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Event
Master Gardener Foundation of San Juan County Sustainable Gardening in Your Own Backyard 2014 Spring Gardening Workshop
Sustainable Gardening in Your Own Backyard is a day long event featuring Erin Benzakein! The workshop also features 15 small sessions to learn sustainable gardening techniques you can put to use in your own backyard, including: how to build a rain garden, create and manage a beautiful garden, identify and control noxious weeds and insects, attract and support pollinators and preserve your garden bounty!
Keynote Speaker Erin Benzakein
Sustainable Flower Growing-Farm to Bouquet
Erin Benzakein is a self-taught organic farmer, floral designer and writer. From a small plot of land, she and her family are growing some of the most exquisite flowers on earth! She trials every variety they grow and shares her findings in a monthly column in Growing for Market magazine. Her popular blog features original photography and chronicles the daily life of her family-owned flower-centered business, Floret. Cut flowers grown on Erin's farm appear in Whole Foods grocery stores throughout Washington, Oregon, and Canada. She teaches floral design and small-scale flower farming workshops nationwide. Her work has been featured in Sunset, Country Gardens, Victoria, and Design Sponge. Erin lives in Washington's Skagit valley and longs to make a difference, truly believing that flowers can change the world.
Erin will tell us about her organic flower farm in the Skagit valley. Local, seasonal and sustainable flowers are raised without chemicals, watered responsibly and often grow amongst native plants. Sustainable flowers reduce the cost and carbon footprint of factory flowers grown many miles and even continents away, and contribute to the local economies in which they are grown. The practices used to grow them are safe for the earth and allow for beautiful fresh blooms that move from field to market in hours to a few days instead of weeks.
Many well known and excellent speakers are confirmed. Topics include:
-Keeping up with the Garden - June Davis, CPH
-Backyard Bounty: Grow the Most Food All Year Round
Linda Gilkeson, Ph.D
-Restoring San Juan Wildflowers - Eliza Habegger
-Pollination Ecology - Tim Lawrence, PhD
-Small Rain-garden Design for the Home - Linda
Lyshall, PhD
-Using IPM in the fight against Tent Caterpillars -
Sharon Collman, PhD
-Tomato Secrets Growing and Actually Getting Ripe
Tomatoes in the NW - Danah Feldman
-Bitters, Shrubs and Switchels; Making Delicious Elixirs
From Your Garden - Kari Koski
-Sustainable Hardscaping - Michael Sterling
-Drawing and Painting Wildflowers throughout the
West - Linda Ann Vorobik, PhD
-The Menace of Exotic Insects - Sharon Collman, PhD
-A Cottage Garden through the Seasons - Margaret
Payne
-Preserving your Bounty - Elizabeth Simpson
-The Conservation of Bees and Alternate Pollinators -
Evan A Sugden, PhD
-Noxious Weeds and other Invasive Plants- The
Gardeners' Role - Jane Wentworth, MS
Raffle
Purchase raffle tickets on-site ( $1 per ticket) and win unique garden art and supplies!
Preliminary Schedule
9:00 -10:15am
Keynote - Sustainable Flower Growing from Farm to Bouquet Erin Benzakein Floret Farms
10:30 -11:45 am
-Keeping up in the Garden/ June Davis
-Backyard Bounty Grow the Most Food All Year
Round/Linda Gilkeson, PhD
-Restoring San Juan Wildflowers/Eliza Habegger
-Pollination Ecology/Tim Lawrence, PhD
-Small Rain-garden Design for the Home/Linda
Lyshall, PhD
11:45-12:30 Lunch
You can order lunch as an option with the ticket..
