A free lecture with author Carol Bornstein will take place on Saturday, April 4, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Barnsdall Art Park, located at 4800 Hollywood Boulevard.

The title of the lecture is “Indulging Our Senses in the Native Garden.” Bornstein will be available afterwards to sign copies of her book. Bornstein is currently the Director of Nursery Operations and Horticultural Outreach at the beautiful Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

This lecture is a part of the Sixth Annual Native Plant Garden Tour. Bornstein is one of the authors of “California Native Plants for the Garden,” and will speak about “the visual delights of gardening with natives, as well as the tacticle, audio, olfactory and even gustatory pleasures!”

This is a great opportunity for those interested in saving water in landscaping, without having to give up aesthetics. With the announcement of further water ordinances in Los Angeles cities such as Beverly Hills, water-saving workshops are an excellent source of information. And the price of $0 can’t be beat!

The Theodore Payne Foundation will be putting on this native and water-saving extravaganza. For more information, and to buy tickets to the April 4-5 garden tours, visit the Theodore Payne Foundation online, or call (818) 768-1802. The tours start at 10:00 a.m. April 4, and run through to April 5 at 4:00 p.m. Tickets for the “self-guided tour” run $20 per person, but allow for admission for both days. More than 30 private gardens (”each planted with at least 50% California native plants!”) in Los Angeles are included on the tour, which will showcase “the beauty of native plant gardens” where visitors can “learn how to save water while attracting birds and butterflies to the garden.”

Interested parties have plenty of other options to learn about gardening, landscaping and water-wise gardening, through the Theodore Payne Foundation.