Gardening for Good: Full Circle Gardening is the title and theme of this year’s Connecticut Master Gardener Symposium on March 11, kicking off virtually at 9am.
The importance of gardening and our relationship with nature has come to the forefront during the COVID pandemic as we found ourselves turning to nature and to gardening to center us, for healing, connections, and peace.
Virtual technology will bring us a day filled with national and international experts to challenge us to consider:
-How can we use our spaces to form a deeper relationship with nature?
-How do we design these spaces to reflect our relationship with them and to develop continuity with the natural world?
-How can we appreciate and interact with these spaces year-round?
Speakers include Bill Logan, Ian Stewart, Jeff Lorenz, and Nikki Jabbour.
“Bill” Logan who is a faculty member of the New York Botanical Garden, a certified arborist and award-winning author. We know that a healthy tree canopy, when allowed to thrive, can lead to a positive environment for people, plants and animals. But as we know, tree numbers are shrinking at an alarming rate worldwide, the victims of urban expansion. Bill will challenge our thinking by examining the historical management of trees and tree removal as the beginning of an opportunity for an active relationship to repairing the environment. Bill has spent the last three decades working in and with trees and will share his unique perspective of how we can live with trees to mutual benefit. https://www.williambryantlogan.com/about-contact
The second morning speaker will focus on how our landscape choices impact the natural world. Ian Stewart, PhD has focused his research on how local land management activities are affecting bird numbers and diversity. Ian is currently an Ornithologist at the Delaware Nature Society, studying the effects of non-native plants on birds and a lecturer at Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, DE and received a doctorate in ornithology from the University of Leicester, England. Learn more about Ian It All Adds Up – Interview with Birding Experts Ian Stewart and Charles Shattuck – Delaware Nature Society
Jeff Lorenz will share his experience using native plants to promote connectivity for wildlife and restoring ecosystem function. Jeff is the founder of Refugia Design, an ecological landscape design/build and stewardship firm known for an immersive, naturalistic design aesthetic and meadow expertise. Since 2015, Refugia has designed native landscapes and created an ecological corridor for native plants designed to restore ecosystem function. Jeff Lorenz of Refugia Design — The Native Plant Podcast
Offering a literal interpretation of our theme “Full Circle Gardening, “ gardener and writer Niki Jabbour will describe how she has become a year-round vegetable gardener, despite living in Nova Scotia! The award-winning author of “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener” and “Growing Under Cover” in which she describes her use of cold frames, from cloches to polytunnels will talk about how she extends her growing seasons year-round. You can learn more about Niki in this recent interview by HGTV: https://www.hgtv.com/year-round-gardener-niki-jabbour
For more information, visit the Connecticut Master Gardener website ctmga.org.