Sarah Bailey
Putting Your Garden to Bed – Re-thinking the Ritual
Oct. 16, 2025, 7pm
On Zoom and in person at Elmwood Community Center
1106 New Britain Avenue
West Hartford
Members will receive the Zoom link the Sunday before the talk.
Free for members; $10 for non-members (register here)
Traditionally, the Fall garden to-do list included clearing your garden spaces to the soil line, ostensibly to prevent pests and diseases from overwintering. As we learn more about the complex web of the environment we live in, we are discovering that the traditional “putting the garden to bed” practices can leave our gardens less diverse and robust. There are better steps to take to prepare your garden spaces for the winter and the following growing season—both environmentally and aesthetically.
Sarah Bailey is a Connecticut Certified Horticulturalist and a UConn Extension Advanced Master Gardener. A graduate of the University of Vermont and the UMass Green School, she has worked in the horticultural industry for the last three decades as, variously, a retail nursery manager, a private gardener and garden designer, and a consultant for several landscape firms. She recently retired from both the state coordinator and the Hartford County coordinator positions for the UConn Extension Master Gardener program. She has served on the Board of Directors of the CT Horticultural Society and currently serves on the education committees of both the CT Horticultural Society and the CT Nursery and Landscape Association and is an instructor for the Connecticut Certified Horticulturalist program and the UConn Master Gardener program. Sarah gardens in the northern part of the state under the watchful eye of her current border collie, who digs up mole tunnels for amusement.
Free for members; $10 for non-members (register here)