Why is planting California Native species so important for soil health, ocean health, and community restoration? What’s the difference between growing a food or flower garden vs. a Native garden? What does planting Natives have to do with climate change?

We’ll be answering these questions and more this Sunday, June 11 from 9am – 12pm at our Native Plant Workshop with land stewards Alexis Munoa Dyer and Joni Wold at our community garden in Vista, CA.

In this workshop you will learn:

• How to initiate climate change solutions in your own backyard
• How to identify some of the most infamous California Native plants
• Ethnobotany and how Native plants connect us back to the First People’s of the land and each other
• Where, how, and when to plant
• How we can work with Native plants to support California’s Bill AB 1573 and 30×30 land restoration initiatves to conserve 30% of our land and water by 2030

You will also:

• Meet a likeminded community of surfers and ocean lovers, working together to give back to the land
• Treat your mind and body to the healing properties of nature therapy by getting your hands in the soil
• Cultivate a sense of belonging in nature, as nature by slowing down and listening
• Be held in safe space to come as you are

NOTE: It is important for us to build a community space that is truly *inclusive* and feels warm and welcoming to everyone regardless of age, gender, race, or socio-economic background. Tickets are priced at a sliding scale of $20-$45 per person to increase accessiblity while compensating our facilitators for their time and wisdom. If making a financial exchange for this education is outside of your means, please contact us and we will do our best to work with you. Thank you for being here.

MEET THE FACILITATORS:

Alexis Munoa Dyer | Payómkawichum Artist and Culture Bearer

$úngáal Payómkawish. PoatáaxumPom Payómkawichum Pechangayam.

Alexis is a singer, film photographer, basketweaver, culinary artist, wife, mother, and surfer from the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, The ‘Atáaxum Payómkawichum or the Western People. Her earliest memories are intertwined with her homeland and the plant relatives here. She cares deeply for cho’onum chamneshkinum-all relatives and ecosystems. She is a youth leader for her tribe, a basket weaver, shell jewelry maker, clay worker, singer, and culinary resource. Alexis holds a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies. Soon after music school she became a film photographer falling in love with the process and slow deliberate approach it demands. She writes songs and Art Directs with her husband, Andrew Dyer. Her photography work can be seen throughout Pechanga Resort Casino and Spa. Alexis loves spending time outside, going to shows, making margaritas or being in/on the water with her husband and two children and scrappy old dachshund, Roscoe. 

Joni Wold | Land steward, Regenerative Farmer and Arborist

Joni’s love for plants started in her backyard as a child, climbing fruit trees to harvest warm Plums and Apricots and spending time in her Mom’s garden. She participated in the Future Farmers of America program in high school and worked at a production nursery as her school project. Although her path has been nonlinear, working with plants and the land has been her life’s work for the last 16 years. Her studied education has been in landscape architecture, permaculture design, tree stewardship, pollinator planting, California natives, and many hours with her nose in related books. However, she believes working in close relationship with the land and with the seasons is by far the best teacher. After many years of managing nurseries and the maintenance department of landscape companies, she found the standard landscape industry to be far from a right relationship and true Earth care. For 4 years she was a member of a regenerative farm growing medicinal herbs and land restoration of grasslands in East San Diego. She has also participated in Silviculture projects with local San Diego Shepherds. She currently tends many urban food gardens, cares for over 60 fruit trees, and stewards land throughout San Diego County. Through the years her relationship with the land has become a spiritual journey as it’s brought her personal healing and a sense of belonging in the world. She believes the garden has soul lessons for us, and has experienced the healing when a community, with right intention, gathers together in the sanctuary the land offers us.