September is here and gardeners’ thoughts are turning towards wrapping up the harvest and preparing for the winter ahead.
While you’re enjoying the last hurrah of your annuals and the autumnal colors of newly planted chrysanthemums, you might want to consider attending this year’s “A Gathering of Gardeners 2015” – an annual symposium – planned for Saturday, September 12 at the Eisenhart Auditorium of the Rochester Museum and Science Center. This year’s theme is, “Life is a garden…. Dig it!”
Monroe County Cornell Cooperative Extension hosts the event. Horticulture Educator Karen Klingenberger says the Gathering has become a yearly tradition for many.
“It’s the 19th year we’ve been doing it,” she says. “The main focus is education, but it’s a great end-of-season gathering for like-minded gardeners. Everybody comes away enthusiastic and inspired. It’s just a fabulous day.”
Featured speakers this year are horticulturalist and author Jessica Walliser, co-host of KDKA Radio’s “The Organic Gardeners,” and author of books Grow Organic, Good Bug, Bad Bug, and Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden. Additionally, Walliser is a garden columnist and regular contributor to Organic Gardening.
Naomi Brooks is a landscape designer for Verdant Landscapes in the Hudson Valley. She helps to “dream, design, and deliver uncommon outdoor spaces.” Brooks holds certificates in Gardening and Landscape Design from the New York Botanic Garden, where she is an instructor. She has also assisted at the New Moon Nursery, a wholesale propagator of eastern perennials in New Jersey.
The event gets underway at 8 a.m. on September 12 with registration, coffee, raffle ticket sale and the popular “Parking Lot Sale” which is open to the public.
Klingenberger says vendors include local growers who bring a wide variety of plants and garden objects to sell. “Speakers give them plant lists so they have plants in stock which the speakers have talked about,” she says.
Walliser will discuss “Forgotten Garden Combinations,” and “Shade Gardens and Plants,” and Brooks will speak on “Big Ideas for the Littler Landscape,” and “Garden Maintenance for Time-Challenged Gardeners.”
Tickets are $50/person; $45/for Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners and are on sale until September 10. Order on-line through the Monroe County Cornell Cooperative Extension website, http://monroe.cce.cornell.edu/ or by mail using a check and the registration form available on the Gathering of Gardeners website, www.gatheringofgardeners.com.
Klingenburger says any remaining tickets will be available the day of the event on a first-come, first-served basis.
Box lunches are also available for $11. For information visit the Gathering of Gardeners website.
