Charlotte is also teaching a class about how to set up a small-scale nursery right in your own backyard. You can find all of the information about her 2018 class series on the Marin RCD website. The classes begin on Saturday, June 16th.

Also, on May 5th, Charlotte will be supporting the Eco-friendly Garden Tour, a public outreach and education program that promotes sustainable gardening practices. The tour is self-guided and requires registration on the Saving Water Partnership website.

We want to say thank you to Charlotte for all that she does to support creation of habitat for wildlife in Marin! We love to work collaboratively, and are glad that she does too.