Mar 19, 2019 4 min read

Three days after the official start of spring, the Master Gardeners of Greene County are presenting what it calls a “morning of gardening information.” The club is hosting its annual seminar, titled “Cabin Fever Escape.”

Three speakers will give interesting gardening advice to the public in the 4-H Building at the Greene County Fairgrounds starting at 8:45 a.m. Saturday. The cost of the event is $20 per person and registering beforehand is recommended, although walk-ins will also be accepted. Handout materials, door prizes and complimentary morning refreshments will be included.

The first presenters, Bob and Valerie Glister of Clarksville, will discuss how to properly prune and care for apple and peach trees for better production and quality fruit.

“We’ll bring in tree branches to show our audience where the buds are and what to do with them,” Valerie said. “We’re also planning to pass out material on fruit tree pruning.”

Master Gardeners for nine years, the Glisters learned how to tend to fruit trees by attending several programs for commercial growers at local orchards such as Soergel’s in Wexford and McClelland Farms in Peters. These programs were offered by Penn State Extension.

Although the Glisters consider themselves orchard hobbyists, they maintain an orchard of around 200 apple trees with 17 varieties and 16 peach trees with three varieties.

“I attended the programs because I wanted to have the best peaches and apples possible,” Bob said. “I discovered you just can’t let your fruit trees grow wild. For one, scaffold branches have to be trained to maintain a 60-degree angle off the main trunk. In the spring, the trees can also have as much as 500 percent more blossoms than is optimal, so it’s necessary to know how to prune to prevent overbearing.”

At 10 a.m. Jeanette Hartley, gifted support/agriculture educator at Trinity High School in Washington, will discuss the high school’s hydroponic growing system called the Freight Farm, which is a high-tech growing method where vegetables are grown without soil. The fully assembled Freight Farm teaches students to grow food year round and also provides food for the Washington County Food Bank.

Something that flies in the face of popular opinion is an 11 a.m. talk by Candy DeBerry, a biology professor at Washington & Jefferson College. The talk entitled “Nasty Natives? No!” separates myth from fact when considering some native species for inclusion in your garden. DeBerry considers some of these native species ugly, thugs or invasive. Her talk will touch on how to be successful in introducing native plants to gardens and landscapes.

According to Cheryl Brendel, volunteer coordinator for the Greene County Master Gardeners, the Spring Garden Seminars usually draw between 40 and 50 participants. This year, she’s hoping to draw more students who are getting involved in their school’s farming programs.

“Most of our speakers are volunteers,” Brendel said. “Some are chosen because we’ve heard them talk elsewhere. Some we’ve read about in local papers, and some we pick because our attendees request certain topics on the evaluation forms we hand out after the close of the seminars.”

At the event, attendees will be able to compete for small prizes through an herb identification contest. They’ll also be able to purchase a soil testing kit for $9 and buy tickets for a silent auction of gardening themed items and plants.

Currently, the Master Gardeners of Greene County has 14 members, and all are volunteers. In the fall, organizers are planning to start a new series of Master Gardening classes for people who’d like to be certified.

In addition to answering gardening questions for the public on the phone, the Master Gardeners club also goes out into the community to present gardening programs.

“We like to focus on kids so they can learn where their food comes from,” Brendel said. “For the last two summers, for instance, we went into the Bowlby Library in Waynesburg as part of the Summer Reading Program kickoff and showed the kids how to plant yellow bean. Many of them didn’t even know yellow beans existed, and it sparked an interest in them to grow their own.”

Those wanting to preregister for this year’s seminar can do so over the phone, toll free, at 877-345-0691 or online at www.extension.psu.edu. For more information on the Mater Gardener Program, email Brendel at ckb5569@psu.edu.