The Veggie Stromboli Lunch Box will have a veggie, pesto and mozzarella Stromboli, fruit, a cookie, and drink for $11.00
or
The 3 Meat Stromboli Lunch Box will have sausage, pepperoni and canadian bacon stromboli with fruit, a cookie, and drink $11.00
12:45-2:00
-Using IPM in the Fight against Tent
Caterpillars/Sharon Collman, PhD
-Tomato Secrets Growing and Actually Getting Ripe
Tomatoes in the NW/Danah Feldman
-Bitters, Shrubs and Switchels: Making Delicious Elixirs
from your Garden/Kari Koski
-Sustainable Hardscaping /Michael Sterling
-Drawing and Painting Wildflowers throughout the
West/Linda Vorobik, PhD
2:15-3:30
-The Menace of Exotic Insects/Sharon Collman, PhD
-A Cottage Garden through the Seasons/Margaret
Payne
-Preserving your Bounty/Elizabeth Simpson
-The Conservation of Bees and Alternate
Pollinators/Evan Sugden, PhD
-Noxious Weeds and other Invasive Plants The
Gardeners' Role/Jane Wentworth, MS
3:30 Adjourn
Speaker Biographies and Presentation Descriptions
Erin Benzakein
Sustainable Flower Growing Farm to Bouquet
Erin Benzakein is a self-taught organic farmer, floral designer and writer. From a small plot of land, she and her family are growing some of the most exquisite flowers on earth! She trials every variety they grow and shares her findings in a monthly column in Growing for Market magazine. Her popular blog features original photography and chronicles the daily life of her family-owned flower-centered business, Floret. Cut flowers grown on Erin's farm appear in Whole Foods grocery stores throughout Washington, Oregon, and Canada. She teaches floral design and small-scale flower farming workshops nationwide. Her work has been featured in Sunset, Country Gardens, Victoria, and Design Sponge. Erin lives in Washington's Skagit valley and longs to make a difference, truly believing that flowers can change the world.
Erin will tell us about her organic flower farm in the Skagit valley. Local, seasonal and sustainable flowers are raised without chemicals, watered responsibly and often grow amongst native plants. Sustainable flowers reduce the cost and carbon footprint of factory flowers grown many miles and even continents away, and contribute to the local economies in which they are grown. The practices used to grow them are safe for the earth and allow for beautiful fresh blooms that move from field to market in hours to a few days instead of weeks.
June Davis
Keeping up with the Garden
Ms. Davis is a certified Professional Horticulturist (CPH). She previously worked as the sales manager for Skagit Gardens, a wholesale nursery in Mount Vernon where she worked with breeders to bring high performing, but often times high maintenance, plants to market. She retired a few years ago to the south end of Whidbey Island to pursue her gardening passion only to realize that although she still loved gardening, and gardens, she no longer desired to spend a lot of time fussing with plants that require high maintenance. She still wanted a lovely garden so began the process of building a garden that requires less work and allows for more time enjoying the company of friends and family.
Keeping Up in the Garden is for the passionate gardener who wants to continue to enjoy a lovely garden without all the intense work that it often requires. Ms. Davis' presentation will introduce many high-performing plants and ways to combine them to create a handsome garden without a lot of fussy work. The many trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials and ground covers that don't need staking, heavy pruning, or perfect conditions to perform well in our gardens will be discussed.
Linda Gilkeson, Ph.D.
Backyard Bounty: Grow the Most Food All Year Round
Linda earned a Ph.D. in Entomology from McGill University in 1986, and then moved to British Columbia to work for a company that produces biological controls. From 1991 to 2002 she worked for the provincial government, promoting programs to reduce and eliminate pesticide use. She was head of the provincial State of Environment Reporting Unit for the next six years, then the Executive Director of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy until the end of 2011. Linda now devotes her time to writing, teaching and consulting.
Linda will describe her methods for enjoying home grown vegetables in the PNW all year long. She will discuss her low maintenance vegetable gardening methods, expose common gardening myths, and share her secrets for successful winter gardening.
Eliza Habegger
Restoring San Juan Wildflowers
Eliza's earliest memories include grazing in her grandparents' vegetable garden on Waldron Island and learning the names of the wild plants in the woods nearby. She has applied her lifelong love of plants to a career stewarding native plants and habitats. With a bachelor's degree in botany from Cornell University, she has worked at the New York Botanical Garden, The Nature Conservancy, and, for the past 10 years, the San Juan County Land Bank. Eliza lives on San Juan Island with her husband and son. She tends an ever-expanding vegetable garden, berry patch, and orchard.
Ms. Habeggar's presentation will introduce many little-known and delightful local wildflowers, discuss their propagation, and explore ways that gardeners can help restore our unique island flora.
