By Dr. Leonard Perry, Horticulturist in Residence
Join Fort Ticonderoga and the King’s Garden for the Seventh Annual Garden and Landscape Symposium on Saturday, April 7, 2018. Geared towards both beginning and experienced gardeners, this daylong symposium provides helpful insights from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and northern New England. The event is open by pre-registration only.
Focusing on easy-to-implement strategies for expanding and improving your garden or landscape, these programs are offered in an informal setting that encourages interaction between presenters and attendees.
Many in the area already know Charlie Nardozzi — an award winning, nationally recognized garden author, speaker, garden tour leader, radio, and TV personality based in Vermont. He will speak on Better Berries for Your Edible Landscape. Growing berry shrubs has become more popular with the interest in edible landscaping and breeding of small shrubs that fit easily in a small yard and are easy to maintain. He will talk about new varieties of blueberries, brambles, honeyberries, currants, gooseberries, elderberries and more that grow well in our climate. In addition, Charlie will go over how to grow and care for these berries to produce a bountiful harvest and look great in the yard. Charlie makes gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. You can learn more about him, and receive his monthly newsletters from his website at gardeningwithcharlie.com.
A true kitchen garden opens your senses both in the garden and in the kitchen, and in this presentation—The Art of Growing Food-– you will learn the six steps to successful kitchen garden design, based on classic techniques that anyone can follow. Discover how to grow an edible garden with an eye towards beauty, easy care and pleasure. Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of The Complete Kitchen Garden, and other books. In this book, you will find 15 theme gardens, such as the salad lover’s garden, complete with color diagrams and a listing of suggested varieties. Following each plan are recipes for using the produce from that particular garden. Also in the book are many design ideas and illustrations for inspiration.
Ellen is the founder of The Cook’s Garden seed catalog, and her kitchen garden designs and articles have been featured in numerous national magazines. You can find more ideas through her website and blog by visiting ellenogden.com.
Learn about the benefits and beauty of gardening with native plants with Emily DeBolt, owner of Fiddlehead Creek Native Plant Nursery. In her presentation– Go Native: An Introduction to Gardening with Native Plants – you will discover which plants are great for monarchs and other pollinators and which plants can grow in tough sites such as clay soils or dry shade. Emily will introduce some of the native plants available for gardening, the benefits of gardening with natives, and share some of her favorite natives from her own gardens. Emily has years of experience working with natives as alternatives to invasives, as well as natives for rain gardens, pollinator gardens, shoreline buffers, and more. Emily and her husband Chris started Fiddlehead Creek Nursery in Fort Ann, New York in 2009 because of her love for native plants and her desire to make them more available in everyday landscapes (fiddleheadcreek.com).
Bats are an important part of our ecosystems and are huge catchers of insects. Yet in recent years, their numbers have been threatened by several causes. What are the ten facts that everyone should know about bats and why should gardeners care? In Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Bats, Vermont’s only licensed bat rehabilitator and president of the Vermont Bat Center will share the fascinating world of bats, their amazing abilities, the danger bats now face from an invasion, the consequences of the declining bat populations, and how you can help them. Barry Genzlinger has been a bat advocate since 1995, has made over 4,000 bat houses, worked with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department since the early 2000s, and has rescued, rehabilitated, and released hundreds of Vermont bats (vermontbatcenter.org).
There will be time for you to meet with other gardeners, have questions answered by speakers, buy books and have them signed, and tour Fort Ticonderoga’s King’s Garden at the end of the symposium with Stuart Lilie, Vice President of Public History and Operations. On this tour, you will learn a history of the King’s Garden, and get an update on restoration of the 1826 Pell home, the Pavilion.
A brochure with the complete schedule and registration form is available on Fort Ticonderoga’s website at www.fortticonderoga.org by selecting “Education” and then “Workshops and Seminars” on the drop-down menu. A printed copy is also available upon request by calling 518-585-2821.
The Garden & Landscape Symposium is one of numerous opportunities for continuing education for the public at Fort Ticonderoga in 2018. You can learn more about these programs, including the annual War College of the Seven Years’ War and the Seminar on the American Revolution, by visiting Fort Ticonderoga’s website at www.fortticonderoga.org and selecting “Education.”
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