Growing at the MG Spring Symposium

There was a great crowd at the Master Gardener’s Spring Symposium on Saturday. The arrangements were wonderful with a delicious and energizing breakfast buffet, fruit, muffins, juice, coffee and tea – all free.  And later a yummy lunch and great conversation with our fellow gardeners.

There were all manner of workshops from fruit tree pruning to roses!  Naturally I went to hear Tracey Culver, who is a head gardener at Smith College, talk about the roses she grows at home, and at the College. She was a mine of information about the care and maintenance of many kinds of roses. I’m going to pay special attention to the roses the next time I visit Smith.

Sue Reed, author of Energy Wise Landscape Design, filled us in on the many ways we can save all kinds of energy through our landscape design.  Those who couldn’t attend can find all that information in her book.  I’m glad I can refer to the book as I plant my windbreak this spring.

I can hardly wait for next year’s program, but I have plenty to do in the meantime and I am full of spring symposium inspiration!

Three Special Events for Thursday

Courtesy of Mead Art Museum

Some events are not just for one day. The wonderful art exhibit at Mead Art Museum on  the Amherst College campus, will run until May 29.  There is no admission charge and the Mead is open from 9 am til midnight!  There is no excuse for Amherst students to not get their art assignments done.  Closed Mondays, and closed  at 5 pm on Friday and Saturday.  I guess those students need a little time for social life.

Orra White Hitchcock had a considerable social life as the wife of a minister/professor/college president, as a mother, and as an artist, providing the  drawings, paintings and charts that her husband needed for his work.

Her life intersected with those other important women of her time, Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke College, and her daughter was a good friend of Lavinia Dickinson, Emily Dickinson’s sister.

Daria D’Arienzo, co-curator of the exhibit, Orra White Hitchcock (1796-18-63): An Amherst Woman of Art  and Science said “She was a woman of her time, who transcended her time.”

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Tower Hill Botanic Garden is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a host of special events along with its usual roster of workshops, and classes for  children during school vacation.  And right now the new Limonia and Winter Garden can still give us a respite from winter.

And finally I want everyone to remember the Master Gardener’s Spring Symposium on Saturday, March 19 from 9 am to 2 pm at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield.  This event has grown and has something for everyone, basics for beginning gardeners (but we all have something to learn from these) special topics like pruning (I wish I were a good pruner), cooking demonstrations with the good people from Stockbridge Herbs, and something for fun like my slide show and talk about the late Elsa Bakalar’s garden.  That garden, and my own will be part of the Franklin Landtrust Farm and Garden tour this June.   (Uh-oh. I think I just sneaked in a fourth event.)

I hope I’ll see you at the Spring Symposium!

And thank you Cindy at My Corner of Katy for hosting Three for Thursday.

Master Gardener’s Spring Symposium

Sue Reed, Keynote Speaker at her drawing table

The days are longer and the sun is brighter, so even though snow lies deep on the ground we know that spring is coming.  That means that the annual Master Gardeners Spring Symposium held on Saturday, March 19 at Frontier Regional High School is coming up, too..

This year I am presenting a slide show of Elsa Bakalar’s perennial gardens in all their glory. Elsa passed away last year, but her memory remains green for many of us. Her gardens remain an inspiration, especially knowing that she achieved those magnificent blooms and sturdy plants organically. Compost was her secret.

Elsa’s garden was certainly extraordinary, a perfect garden to be included in this year’s theme Gardening Beyond the Ordinary.

This year’s keynote speaker Sue Reed, landscape architect and author of “Energy Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for your Home and Garden”,  will talk about the ways we can all design our domestic landscapes to be sustainable and beautiful.

Reed’s book covers some familiar ways that we are used to thinking about saving energy through our plantings. I have known that windbreaks can help cut down on heating bills in the winter and that deciduous trees can help keep a house cool in the summer, cutting down on cooling bills. The trick is knowing just how and where to arrange these plantings.

Sometimes the energy Reed talks about saving is human energy. Minimizing lawn areas that have to be mowed is an energy saving project that my husband heartily endorses. If not lawn, then what? Reed talks about trees and shrubs, and even vegetable gardens, that can be grown instead of lawn. Generously sized paths and patios can be attractive design elements as well as being welcoming spaces that can be used. Ground covers can be used in areas that are not hospitable to lawn grasses, or that are not needed for social activities.

Minimizing lawn areas not only save human energy, they benefit the environment. People tend to use unnecessary amounts of fertilizers and herbicides that take energy to manufacture, and then cause problems with toxic run-off into our sewers and waterways.

Reed’s book is a comprehensive guide to creating an energy saving landscape that protects the environment and is beautiful, giving us pleasure for many years.

