Register Now For Miami Valley Gardening Conference

MetroPark’s annual kick-off to the spring gardening season will take place Saturday March 1st at the Sincalir Ponitz Center.  This year’s theme is Gardening for the next decade.  Enjoy breakout sessions led by local experts on Plant Selections for the future, Proactive choices for a better environment, Playing in the garden, and The Most Beautiful Garden is YOUR Garden. Fee includes breakfast snack, full lunch (vegetarian options available), breaks and covered parking. Online registration $50. Walk-in and phone registration $60.

Walk-in late registration will be accepted on the day of the conference for $60. Please call 277-6545 for information.

Keynote speaker Jeff Lowenfels is an international proponent of organics and the award winning author of Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to The Soil Food Web. His weekly column has appeared in theAnchorage Daily News for over 37 years and he was once an Editor of the Harvard Lampoon, America’s oldest humor magazine, so his talks are alway humorous and witty and entertaining. He is also a reformed lawyer; the combination of garden writing and law earning him the moniker: America’s Dirtiest Lawyer. In addition to writing, Jeff hosted a statewide tv gardening show. Today, Jeff has a popular radio show.

 

Thomas Rainer, the second keynote speaker is a registered landscape architect, teacher, and writer living in Arlington, Virginia.Thomas is a passionate advocate for an ecologically expressive design aesthetic that does not imitate nature, but interprets it. His planting designs focus on creating a modern expression of the ground plane with a largely native palette of perennials and grasses. Thomas has designed landscapes for the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and The New York Botanical Garden, as well as over 100 gardens from Maine to Florida.

SCHEDULE:
7:30 am	Check-in, late registration and refreshments
8:05 am	Welcome Carrie Scarff, Deputy Director, Five Rivers MetroParks Betty Hoevel, Education Supervisor, Five Rivers MetroParks
8:15 am	Morning Keynote: Jeff Lowenfels “Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition”
9:20 am	Session One: Plant Selections for the future
	Tomatoes: Matt Kleinhenz, OSU Extension vegetable specialist Geraniums and begonias: Duke Stockslager, Stockslager’s Greenhouse and Garden Center Maples: Tomasz Przepiorkowski, Studebaker Nurseries
10:15 am	Morning Break — door prizes, demos, book signing
10:40 am	Session Two: Proactive choices for a better environment
	New importance of the suburban lot: Art Trese, Ohio University Turf alternatives : Cliff Deitering, President, Wengerlawn Nursery Co. Pests and diseases–is anything safe?: Joe Boggs, OSU
11:35 am	Lunch — demos, door prizes, Great Hall
1:00 pm	Afternoon Keynote: Thomas Rainer: “Sustainable Garden Design”
2:05 pm	Session Three: Playing in the garden
	Healthy garden, healthy gardener: Stacey Walters-Best, Garden for the Health of It Plant a cocktail: Tim Pritchard, Five Rivers MetroParks Fun Plants, Fun Things in the Garden: Teresa Jones, Meadow View Growers
3:00 pm	Afternoon Break
	Book signing, door prizes, previews of 2014 FRMP programs
3:35 pm	Session Four: Laura Deeter: “The Most Beautiful Garden is YOUR Garden”
	Great gardens are always impressive, and with help from Laura’s great skill and insights, you can create your own most beautiful garden and have fun doing it!
4:30 pm	Pick up door prizes