Tim Lawrence, PhD
Pollination Ecology
Tim Lawrence is the Island County WSU Extension Director, having worked previously as a Research Associate in WSU's Honey Bee Health Program. In addition to expertise with honey bees based largely on working 20 years as a commercial beekeeper, Tim is knowledgeable in water quality, storm water, ecological restoration, and small-scale agriculture issues. Tim's extensive work background is complemented with a PhD in environmental science, an MS in agricultural economics and rural sociology and a BS in agriculture and pomology.
Honeybees are one of the best pollinators. Colony collapse disorder is a serious concern and identifying alternative pollinators is also a challenge with many native bees also experiencing declines. Dr. Lawrence will explore the current state of pollinators, attracting insects to flowers and what can be done to improve pollination services.
Linda Lyshall, PhD
Small Rain-garden Design for the Home
Linda Lyshall is the District Manager for the San Juan Islands Conservation District. She promotes on-site storm water management utilizing low impact development techniques. Her educational background includes degrees in Environmental Studies, Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management, and Leadership and Change. She enjoys taking in the beauty of the San Juans, hiking the local trails, and getting out on the water as much as possible.
Dr. Lyshall will present an overview of hydrology and storm water runoff with the discussion to include the purpose of rain gardens and how to site, design, plant, maintain and build a rain garden.
Sharon Collman, PhD
Using IPM in the fight against Tent Caterpillars
Sharon Collman has been employed with WSU Extension since 1973 and has worked for WSU as a horticulture and pest management educator in King and Snohomish Counties and as a liaison to EPA working on Water Quality and IPM issues. One of her early projects as Extension Educator for WSU Extension was organizing the first pilot Master Gardener programs in King and Pierce counties, which have now grown to over 1,500 volunteers throughout the state. She is also adjunct faculty at WSU Department of Entomology.
Dr. Collman will discuss the biology and life cycle of tent caterpillars and physical and biological methods to control them.
Danah Feldman
Tomato Secrets Growing and Actually Getting Ripe Tomatoes in the NW
Danah Feldman has been growing food organically for over 30 years on Lopez Island. Her Lopez home has a productive vegetable garden, mature orchard, over 8000 square feet of perennial flowerbeds and a wide variety of ornamental trees and shrubs, with three ponds and a greenhouse.
Danah will share her secrets for growing AND ripening tomatoes in the NW. Danah produces enough tomatoes to eat them fresh daily during the growing season, and plenty to roast, dry, and sauce to use in abundance during the rest of the year.
Kari Koski
Bitters, Shrubs and Switchels; Making Delicious Elixirs From Your Garden
Kari Koski happened upon the San Juan Islands in June of 1992 on her way home to Juneau, Alaska and stayed. She started volunteering at The Whale Museum, which turned into a noted career as the museum's Soundwatch program director. Kari is currently working to bring marine sciences to San Juan Island school children and at the San Juan Island Distillery as an apprentice distiller, bringing gin to island adults! Kari is most happy when concocting delicious elixirs from the bounty of island plants and seaweeds with her new business, Kari's Island Elixirs.
"Shrubs, Switchels, and Bitters" will give you a new idea of what a shrub is. You may think you know what a shrub is, but think again, and this time think fruit, vinegar, sugar, something to sip, infuse in a carbonated beverage, or used in a dessert.
Michael Sterling
Sustainable Hardscaping
Michael Sterling of STERLINGSCAPES is a Master Gardener and landscaper on Orcas Island. He has enhanced the natural, pristine beauty of scores of Orcas Island landscapes over the past 25 years with sustainable land use practices, unique rock work, and stunning water features.
Michael will present his techniques for creating a beautiful landscape that incorporates hardscape into the native environment with attention to the islands' fragile ecosystem. He will emphasize landscaping with native and specialty rock with attention to low maintenance and sustainability.
Linda Ann Vorobik, PhD
Drawing and Painting Wildflowers throughout the West
Linda Ann Vorobik, botanist, editor, and illustrator of numerous botanical publications holds a PhD from the University of Oregon, and conducts field research and teaches in the Siskiyou Mountains and at other sites. She currently lives on Lopez Island and visits Seattle and Berkeley on a regular basis, where she is affiliated with the herbaria at the University of California and the University of Washington, respectively.
