A butterfly hovering over a wildflower

Native Plant Gardening

Gardening with native plants benefits wildlife and the environment

Nature Forward maintains beautiful demonstration gardens at Woodend, sells native plants, seeds, and gardening tools in our shop, leads garden talks and tours, and offers a variety of community greening outreach programs.  

Garden Consultations ($250)

An on-site coaching visit with Nature Forward includes:

  • One hour of personalized discussion and advice from a member of our Restoration Department on your goals, wishes, and concerns for your garden or landscape. 

  • You’ll receive a follow-up email with recommended strategies for improving habitat, addressing erosion or drainage challenges, or starting a food or pollinator garden. This includes recommended native plants to add, steps to control invasive plants, etc. A specific garden design drawing is not provided.

On-site consultations are available within 15 miles of Woodend Nature Sanctuary, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815.
Consultations farther than 15 miles will incur an additional mileage charge for each mile over 15.

Learn from us!

We invite you to visit our YouTube channel to view a variety of gardening videos including step-by-step tutorials on “Building a Native Plant Rain Garden,” “Installing Compost Socks for Erosion Control,” and “How to Plant a Plug,” among many other topics.

Our staff also offers paid garden talks for audiences ranging from HOAs to garden clubs. Topics include Habitat Gardening, Native Plants for Containers, Native Plants for Shade, Native Plants for Sun, and more. For details, email [email protected]

We also offer both regularly scheduled and private garden tours for groups.
Click the link to learn more.  

Volunteer with us!

We garden together from March through November on Thursdays and Fridays in our native plant gardens and our vegetable garden! We welcome all levels of experience. Montgomery County Master Naturalists and Montgomery County Master Gardeners can earn credit hours.

We also have occasional weekend volunteer opportunities connected to our community greening outreach programs throughout the region. These range from planting to events talking about native gardening! 

See our Woodend Garden Diaries to learn more about our gardens and volunteers! 

Shop with us!

Our Woodend Nature Shop sells native plants from April until November- native plants are available for purchase via QR code even when the shop is closed.

Year-round, our shop stocks custom-blended native seed mixes appropriate for our area, yard signs that explain the importance of native gardening, and a variety of garden books and tools to help you with your home garden and landscape! 

See some of the unique, nature-themed items available including Optics, Gifts, Books, T-Shirts, Children’s items, Puzzles, Notecards, and much more!

Outreach Programs

Nature Forward provides community greening outreach programs to bring native gardening to communities and neighborhoods. These programs range from tree planting to lawn-replacement pollinator garden kits.

To learn more, or check your eligibility, click here: Anacostia Community Greening 

To volunteer with these programs, click here.

Visit our Adult Programs page to explore many more ways to experience and learn about nature!

Plants were chosen for seasonal interest, ornamental features, and wildlife value ensuring that the garden stays interesting all year long.

“It’s exciting to see new native plant specifies appearing on the property. Educating children about the importance of biodiversity, food chains, and native flora and fauna becomes much easier when you are able to point them out.”

– Frank

“My first experience volunteering at Woodend involved surveying and nurturing the Restored Meadow. I quickly learned to identify many native plant species that were thriving in the meadow and also how much fun it was to volunteer with other nature loving folks.”

– Maura

“There is nothing like hands-on experience removing invasive plants and replacing them with native species. Through that process, I have learned more about each plant’s value and impact on improvement of the vibrancy and resilience of the plant and animal diversity at Woodend”

– Gregg

“I can not thank you all enough for providing fulfilling tangible projects – that saw the full lifecycle of restoration from invasive removal to planting – for our crews to really understand the impact of their work in the watershed.”

– Arielle

Visit Woodend Sanctuary

8940 Jones Mill Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Trails are open daily from dawn to dusk
Admission is free

If you are in Northern Virginia,
you also can 
visit our Rust Sanctuary

Thank you for leaving dogs and other pets at home