Past Events
It’s not work, work, work all the time. Sometimes we get together to just to enjoy each others company, appreciate our surroundings, and feast! Volunteers in the Nipomo Native Garden share a sense of community and build strong relationships with their Nipomo neighbors.
Solstice Get-together
Many Nipomo Native Garden volunteers and their guests get together at Summer Solstice to celebrate it’s arrival—and it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular annual events held in the Garden. NNG provides BBQ’d chicken and salmon, while attendees bring salads, side dishes, desserts and beverages for the potluck affair. Master griller Charlie Gulyash demonstrated his charcoal broiling skills again this year, perfectly preparing the chicken breasts and the salmon marinated in lemon-based sauce that he likes to keep secret. 
The potluck dishes are always delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoys their meal.
After the noshing, the group sits around the fire ring and enjoys the guitar playing and singing. Bill Vincent is becoming a regular at the summer solstice and everyone enjoys his humor, music, and entertaining performances. He trys to encourage the group to sing along, but we all tend to be a hard group to motivate into embarrassing ourselves. Once he did manage to lead us all in a rousing rendition of Old McDonald Had a Farm. Many thanks to Bill for sharing his time and always making the evening a memorable event. In between the singing and continued snacking on 
the goodies, we often shared our thoughts on the Garden, Nipomo, the Solstice and how blessed we are to be able to live in this community and participate in it’s activities. Many of us are recent immigrants, while others have lived here much longer.
In 2004, Bill Deneen again gave his traditional blessing to the Oaks and natural environment, and praised the efforts of the volunteers who worked to create and continue to sustain the Nipomo Native Garden. Laurie Vierheilig surprized everyone with her unusual dirt cake and agreed to share the recipe for it.
An enjoyable evening is had by all attending and we hope our other members and volunteers will be able to join us next year at our Summer Solstice event.
Annual Plant Sale
Every year the Nipomo Native Garden committee hosts a Native Plant Sale, proceeds of which partially fund ongoing operations in the Garden. This event is typically held the 1st weekend in October. The date, time, and location are announced annually, so please check our Events Calendar each Fall for further details on the sale.
The sale includes native plants grown from seeds or plant cuttings taken in the NNG, drought tolerant plants from Mediterranean regions around the world, wildflower seeds, NNG t-shirts and hats, and books on California natives. Additionally the members of the NNG committee are available to answer any questions on using native plants in your landscaping.
The NNG encourages the use of central coast native plants in both business and residential landscaping. Beyond being drought tolerant and water-wise, native plants reduce annual maintenance costs and integrate planned landscapes, harmoniously blending them with our regional habitats.
