Sun Citians, how do your gardens grow?
Do you want to know what the right-size flower garden is? Is your apple tree black? Want to know about hydrangeas, hibiscus, roses, petunias, tomatoes? Diseases that threaten plants? Want to know more about permaculture, creating terrariums, cooking with herbs, dragonflies, vegetable gardening, new plants for 2016? Garden design?
Master gardeners seen here will be on hand at Garden Fest to answers all your gardening questions. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
In McHenry County, there may be a master gardener near you, who can help answer some of the above questions, and more.
Or you can go to see them at their annual Gardenfest on Saturday, April 9, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. It will be presented by University of Illinois Extension McHenry County Master Gardeners, at McHenry County College on Route 14 in Crystal Lake. Keynote speaker will be author Kerry Ann Mendez, who has written three books on gardening. She lives and gardens in Maine, and specializes in low-maintenance garden and landscape design, incorporating perennials, ornamental grasses, flowering shrubs, bulbs, and no-fuss annuals. Cost is $45. Advance registration closes on March 29.
More than two-dozen vendors will display their products and conduct demonstrations. Some of the subjects are pottery and clay, honeybee management, weaving, growing trees and shrubs, and rain barrels. Gardenfest also offers more than 30 seminars and workshops in four 75-minute sessions all day. Lunch is included in the MCC cafeteria. It will all be offered under a theme of “think spring.”
According to county master gardener Sandy Drevalas, there are more than half-dozen master gardeners living in Sun City. They are Ed Schuckert, Kathy Render, Katy Spooner, Rick and Marilee Payne, Kathy Uszler, Ed Dziubinski, Pat Lau, and Marge and Walt Sterrett.
To gain the designation as a master gardener, you have to attend at least 50 hours of classes in your first year of activity and pass exams. In the second year, you have to take 10 additional hours of classes, and you have to “give back” by conducting demonstrations and question-and-answer sessions for residents in your community. According to a county press release, master gardeners complete rigorous training in horticulture and botany and volunteer a minimum of 30 hours per year.
“The mission of an extension master gardener is to share unbiased, reliable, research-based information with home landscapers and gardeners, as well as encourage people to enjoy gardening and vegetable growing,” the organization says.
