By Sarah Smith, Illinois Extension Master Gardener and Master Naturalist
Utilizing the 2025 Conservation@Home Kickoff event at Pleasant Prairie Nursery as a catalyst, Meg Ray has quickly gained momentum in her C@H journey. Almost immediately following the event, she had her yard certified, began incorporating more C@H principles into her home landscape and signed up to learn more about nature and conservation through the Extension Master Naturalist training. Though not a requirement of being a C@H member, Meg says that naturalist education was a clear progression and included the values of community, connection and stewardship that she has been cultivating since childhood.
Growing up with grandparents who shared their love of nature through farming and gardening, to sustain their family and the plants and animals around them, Meg carries on those traditions. In her words, “nature is embedded in the soul” and she makes connecting to the natural world a priority and starting point of her day. It’s evident that her love of birds was fostered early on as she describes always having them in mind when gardening and designing her landscapes, including at her current home where she has a bird bath, multiple feeders and has plans to add a feeding station in the middle of the garden this year. In addition to a squirrel resistant feeder and a solar fountain, the feeding station will highlight plants that the birds will be able to enjoy and utilize throughout the seasons, including native grasses and coneflowers and some non-natives that she, the birds and pollinators enjoy, like zinnias and cosmos.
Less than a year into having a certified yard, Meg continues to be a passionate steward, greeting her garden everyday with purpose and enthusiasm. At the start, while learning more about invasive species, she removed burning bush and barberry from her yard. To continue, she plans to remove the Rose of Sharon from her rose bush garden and add a spicebush and curly leaf parsley for the caterpillars and butterflies. She will also be extending her native garden bed with plants she winter-sowed, a process she was introduced to through C@H. Hopefully her first time efforts of winter sowing will yield great results, reducing the need to purchase plants and providing an inventory of the many plants and variety needed for her native bed expansion. As she described starting out by buying only one of every native plant of interest to her at the kickoff event last year, Meg laughed as she stated she now knows that providing plants of the same type in groups of three helps to create balance in the garden and a landing area for pollinators. The bed extension is located along a hillside that meets a wooded area at the back of her property, where she enjoys seeing spring ephemerals and in return, she removes invasives like garlic mustard and honeysuckle.
In addition to nurturing the birds and pollinators, Meg shares her knowledge with her neighbors, adults and children alike, encouraging them to be stewards themselves through daily interactions and a shared space that is part of her property. One example being that she taught the children about littering and its effects in her yard after they enjoyed some popsicle treats that she provided. Meg also continues to grow into the role of Master Naturalist volunteer and finds events like the Greater Peoria Farm Show and Sun Foundation events to be especially fun, while also being an opportunity to share about C@H and conservation practices. Her advice for those considering incorporating Conservation@Home principles in their home landscape is to be accepting of the native landscape and to be curious about how it will develop. She says it isn’t hard to make small changes, but you also need the desire to do so. She finds it fulfilling to know that the changes you make can positively impact everything in and around your landscape, while also extending its effects beyond, to your neighbors and community.
