Go Wild with Your Gardening
January 31, 2026
You Have the Power to Make a Difference
Gardening for nature explored from different angles by published authors, community educators and professors. It is easier to go wilder with your gardening when you understand where you and your location fit into the bigger picture.
Access to nature is rare in many urban environments but you can transition to a more wildlife-friendly garden or greenspace and enhance your connection with nature. All levels of gardening experience are welcome for this full day of learning. Join us and find the tools you need to make your garden positively contribute to our natural Georgia network.
How we garden at home and in the community makes a big difference in the natural world.
Details
>> Includes keynote speakers, general sessions, light breakfast provided by Summit Coffee and Mission Bakery, boxed lunch provided by Samad Grill, vendors, and opportunities to gain knowledge and connections.
>> Books published by our keynote and recommended by our speakers will also be available for purchase.
>> Doors open at 8AM for check-in
Ages 14+; $95 general public/$80 CNC Members. Advanced Registration Required by Wednesday, January 28.
Registration is now open! Please be aware the symposium has sold out every year so register early!
Symposium Schedule
Keep scrolling to learn more about the speakers
8AM: Doors Open for Registration
& Vendor Booths Open
9AM: 35 Natural Wonders of Georgia to See Before You Die: How Georgia’s most beautiful nature destinations might inspire and guide us in restoring habitat for birds, wildlife, plants and pollinators, in our own gardens and greenspaces with Charles Seabrook and Ann Litrel
Ann Litrel, artist, and Charles Seabrook, longtime science writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are co-authors of a new book from UGA Press, “35 Natural Wonders of Georgia to See Before You Die.” In this segment they will share images of the beautiful destinations captured in their book, with a discussion of their unique communities of wildlife, birds and plants. Finally, they will offer conclusions and on how these special places might inspire and guide our efforts to restore natural habitat in our cities and neighborhoods across the state.
10AM: WHEN TREES TESTIFY | Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy with Beronda L. Montgomery
Plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery explores the ways seven trees―as well as the cotton shrub―are intertwined with Black history and culture. She will reveal how knowledge surrounding these trees has shaped America since the very beginning in this examination of cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery, shared through the stories of long-lived trees.
10:45AM: Break | Vendors Open, Plant Sale, Book Signing, and Wildlife Encounters
11:15AM: The Taming of the Few: Wild Plants in Your Garden with Mark Warren
While most gardeners expend a lot of effort in keeping “outsider” plants on their side of the fence and the “garden” plants exclusively on the other, there are a number of native or naturalized “weeds” worthy of consideration to be full-fledged members of your personal “garden club.” Come learn about the wild plants that can add diversity to your plot. The rewards include new and interesting greens (both cooked and raw), tubers to dig up or pluck off a vine, roots to be roasted for coffee, and berries so high in vitamin C that they have been known to kill flu viruses. You can also grow your own medicines that can resolve insect stings, inflammation, poison ivy rash, chigger itch, and excessive bruising.
12:00-1PM: Lunch | Vendors Open, Plant Sale, Book Signing, and Wildlife Encounters
1:00PM: The remarkable world of caterpillars | Your plant choices matter! with Giff Beaton
Giff brings us up close with his introduction to the fascinating and mysterious world of caterpillars – including those in our gardens and greenspaces! These larvae of moths and butterflies come in a staggering and gorgeous array of colors and shapes and occupy nearly every type of habitat there is. Be prepared to be immersed in their fascinating life cycles and learn more about the daily battle to eat enough of the specific leaves they need while dodging the many voracious predators and parasites that are looking for them!
1:45PM: Smart Stormwater: Practical Solutions for a Resilient Future with Brandy Hall
What if your landscape could slow, sink, and store every drop of rain… while also restoring soil health and supporting native ecosystems? Brandy will talk us through practical, permaculture-based strategies for designing landscapes that treat water as a resource, not a runoff problem. You’ll learn how to:
>> Restore the water cycle through smart design
>> Use earth contouring techniques like swales and rain gardens
>> Select diverse, site-appropriate plant communities
>> Build long-term soil fertility through water-smart systems
Whether you’re a landowner, designer, or sustainability enthusiast, you’ll leave with actionable tools for transforming your landscape into a climate-resilient ecosystem.
