OGDEN — Earth Day week is in full effect following the annual recognition of the conservation-minded holiday on Monday. To celebrate the occasion, Utah State University’s Ogden Botanical Gardens, located at 1750 Monroe Blvd., will be holding its third annual Earth Day Birthday event this weekend.

The garden fair event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and, while supplies last, wildflower seedlings will be given away to attendees.

Nate Staker, deputy director at the botanical gardens, told the Standard-Examiner that the majority of those seedlings are showy milkweed, which can attract pollinators like butterflies to people’s home gardens.

The event also will feature vendors and classes/activities, including yoga sessions, a presentation on the raising of rabbits, a pollinator class and more.

According to Staker, the Earth Day Birthday fair originally was inspired by large plant donations that were made to the gardens.

“We got a big bulb donation from High Country Gardens; they donated 350,000 spring bulbs,” Staker said. “Before that, there really wasn’t much as far as spring blooms in the garden.”

High Country’s initial donation was 250,000 bulbs two years ago; that was followed by another 100,000 last fall. Staker noted that a number of water-wise perennials also were donated, bringing the total donated value to well over $100,000.

Staker believes that those donations have resulted in about a million individual blossoms being present on the site for visitors to enjoy.

“We wanted to celebrate that and we thought, ‘How can we get people to come and celebrate?'” Staker said.

Earth Day Birthday became that event, and it has drawn considerable interest in its fledgling years. Over the event’s two first iterations, Staker estimates that approximately 1,300 people attended on average.

However, it’s his hope that the fair will continue to draw more people and that a greater awareness of the botanical gardens themselves can be fostered within the community.

“I’m always amazed that there are people who still haven’t been to the botanical gardens. They’ve lived in Ogden their whole life and they say, ‘I didn’t even know this was here,'” Staker said. “It’s just a surprise to hear that even though we’re 30 years old this year.”

Parking at the location is limited. For more information on this and the botanical gardens’ other events, go to https://extension.usu.edu/ogdenbotanicalgardens/calendar.

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