Learn how to make Monarch butterflies love to spend time in your garden, when garden and butterfly habitat designer David Snow visits the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula on Saturday, September 29 at 2:00 p.m. Snow demonstrates simple steps for home gardeners to create and maintain a Monarch habitat by planting what butterflies need to survive and reproduce. Cost to attend is museum general admission, free for museum members. For reservations, call 805- 525-3100.

Snow also brings plants and insect specimens, sheds light on the migratory habits of Monarch butterflies, and discusses how home habitats can contribute to species preservation. Such a garden also attracts hummingbirds and other birds such as the Yellow Swallow Tail and Morning Cloak.

Thousand Oaks resident Snow has been a landscape contractor and garden designer in Southern California for 18 years, and holds a degree in horticulture from Ventura College. Asked to create butterfly garden habitats for the Pasadena Showcase House of Design for several years, his designs are focused on native plants and water conservation and almost always include a butterfly habitat. A member of the Royal Horticultural Society, he lectures extensively and has volunteered his services to creating Monarch butterfly habitats for elementary schools in Thousand Oaks and Malibu. His work can also be seen at the Mission Oaks Bike Path in Camarillo, the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, and the Los Flores Community Garden in Thousand Oaks.

The Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum is located at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, California, in their historic downtown, near the Depot and next to the railroad tracks. Hours are 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, free for Museum of Ventura County members, and for children ages 5 and younger. On first Sundays of the month, general admission is always free. For more information, go to www.venturamuseum.org or call (805) 525-3100.