The Providential Gardener

It's Flower Show Time Again!

 The theme of the 2009 RI Spring Flower & Garden Show is Gardens of the World, and designers have prepared a trip that doesn't require security checks in airports to see and at a much lower expense than a plane ride! There is an English garden and a South American garden, for instance, that I especially enjoyed, but for me, I'm with Dorothy ~ "There's no place like home" ~ I love the RI Wild Plant Society's amazing recreation of our own wild "garden," namely the woodlands of beautiful Rhode Island.

The day before the show, I went to the Convention Center to check it out. Here is the lowdown, so you will be oriented before you go:

Besides the gardens themselves in the Exhibition Hall, there are many other reasons to go to the RI Spring Flower & Garden Show, not least of which are the outstanding speakers and demos. FYI, these events are on the 5th Floor along with children's activities. I've made a special calendar for the Flower Show on What Grows On in RI, which may help you plan your trip.

CHILDREN''S ACTIVITIES are on opposite ends of the 5th Floor. The Magic and Story Times for kids are in the Rotunda, and the Wall Mural for kids is supposed to be on the opposite end of 5th floor near where 93.3 Coast FM will be.

BE SURE TO GO TO THE 5th FLOOR! Nonprofit tables with loads of gardening brochures and advice, are up there. You'll find RI DEM, URI Master Gardeners (who will answer your gardening questions), Toxics Information Project, RI Wild Plant Society, RI Rose Society, Biomes, and New England Carnivorous Plant Society in the middle of the 5th floor, near the fabulous gardening book store (run by the Other Tiger Bookstore of Westerly) and the Food Court. As you face the Food Court, the lectures will be in the hall to your LEFT, and the demos in the hall to your RIGHT.

P.S. In the lower left corner of the English Garden photo in this post, I tried to get some of the moss that the designers put between the paving stones. It looks like the moss has been there for ever! But it will be all gone by Monday morning, so make some time to THINK SPRING and see the show!

Newport Tree Society Tree Sale

Everyone who loves trees will be interested in seeing the Newport Tree Society's list of Specimen Trees for sale this year.

They are taking orders now, and you may find more information on their website and at their lecture, Planting Trees in Newport: Sustaining our Unique Urban Forest, on January 23, 2008.

Here's the Tree_Sale_Order_Form.

Sustainable Landscapes

The RI chapter of the American Institute of Architects extends an invitation to attend a lecture and roundtable discussion this Thursday, August 16, 2007, on Sustainable Landscapes This is part of the AIAri Committee on the Environment "Design Matters" Roundtable Series. The event is from 6pm to 7:30 at the organization's office, 158 Washington Street Providence, Rhode Island. Admission is free!

Moderated by Derek Bradford, the discussion includes

• Will Gates: "Can a sustainable landscape meet the public's culturally ingrained expectations for aesthetics?
• Ron Henderson: Integrating urban landscapes and ecology
• Louis Raymond: Growing the community, greening the city: Allotment gardens in Providence

Architects get continuing education credit for attending. And remember, this is also the monthly Gallery Night in Providence so you can make a whole evening of it.

 

Veggie Open House on August 11

From the URI Master Gardeners:

Save the date of August 11, 10am to 2pm!!

The URI Master Gardeners will be hosting a free Veggie Open House for the public at URI's East Farm on Route 138. MG's and their veggie gardener friends are invited. Please pass the word to friends, neighbors and family. It promises to be a great opportunity to learn tons about vegetable gardening from the Masters. The Program includes:

• Cooking Demos ~Emphasis on veggies/continuous demos
• Handouts: veggie recipes submitted by MGs
• Watering Demos
  • Drip irrigation techniques
  • Alternative to drip
  • Rain barrels
• Soil testing service
• Composting Demo
• No-till demo
• Ask a Master Gardener Booth
• General garden tour
• Plant-a-Row
• Possible tour of farm if there is a sizable number of interested visitors

Smith's Castle Cutting Garden

Master Gardener, Cheryl Caldwell will give a free lecture on the Cutting Garden at Smith’s Castle on Saturday, July 14 at 10:00.  For reservations call Smith’s Castle at 294-3521.

Ms. Cadwell brings decades of “ down-in-the-dirt” experience to gardening. Her educational background (B.S. Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut; M.A. University of Rhode Island; member of URI Master Gardener Hall of Fame; certificate work through Arnold Arboretum) represents only a small part of her gardening expertise.  Every aspect of gardening has fascinated her and been explored with a scholarly enthusiasm and lots of practical application. For over three decades, she has shared this knowledge by giving gardening lectures; workshops and presenting advanced horticultural education courses for the URI Master Gardeners and other horticultural groups.

Ms. Cadwell has written the URI Cooperative Extension's weekly garden column GreenSource, since 1998, Ms. Cadwell brings horticultural science, practical experience and a sense of humor together to create this popular column.  She has also written articles for several other newspapers and magazines.

RI's Women Gardeners

"Rhode Island's Women Gardeners and the English Idyll" is the spring program in the Historic Knight Estate Education Series at CCRI in Warwick, Sunday, May 20, 2007, at 1:00pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Lynn M. Halmi, Preservation Coordinator, Knight Estate Restoration, sent a "save the date" notice of this meeting and added the following details: