From first lady Michelle Obama's digging up part of the White House lawn for an organic vegetable garden to skyrocketing vegetable seed sales, new and returning gardeners are focused on growing their own food.

The Penn State Master Gardeners of Butler County are supporting that effort by featuring vegetable gardening at their seventh annual Spring Garden Market.

This year's market will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at The Succop Conservancy on Airport Road in Penn Township.

A free shuttle service will carry visitors between the nearby Penn Christian Academy parking lot and the market.

Events and sales at the market are designed to help home gardeners get off to a great start for this growing season.

Garden-related workshops, vendors with plants, crafts, jewelry, ceramics, antiques, garden art and food, and music, set amid the wooded ambience of The Conservancy add up to an event you don't want to miss.

The day's workshops feature growing vegetables in gardens small to large.

At 11:30 a.m., Sara Pellegrini, a master gardener, will present the basics of container gardening, including raising vegetables in containers.

At 12:30 p.m., Adam Voll of Soergel Orchards will discuss optimal conditions for successful vegetable gardening.

At 1:30 p.m., Chris Symons and Peg Campbell, both master gardeners and the forces behind the vegetable display and pollinator sardens at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, will focus on the steps needed for you to harvest food from your backyard.

The market will feature a silent auction, which allows visitors the opportunity to bid on plants and gift baskets with a variety of items from garden tools to gift certificates.

The Butler Faculty Jazz Trio, in its third garden market appearance, will entertain market visitors as they stroll among the trees and shops.

Venturing Crew 50 will display a red 1940 Case model VC tractor, which it bought in anticipation of restoring it.

Market visitors can buy soap, candles and handmade weeders from Venturing Crew 50. Information about Venturing, the Heritage School and The Conservancy will be available.

Pellegrini will demonstrate how container gardening can be done anywhere by anyone regardless of living space, age or mobility. She'll cover the reasons for growing container gardens and discuss the types of containers that can be used, along with container medium that gets best results.Visitors attending this workshop will learn about container garden maintenance, and optimal watering, drainage and sunlight conditions. End-of-season clean up details and preparation for next season round out Pellegrini's presentation.Voll will discuss the importance of soil health. Workshop attendees will learn how to determine the health their garden soil and how to improve it if needed.He'll also talk about the varieties of vegetables available and how to choose what types of vegetables to plant where.Additional topics Voll will cover include common diseases that affect vegetables, recognizing and eliminating them, and the impact of fertilization on vegetable crops.Symons and Campbell will provide an overview of backyard vegetable gardening with emphasis on organic principles, including attracting beneficial insects, companion planting, crop rotation and cover crop integration. They will identify the steps to planning, planting, maintaining and harvesting frequently grown vegetables.

Pellegrini has been gardening for about 10 years. She has a lovely fern garden and has planted perennials in the front of her house to eliminate the yearly expense of annuals."My walkway and hillside are constantly works in progress. I don't think I'll ever be done tweaking them," Pellegrini said.She has recently become interested in native plants and is starting several types of natives from seed.Voll graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Agricultural Systems Management. He minored in horticulture. After graduation, Voll returned to Soergel Orchards, the family farm, and oversees most of the vegetable production there.Symons and Campbell both completed Master Gardener classes in 2005. Symons became interested in gardening when she bought her first house, which needed landscaping.When she joined the Master Gardener program, she knew little about vegetable gardening, but has learned a great deal since then."What I like most about vegetable gardening is that you get to start over new every year so there are always new plants and new gardening techniques to try," Symons said.Campbell has been gardening off and on for most of her life and has recently focused on heirloom vegetables, especially tomatoes, and has begun propagating coleus and geraniums from cuttings. She helps out at Phipps Conservatory as a docent and works there in the greenhouse and in the outdoor discovery garden."My newest experiments have to do with organic gardening, not using pesticides and trying compost rather than commercial fertilizers," Campbell said.Market visitors can buy additions for their home gardens. Market vendors will offer an array of choices including vegetables, perennials, herbs, roses, shrubs and small trees. For the hungry, food vendors will be on hand with a variety of selections from a light snack and sweets to an entire meal.

The event is sponsored by:• Armstrong• Armstrong Farms Landscape Supply• Butler Health System• Eisler Landscapes• Kelly Chevrolet Cadillac• Newhaven Court at Clearview• Titus Networking