CCCA is presenting its annual April virtual discussion on gardening and the environment. Our speaker, Kathy Sykes, is well known throughout the community and will focus her talk on easy steps to create a pollinator garden or corridor in your community. Her in-depth presentation covers the process step-by-step while also discussing the benefits of pollinators to the environment, the importance of keystone plants and trees, and how to develop partnerships in your local community to garner support.

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Kathy Sykes, Master Gardener

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Kathy Sykes was lucky that her mother was a gifted gardener who instilled in her a love of nature. She began gardening seriously six years ago as she approached the end of her professional career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She enrolled in the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) master gardening class in the spring of 2019 and became a master gardener that summer.  She has become passionate about trying to change the environment by planting native plants a few plants at a time, including creating a pollinator corridor in her neighborhood along Connecticut Avenue.  She also is a volunteer gardener at the UDC roof garden, Peabody Elementary School, Tregaron Conservancy and Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Garden.  Prior to gardening for pleasure, she worked for 19 years at the U.S. EPA as the Senior Advisor for Aging and Sustainability in Washington DC.