Membership Meetings

The Foundation hosts membership events throughout the year. Currently, some programs are on Zoom and others are in-person. There is no cost for members to participate.

Anyone not currently a member who wishes to participate should Join the Foundation for $10/year. Joining does not confer WSU Master Gardener or Master Recycler Composter status.

Upcoming Meetings


Dessert Potluck and Seed Swap
April 16 (Tues) – Lacey Community Center
RSVP via Cheddar Up to attend! There will be a seating limit for this meeting. You may be turned away if you don’t have a ticket.

This event is FREE for Foundation members.
Non-members may attend by joining the Foundation for $10.

6:15pm Doors Open/Organize seed envelopes
(optional – you do not need to bring seeds to participate in this event)
6:30-7pm – Membership Meeting and Potluck Dessert Social
Tea, coffee, water provided. Please bring your own plate, cup, & silverware.
7- 8pm – Seed Swap and “How to Save Seeds” video

How will the seed swap work?

  • Package up any clean seeds you have saved from your garden. Any seeds collected in the past three years should be viable.
  • Label each envelope with plant name, month/date collected and any notes you want to add.
  • Use seed envelopes, coin envelopes or small letter-sized envelopes.
  • Put about 20-25 seeds in each envelope.
  • When you arrive, distribute your seed envelopes on the tables according to the general category
    (veg, annual, perennial).
  • Take a ticket for every envelope you leave.
  • Trade your tickets for seeds – one ticket per envelope – or share your tickets with others.

Have fun! Enjoy dessert, meeting and socializing.


“Transformative Landscapes for Wildlife, Water & Wonder”
June 20 (Thurs) – in person/ location TBD
6:30pm – Membership Meeting
7pm – Guest Speake
r: Erica Guttman

For three decades, the WSU Native Plant Salvage program has been sharing sustainable landscaping principles through both classroom workshops and hands-on demonstration projects. In this brief presentation, Erica Guttman will expand on the ways in which our personal landscapes can help or harm our region’s natural resources. She’ll then share tried-and-true cost-effective methods we can all employ to make our landscapes more ecologically functional for protecting water resources, providing critical wildlife and pollinator habitat, and still delighting us with functional beauty within our outdoor living spaces.

Bio: Erica Guttman has been a hands-on environmental educator for over 37 years, and has led WSU Thurston County Extension’s water resources work since 1997, through classroom and field teaching, and engaging thousands of community volunteers in learning through on-the-ground landscape installations of stewardship projects. Erica has led workshops and webinars, and authored or contributed to a number of publications and videos, for a variety of professional and general audiences on a range of topics related to protecting and conserving water resources and habitat. Topics include garden design and construction & other green-stormwater techniques; ecological restoration & shoreline revegetation; hedgerows; and all-season plant identification. Her MA is in ecological restoration with a focus on the Salish Sea nearshore.


August 15 (Thurs) – in person/ location TBD
Annual Picnic

Oct 22 (Tues) – via Zoom
6:30pm – Membership Meeting
7pm – Guest Speake
r: Del Brummet, Elizabeth Miller Garden, UW

Dec 14 (Sat) – in person/ location TBD
Annual Membership Meeting


2024 Prior Meetings

Feb 15 (Thurs) – via Zoom
6:30pm – Membership Meeting
7-8pm – Guest Speaker: Jeanne Kinney
, MG Mason County
Topic: The Wonderful World of Rhododendrons
PowerPoint presentation and Handouts are available on the Members Only Access page.

Whether you’ve inherited a rhododendron when you moved in or been growing them for years, this talk should offer some new information about selection, care, and solutions for problems with rhododendrons.

Jeanne Kinney says:
I was a Master Gardener in Oregon in the late 1980’s and after a hiatus, took my training in Thurston County and became re-certified in 2010, but I live in Mason County and do most of my volunteering there. My husband and I live on 4.5 acres and have about 200 rhododendrons. My goal is to have something blooming every month of the year. I’m close, with July and August having no blooms, but at least one variety in bloom all the other months. I’ve been a member of the Shelton Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society for almost 30 years and am currently the president.