Master Gardeners host virtual workshop
Beat the winter doldrums by attending Winter Blues and Garden of Greens, a virtual gardening workshop hosted by the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Butler County. This virtual workshop will be conducted on Saturday, Feb. 20, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The cost is $20. From the warmth and comfort of your home, learn about a variety of garden-related topics from national and international gardening experts. Proceeds from the workshop support community gardening projects throughout Butler County.
After a brief introduction, Doug Oster opens the workshop with his topic, “Extending the Vegetable Growing Season.” Growing vegetables is an enjoyable and rewarding gardening adventure, with a short growing season for Pennsylvania gardeners. His presentation explores opportunities to extend the vegetable growing season through practices such as indoor seed starting, outdoor sowing, and choosing the best crop options for spring and fall. Oster is a well-known and respected gardening expert.
“Gardening is fun,” Oster said. “You can truly enjoy every day spent outside when you’re tending vegetables, flowers, shrubs, and trees.” Oster is an Emmy Award-winning producer and television host. You can catch him hosting The Organic Gardener Radio Show every Sunday morning at 7 a.m. on Pittsburgh’s KDKA Radio, and read his feature articles in the Pittsburgh Earth Day’s Green Voice electronic newsletter.
The next topic, “Foliage, the Forgotten Friend,” is presented by Todd Boland, a horticulturist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden. Most gardeners are always on the lookout for that new flowering perennial: bigger blooms, brighter color! But many of these plants only bloom for a few weeks, then have little to offer to the landscape for the remainder of the season.
Here is an opportunity to use perennials whose interesting foliage bridges the gap between the blooms of more flowery perennials. Some foliage perennials even look great all winter! The world is Heuchera-crazy, but there are plenty of other “forgotten” friends.
This talk will illustrate the wide diversity of perennials grown primarily for their foliage and how to combine them with other plants for an interesting landscape. In addition to his role as a horticulturist, Boland is the chairman of the Newfoundland Rock Garden Society, a chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society, or NARGS.
For the past five years, he has authored the Plant of the Month feature on the NARGS website. He has lectured and written internationally on various aspects of horticulture and native plants. In addition, Boland has authored five photographic field guides on the wildflowers and woody plants of Atlantic Canada, including “Trees and Shrubs of Newfoundland and Labrador,” “Trees and Shrubs of the Maritimes,” “Wildflowers of Nova Scotia,” “Wildflowers of New Brunswick” and “Wildflowers and Ferns and Newfoundland.” Most recently he has written his first gardening book, “Favourite Perennials for Atlantic Canada.” The companion book, “Favourite Shrubs and Vines for Atlantic Canada,” is due for release in spring of 2021.
He joined the Canada’s Local Gardener editorial board in November 2020. Boland is active on Facebook, Instagram (todd.boland) and Twitter @jtbolandNL.
Rounding out the workshop is author Joseph Tychonievich, whose topic is “Rock Gardening: Re-imaging a Classic Style for Today’s Garden.”
Inspired by the tiny plants and dramatic, rocky landscapes found on mountain tops, rock gardening uses a range of unusual, small plants in combination with beautiful stones to create miniaturized landscapes. This approach to gardening is water-wise, perfect for containers, small gardens and for gardeners interested in exploring a whole new group of beautiful plants.
In this talk, Tychonievich shares beautiful images of rock gardens, the basic principles of creating rock gardens and an introduction to some of the most beautiful and easy-to-grow rock garden plants to get you started on your own rock garden.
Tychonievich gardens in his Williamsburg, Va., yard, in a friend’s yard and with lights in his closet. He pretends that this is necessary research to write his books and magazine articles about gardening. Thankfully, his husband gracefully accepts his workplace practices and the unpredictable deluges of vegetables he grows.
Tychonievich is the editor the North American Rock Garden Society quarterly journal and the author of several books, including “Rock Gardening: Re-imagining a Classic Style” and the forthcoming book, “The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food: Step-by-Step Vegetable Gardening for Everyone.”
The workshop concludes with additional gardening resources, an evaluation, and information about Penn State Extension Master Gardeners. To register for the workshop, go to https://extension.psu.edu/winter-blues-and-gardens-of-green.
Diane Dallos is a Penn State Master Gardener of Butler County.
