Birds, bees and and other native wildlife are stressed suffering greatly due to habit loss due to human development. Our next speaker at the Lake Houston Gardeners will give us some tips about how to help our native flora and fauna in our own little developments, in a way that will meet the approval of the neighbors and the yard police (i.e. the HOA.) Lauren Simpson, a Houston advocate of native gardening, is the presenter at the next club meeting on Monday, May 9. The meeting starts with social time at 6:30 p.m. at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church with the presentation at 7 p.m., followed by the best plant exchange in the area.
Lauren will share simple techniques for transforming our own garden into a beautiful, native-plant paradise—one that supports wildlife and pleases neighbors. In addition, she will be sharing handouts and seeds that she has collected from her own garden.
Lauren has cultivated the garden in her front yard, which she has named St. Julian’s Crossing, for several years, and documents its growth and inhabitants on her St. Julian’s Crossing Facebook page. She was scheduled to speak to the club last May but had to cancel due to a family emergency, and is glad to be able to meet with us in 2023.
About Lauren Simpson
Since early 2015, Lauren Simpson has transformed her home gardens into a wildlife-friendly habitat, currently a Certified Wildlife Habitat, Monarch Waystation, and Certified Butterfly Garden. She promotes insect conservation and habitat gardening through presentations, events, interviews, and articles, as well as through a website and Instagram and Facebook communities under the appellation “St. Julian’s Crossing Wildlife Habitat”—the name adopted for her family’s Monarch Waystation. Ms. Simpson is a member of local chapters of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT), Native Prairies Association of Texas, and North American Butterfly Association. She has also received Level 1 and Level 2 certifications through the NPSOT Native Landscape Certification Program (NLCP), has attended the “Monarch Conservation Workshop: Train the Trainer” training, and chairs the NPSOT subcommittee for the Advocacy companion class to NLCP Level 4.
Lauren Simpson is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching Lawyering Skills and Strategies. She is a spring 2016 recipient of the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award (Instructor/Clinical category); one of three 2018 AALS Teachers of the Year selected by the Law Center; and the 2017, 2018, 2019 (co-recipient), 2021, and 2022 Student Bar Association Professor of the Year for Law Center faculty teaching in the part-time program.