All of the 14 workshop sessions, will give practical information. Ryan Voiland who is in the process of moving his amazingly productive Red Fire Farm from Granby back to his home town of Montague, will talk about using cover crops in the garden; Jonathan Bates of Food Forest Farm Permaculture Nursery will talk about creating edible landscapes for beauty and food in the morning, and mushrooms in the afternoon. Everyone attending the mushroom workshop will go home with a log inoculated with shitake mushrooms and the promise of homegrown mushrooms later in the season.

Ed Sourdiffe, Master Gardener will once again give his always popular workshop about Easy Gardening and Simple Organic Methods for Organic Gardeners, and Wes Autio, UMass professor of pomology will reveal the secrets of pruning.

A father and daughter team, Ron and Jennifer Kujawksi will also talk about getting more out of your vegetable garden including ways to prioritize your crop selection and ways to use your space more efficiently.

Master gardener John Barry will present his talk about the importance of growing native shrubs in the morning and the afternoon.  Nowadays even people who live on suburban lots are realizing the important part they can play in maintaining the local food web, supporting local birds, butterflies, and all the little creatures that may be less beautiful and less noticeable, but just as important to our environment.

Denise Lemay and Mary Ellen Warchol of Stockbridge Herbs will once again be on hand to prepare and hand out treats. In the morning they will discuss – and share – gluten free dishes; in the afternoon they’ll be whipping up all manner of classic and special salad dressings. Spring is salad season and these ladies will prepare us.

Allison Bell and Maida Goodwin, Plant Conservation volunteers will talk about Grace Greylock Niles who wrote Bog-Trotting for orchids in 1904, and was a part of the conservation movement in the early 20^th century.

One kind of unusual garden that is becoming more and more popular is a “green roof”. Michael Keeney of Treefrog Landscapes will talk about the challenges and benefits of growing plants on your roof, and how to choose suitable plants.

Needless to say I am looking forward to Everything’s Coming Up Roses – tried and True Roses for Western Massachusetts presented by Tracey Putnam Culver who works at the Smith College Botanical Gardens.

The only problem with the Spring Symposium is knowing that you can only choose two of these great workshops. Very difficult.

The Master Gardeners Spring Symposium runs from 9 am to 2 pm on Saturday, March 19.  The cost for the whole program is $30, or $15 to attend only the keynote talk.  A delicious lunch for $7.50 is also available. It is advisable to sign up early.

For more information logon to www.wmassmastergardeners.org or contact Bridget Heller at banne53@aol.com or 665-8662.  ###

Today, March 5, the Spring Bulb Show opens and runs til March 20. Hours are 10 am – 4 pm. Click here for more information.

Between the Rows        February 26, 2011

Spring at last!

Coltsfoot

The calendar says it’s spring, but I can drive past my snowy lawn and only DREAM of coltfoot growing at the side of my road. Coltsfoot, an herb, is one of the very first plants to bloom here on the hill.

More dreaming – of daffodils – my celebration of the first day of spring. I’m off to the Western Mass Master Gardener’s Spring Symposium. I will be sharing what I learn.

On Sunday I’m off to the Trillium cutting garden workshop. More dreaming of flowers.

My Pleasure Ground

Last Saturday was the Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium. I was honored to share the bill with Julie Moir Messervy who was the keynote speaker. I talked about worm farming and Julie talked about garden design and her new book, Home Outside.

Julie had a lot to say, but she set the tone immediately for me in her talk and in her books when she says that her aim is to help us all create our own Pleasure Ground.

A Pleasure Ground is exactly what I am aiming for in my garden. There is the Rose Walk which is a glory in June when the peonies are also blooming. That’s when we invite in friends and anyone passing by for our Annual Rose Viewing to share the pleasures of stopping to smell the roses.

There are the pleasures of watching grandchildren play on the lawn.

There are the pleasures of resting from chores in the Cottage Ornee.

There are the pleasures of an abundant vegetable garden.We all have ways of defining our own Pleasure Grounds – and it is a pleasure for me to visit so many Pleasure Grounds as I travel the garden blogs.

The Worm Turns

I feared my worms had all died during a great winter cold spell. Temperatures in my basement dipped below 50 degrees which I had read was the absolute limit for red wiggler survival. One day I went down to see if I could at least harvest some worm castings for houseplants I was repotting – and I found a worm. More than one worm!

I don’t know how many there are, but although my photo doesn’t show it, the worms I saw do have a white band known as the clitellum. Worms join themselves at the clitella to exchange sperm, and soon a cocoon will form on each worm. Baby worms are in the making.

My worms and I will be at the Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium on Saturday, March 21 at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield. We’ll be joining keynote speaker, Julie Moir Messervy, landscape architect and author of Home Outside, as well as many other knowledgeable presenters. Hope to see you there.

Home Outside