I Want to See You at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello!

I plan to inspire you to grow some new plants and fungi in your gardens! So join me at my workshop called Unusual Edible Plants and Fungi for Home Gardens on Saturday, September 10 at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello in Charlottesville, VA.

I have a colorful presentation prepared to introduce you to a wide range of plants and fungi, including hops! Yes, you can grow hops in your home garden and I will tell you how.

You will get to see, touch, and sample some of these items, too!

I suggest that you order your tickets on-line. This workshop is a premium workshop so you have to order (and pay for) that workshop ticket, too. Consider buying a VIP ticket! There are many workshops, great speakers, book signings, food, music... It is great fun, I promise!
Here are links to the Festival website, my Unusual Plants & Fungi page, and the page for my other workshop on Growing Ginseng and Other Woodland Herbs.

Jeanine Will Be Speaking at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on Nov. 4 and 6

Photo from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens website

This weekend I'm prepping for my presentations at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on November 4 and 6, 2010. 

On Thursday evening, I will be giving a lecture entitled "Exotic and Edible: Unusual Plants and Fungi for Home Gardens".  My objective is to get my audience of gardeners to "think outside the box".  Often when I talk to people about growing something new and different in their gardens, they mention new varieties or unusual forms of a common vegetable, e.g., purple cauliflower or white tomatoes.  In this presentation I want to introduce people to crops they might never have heard of or never thought about growing themselves.  Some of these plants or fungi are easy to grow, but others are challenging and only a few gardeners will be successful producing them.  But what fun, huh?  Wouldn't you like to be the first in your neighborhood growing wasabi, hops, or truffles?

Free Alston Lecture, Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 7 p.m.  No reservations required.

Then on Saturday, I will be offering a full-day workshop on "Growing Your Own Pharmacy".  This will be directed at home gardeners, but people who are interested in perhaps doing this commercially will also gain a lot from the workshop.  There will be several colorful Powerpoint presentations illustrating 20 or more medicinal herbs to grow in the sun and shade and how to grow, harvest, and dry herbs.  There will also be two hands-on activities.  One on making simple tinctures and another on propagating medicinal herbs.  All attendees will go home with "tinctures in process" and several potted plants.

Workshop is Saturday, November 6, 2010 from 10 am to 3 pm with lunch included.  $75 ($65 for garden members).  Reservations are required.  Contact the Botanical Garden directly for that information.

Atlanta Botanical Garden

Now, off to the stores to buy some of my supplies!  This is going to be so much fun!!!

Making Plans for Organic Growers School This Weekend

This weekend is the Organic Growers School and I can't get over how excited I am about it.  I helped start this annual event 17 years ago and I feel like a proud mama every spring.  It has grown and blossomed into an amazing educational conference.  There will be over 60 classes on farming, gardening, cooking, policy making, and sustainable living.  We expect over 1000 people to participate over two days.  I particularly love the tradeshow, the seed swap, and the chance to network with all kinds of amazing people.

Last weekend, my husband made a list of all the seeds we have on hand for this year's garden.  Then we made a list of what we still need and some new things we want to try.  I expect to come home from the Organic Growers School with enough seeds to plant four gardens!  But that's the fun of it, isn't it?  If you want to join us, check out http://organicgrowersschool.org/.