Local gardeners have fun while getting information at Gardening Day

By C.J. Marshall (Staff Writer)

Published: March 21, 2010

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TOWANDA - About 100 people with a green thumb showed up Saturday at Towanda High School to take part in the Northern Tier Gardening Day.

The event was sponsored by the Penn State Cooperative Extension, and presented by the PSU Master Gardeners of Bradford County and the PSU Cooperative Extension.

Extension Educator Tom Maloney explained that this is the fifth year the Northern Tier Gardening Day event has been held. The theme this year, was food, and programs provided information on how to best grow vegetables and small fruit, Maloney said. There's been interest among gardeners in growing their own produce to offset the rising cost of food, he said.

"It's been grow fresh, buy fresh, grow local, buy local," Maloney explained.

But food was not the only subject covered during Gardening Day. Andy Brown gave a presentation on "Great Annual Flowers for the Home Garden." The event included a slide show of popular garden plants such as Calibrachoa, Coleus, Impatiens, and the ever-popular Petunia, along with various varieties such as fortuna yellow and supertunia raspberry blast.

"Every one of these is available at your local gardening center," Brown explained during the show.

Another popular class, presented by the PSU Master Gardeners, was "Get the Dirt from Master Gardeners," with 10 practical better gardening tips. Carolyn Weathers went over various pruning tools available to gardeners, and spoke on how to use them safely and properly. Guy Abell talked about "Attracting Good Bugs to the Garden," and spoke about how using too much pesticide can have a detrimental affect on producing a good garden.

One of the main speakers of the day was Kathy Demchak, who gave a lecture titled "Strawberries: Their Place in History, the World, and Your Garden." Demchak talked about how strawberries have been known since ancient times, and how the fruit was developed in both the old and new worlds. She talked about the best ways to cultivate strawberries under various conditions, and what kind of challenges a person growing strawberries will face, and how to deal with them.

Other featured speakers included Duane Campbell, whose "Vegetables 102" lecture covered vegetables for the gardener who is ready for more than a couple of tomato plants; Linda Wiles, who spoke about "Creating Your Perennial Flower Border," and John Esslinger, whose "Tree Fruit 101" covered pre-plant considerations, varieties, planting and pollination for apples and pears.

C.J. Marshall can be reached at (570) 265-1630; e-mail: cjmarshall@thedailyreview.com.

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