When remodeling your yard to fit naturally into our dry climate, don’t overlook the insects! 

Bees, butterflies and other bugs play a major role in ecosystems, and you can design and plant a garden that benefits these small-but-mighty animals that live among us. 

And Denver Water is proud to host Amy Yarger, the Butterfly Pavilion’s senior director of horticulture, for a 90-minute interactive, in-person workshop that will introduce participants to the principles and practices of gardening for pollinators. 

The workshop will be 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 3, at the Denver Water Operations Complex, 1600 West 12th Avenue in Denver. 

Workshop details and registration information is available at Denver Water’s “Join Our Workshops!” webpage. Participation is free but space is limited. Registration is required.

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The workshop will cover creating gardens that benefit pollinators, from site assessment and design to plant selection. You’ll learn about the lives of bees, butterflies and other pollinators along with how simple landscape changes can support food, shelter, and other resources for these important animals.

Yarger has worked at the Butterfly Pavilion since 2000. She currently leads its local pollinator habitat initiatives, such as the Baseline Pollinator District, a new community in Broomfield intentionally designed to conserve and improve habitat for pollinators in all aspects of the community’s construction and operation, a similar pollinator district in Manitou Springs, and the Urban Prairies Project, which restores habitat in urban and suburban natural areas.

Learn about water-wise gardening and conserving water inside and outside at denverwater.org/Conserve.

You can watch Denver Water’s 2024 in-person workshops at these links: 

• Eryn Murphy, owner of Restorative Landscape Design and a volunteer at Wild Ones Front Range, a group that promotes ColoradoScapes for a climate-resilient future, is passionate about making native plant landscaping affordable and accessible. Watch her presentation here.
• Ross Shrigley, the executive director of Plant Select, Creighton Hofeditz, the director of permaculture and perennials at Denver Urban Gardens, and Lisa Mason, a horticultural specialist with Colorado State University Extension, joined us in spring 2024. Watch their presentations here. 

And these future workshops are in the works: 

• Tuesday, May 13, 6:30-8 p.m.: A webinar sponsored by Denver Water on Turf Transformation Planning and Removal. Registration is available at Resource Central. 
• Tuesday. July 8, 6:30-8 p.m. A webinar sponsored by Denver Water on Compost and Soil Health. Registration is available at Resource Central. 
• Saturday, Aug. 23: From Thirsty to Thriving: Practical Advice for Water-Wise Landscapes. An in-person workshop at Denver Water with Eryn Murphy to learn about DIY approaches to ColoradoScaping, and Denver Water staff who have transformed their own yards.  The workshop is free, but registration is required. A registration link will be available in late July.