2:45PM: Break | Vendors Open, Plant Sale, and Wildlife Encounters
3PM: A World of Discovery: Nurturing sensory wildscapes through creative land-healing efforts with Nancy Lawson
Much has been written about landscaping to create a sense of place—and sensory appeal—for humans. But who has a better sense of place than the plants and animals who’ve been inhabited our communities for centuries and millennia? How do they perceive the world around them, and what do we miss when we focus more on the conventional human-cultural sense of aesthetics than on the sensory experiences of our wild neighbors? Many landscaping practices interfere with other organisms’ abilities to interact with their environment in hidden and unintended ways. The lexicon we use to describe habitat restoration efforts often reinforces these dynamics. Through science, heart, our powers of observation, and a more expansive language for our approaches to land-healing, we can learn to mitigate these disruptions and create beautiful sensory refuges in an increasingly noisy world.
3:55-4PM: Closing Comments & Symposium Ends
About the Speakers
Charles Seabrook
Charles Seabrook retired from the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2005 after thirty-four years as a science and environmental writer. He continues to write on a freelance basis his popular weekly column, Wild Georgia, which runs every Sunday in the AJC’s Living section. He is the author of three books: Red Clay, Pink Cadillacs, and White Gold: The Kaolin Chalk Wars; Cumberland Island: Strong Women, Wild Horses; and The World of the Salt Marsh: Appreciating and Protecting the Tidal Marshes of the Southeastern Coast (Georgia). He and his wife, Laura, live in Decatur, Georgia.
Ann Litrel
Ann Litrel is a nationally published artist whose paintings of botanical and wildlife subjects have appeared on prints, books, stationery, and textiles. As a writer and illustrator, she has collaborated on three books and has been a monthly columnist for a range of publications on topics of art, ecology, community and history. Litrel’s passion for arts and community led her to cofound the Woodstock Arts Center, an award-winning, multidisciplinary arts center on a four-acre campus. She spearheaded a campaign in her HOA-controlled neighborhood of 1400+ houses to become the first Certified Wildlife Habitat Community in Cherokee County in north metro Atlanta. She lives with her husband, Dr. Michael Litrel, in Woodstock, Georgia.
Beronda L. Montgomery
Beronda L. Montgomery is an award-winning plant biologist and the author of the acclaimed Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021). She has been named one of the journal Cell’s 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, and was awarded the 2021 Cynthia Westcott Science Writing Award and 2022 Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant biology. She was named a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University (2025-26), and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Plant Biologists, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Mark Warren
Owner, Medicine Bow Wilderness School
Mark Warren owns and runs nationally renowned Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the Southern Appalachians of Dahlonega, GA where he teaches nature classes and primitive skills. Mark has written extensively about nature for local and national magazines, as well as authoring many traditionally published books. He lectures on Native Plants, Native American history and survival skills, and Western Frontier History presenting at museums and cultural centers around the country.
In 1980, the National Wildlife Federation honored Mark as Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year. In 1998 he became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999, he won the World Championship Longbow title.
Giff Beaton
Giff Beaton has eagerly studied nature for almost 50 years. For the past 40 years, he has led a variety of bird, nature and history tours and given a diverse range of nature presentations. A published author, he enthusiastically follows warbler migration, anyplace he can. Concentrating on studying and photographing dragonflies, robber flies, tiger beetles, caterpillars and jumping spiders, he is often found far afield searching for these curious and somewhat elusive creatures. He and his wife Allie live near Palmetto, GA, with their two sons, and he recently retired from flying for Delta Air Lines for 36 years.
Brandy Hall
Founder & CEO, Shades of Green Permaculture
Brandy Hall is the Founder & CEO of Shades of Green Permaculture, a certified B Corp named to Inc.’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in 2025. Since founding the company in 2008, she has led a team of 20 in working with thousands of clients to design and build regenerative, resilient landscapes. With nearly two decades of experience as a general contractor, stone mason, and educator, Brandy is recognized nationally as “part of a new guard of landscape designers” (Garden & Gun) and her first book, The Complete Guide to Home Permaculture, will be published in January 2026. She also serves as Mayor of Pine Lake, GA, and enjoys spending time outdoors with her daughter.
Nancy Lawson
Nancy Lawson is the author of The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife and Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature. A nature writer, habitat consultant, and founder of The Humane Gardener, she pioneers creative wildlife-friendly landscaping methods. Nancy co-chairs Howard County Bee City in Maryland and co-launched a community science project, Monarch Rx, after observing a little-known butterfly behavior in her own garden. Her habitat and books have been featured in Science Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Oprah magazine, Entomology Today, Ecological Entomology, American Gardener magazine and on numerous radio shows and podcasts.
