Gardener State: Home Gardeners School returns to Rutgers March 23
The annual Rutgers Home Gardeners School, offering “something for everyone,” will be held at on Saturday, March 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year’s program consists of 40 workshop sessions covering a wide array of horticulture topics. Attendees can create a personalized schedule for a fun day of learning by selecting the workshops that are most relevant to their gardening interests and skill level.
Expert speakers from commercial horticulture and landscape design firms, as well as faculty and staff from Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE), will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from highly respected professionals with a wealth of experience. These instructors will cover a whole host of practical topics designed to prepare participants and their gardens for the spring and beyond, including landscape design, common problems and solutions, annuals, perennials, vegetables and herbs, bees, pruning, best management practices, freezing and canning techniques and much more.
With 16 new and two revised workshops, there are great options for both new and returning participants. The “Berrymania” session will appeal to those interested in berry planting and maintenance, while history buffs will appreciate the content covered in “Historical Uses of Everyday Plants.” A new, hands-on session, “Creating a Living Frame with Succulents,” will provide attendees with the opportunity to create an attractive living masterpiece, which they can bring home.
Other new workshops include “Starting a Sustainable Small Farm in Your Yard: How to Grow from Here,” “Gardening for Winter Interest,” “Nativelicious: Gardening with Ornamental and Edible Native Plants,” “How to Use Aquatic Plants in Your Pond and Garden” and “Growing Herbs in Containers.”
READ: Gardener State: Green opportunities in New Jersey to start the year
The registration fee for this event is $90 but a special early registration discounted price of $75 is being offered through Thursday, Feb. 28. Rutgers Master Gardener volunteers, who produce a certificate, may register for a fee of $65, also through Thursday, Feb. 28. A boxed lunch for $14 is available when registering or participants may bring their own lunch and refreshments. Pre-registration is strongly recommended as some workshops will be sold out very early.
Attendees are also encouraged to bring food donations to the event. These items will be distributed to New Jersey families in need through "Rutgers Against Hunger" (RAH) (rah.rutgers.edu), a university-wide initiative working to address hunger across New Jersey.
Participants are also invited to bring donations for Happy Paws Rescue (happypawsrescue.org), a 501c3 organization focused on rescue and adoption in the New Brunswick area, and Scarlet Paws Rescue (scarletpawsanimalwelfare.org), a 501c3 non-profit collaboration of Rutgers staff, faculty, students and community volunteers that rescues stray animals on the Rutgers campus.
For more information or to register for Rutgers Home Gardeners School, visit cpe.rutgers.edu/hgs. Or call the Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education at 848-932-9271, option 2.
New State FFA Advisor named
New Jersey Department of Agriculture Secretary Douglas Fisher announced last week that Erin Noble has been named the new State Program Leader for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Education/State FFA Advisor in New Jersey. Noble has been the State FFA Specialist for the last 11 years for the Department.
“Erin’s experience, knowledge and passion for Ag Education and FFA made her an ideal candidate for this position,” Fisher said. “We know she will continue the high leadership standard that has guided and encouraged the FFA chapters in New Jersey to strive for excellence in all of their endeavors.”
As the State FFA Specialist, Noble planned and conducted statewide FFA events, mentored and coached state FFA officers and provided technical assistance to FFA advisors. At the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in November, Noble won the Outstanding Executive Secretary Award.
“I am extremely excited to shift my focus to providing leadership and coordination for the New Jersey Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Education program and to creating professional development opportunities for ag teachers as well as providing resources for program improvement,” Noble said. “I look forward to being a part of a great future for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Education and FFA in New Jersey.”
New Jersey currently has more than 2,200 FFA members who engage in personal, career, and leadership development activities that challenge them to excel as they develop agricultural skills and competencies for the future. Noble will also be assisting schools with developing CASE, the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education. CASE is an instructional system that provides intense teacher professional development and curriculum that is changing the culture of agriculture programs.
For more information about New Jersey Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Education and the state FFA program, please visit jerseyageducation.nj.gov/.
Nicholas Polanin is associate professor, agricultural agent II, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Cooperative Extension of Somerset County. Email him at polanin@njaes.rutgers.edu.
Read more articles and stay in touch with your local news by clicking here