Her presentation includes images of landscapes, plants and botanical art created from travels throughout Washington, Oregon and California.
Sharon Collman, PhD
The Menace of Exotic Insects
Sharon Collman has been employed with WSU Extension since 1973 and has worked for WSU as a horticulture and pest management educator in King and Snohomish Counties and as a liaison to EPA working on Water Quality and IPM issues. One of her early projects as Extension Educator for WSU Extension was organizing the first pilot Master Gardener programs in King and Pierce counties, which have now grown to over 1,500 volunteers throughout the state. She is also adjunct faculty at WSU Department of Entomology.
Exotic and invasive insects will be described, shown and discussed with attention to their life cycle, effects on plants and the environment and their control.
Margaret Payne
A Cottage Garden through the Seasons
Margaret has been gardening obsessively in Washington State for nearly 40 years. Her gardens in (formerly) Gig Harbor and, for the last six years, on Orcas are noted for their joy in plants and artful, informal design. Her focus is perennial flowers, vegetables, and fruit, using organic management. She emphasizes low-cost design and planting, so everyone, regardless of income, can play!
Margaret will share photographs of her charming all season garden. She will describe how she designed and planted her garden with regard to beauty, cost and low maintenance.
Elizabeth Simpson
Preserving your Bounty
Elizabeth Simpson has been preserving food since she was tall enough to stand at the kitchen sink and peel peaches for canning with her mother's guidance. Since moving to Lopez and learning to preserve food for her family and CSA members, she has branched into freezing, drying, and canning fruits and vegetables; making fruit juice, jams, and vegetable sauces; salting meat, baking bread, fermenting various foods, and making cheeses. She teaches these methods to a high school farm class, and to participants in workshops held on the farm.
Elizabeth will discuss preserving your vegetables and fruit including freezing, drying, fermenting and canning. She will also share her recipes for juices, jams, and sauces.
Evan A Sugden, PhD
The Conservation of Bees and Alternate Pollinators
Dr. Sugden is currently an instructor in the Biology Department of the University of Washington where he teaches entomology, beekeeping and ecology. His business, Entomo-Logic, specializes in solitary bee production and consulting. He has worked for the USDA, California Department of Food and Agriculture, and for a private overseas development company.
Dr. Sugdan will discuss the diversity and importance of bees, specifically honey bees, native bees, bumble bees, and alternative pollinators. He will also address the attraction and conservation of all of these valuable pollinators.
Jane Wentworth, MS
Noxious Weeds and other Invasive Plants- The Gardeners' Role
Jane Wentworth is a Master Gardener with a Masters degree in Botany. She specializes in identifying and promoting native plants, and in the prevention and management of invasive plants. She has lived very part time on Stuart Island since 1998 and now lives on San Juan Island.
Jane will discuss the definition of a noxious weed and/or invasive plant and why gardeners should care. She will clarify the gardeners' role in managing this problem since many of these plants begin as ornamentals that gardeners unknowingly place in their garden. Particular attention to San Juan County will be discussed with tips to identify and control these undesirable plants locally.
Location
Sustainable Gardening for your Own Back Yard will be held at Friday Harbor Middle School, a short walk or ride from the Friday Harbor, San Juan Island ferry dock. Catch the San Juan Island ferry in Anacortes, WA and enjoy a scenic cruise through the beautiful San Juan Islands on your way to a day of gardening adventure. After the workshop, extend your stay on the island by staying overnight. Stroll through the art galleries, bookstores, and antique shops of Friday Harbor, visit Roche Harbor, a world class boating destination, visit San Juan National Park, stop for a cafe lunch or enjoy a gourmet dinner overlooking the harbor. Visit the Washington State Ferry website: http://www.wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/ for the latest ferry schedules. For information on lodging visit the San Juan Islands travel guide: http://www.visitsanjuans.com/accomodations.
This workshop is held in coordination with Washington State University Extension. WSU Extension programs are available to all without discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through you local WSU Extension office.
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LocationFriday Harbor Middle School (View)
85 Blair Ave
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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Contact
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