Master Gardener Volunteers are available to speak to your group concerning the following topics. Please contact the Lake County Extension office at 440-853-2634 if you would like to schedule a program.
Avoiding Landscape Mistakes - Have you ever noticed how some landscapes grow more beautiful with time, some die, and some become overgrown and unsightly? Planning ahead will help you save time, energy, and money. This class will give you many conditions to consider before you dig. Analyzing your soil, location, light, and purpose before you start will help you avoid disappointment. How and where to start, garden fads, problems, water, mulching, and effects on the environment will be discussed.
Attracting Birds, Bees, and Butterflies - Creating a habitat for other creatures can add another dimension to your garden. Learn what to plant, where to plant it, and how to identify your garden guests.
Basics of Growing Roses - Of the different types of roses available, choose the right plant for you, how to plant it, and how to care for it. Your efforts will be rewarded by healthy plants and blooms.
Beautiful Hanging Baskets - Instruction and demonstration in creating or buying a flowering hanging basket and maintaining it throughout the summer and fall.
Choosing Your Christmas Tree - Spruce, pine, balsam or fir? Fresh cut or balled? How do you make sure it lasts for the entire holiday season? Which makes the best tree for your house? This class will help you answer the questions you have been asking every December.
Choosing Your Christmas Tree and Decorating with Greens - Spruce, pine, balsam or fir? Fresh cut or balled? How do you make sure it lasts for the entire holiday season? Which makes the best tree for your house? This class will help you answer the questions you have been asking every December. We will also show you how to use all the extra boughs to make some easy wreaths and swags.
Composting Don’t Bag It - Don’t throw away all those kitchen scraps! Turn them into gold for your garden! The basics of Backyard Composting are discussed and demonstrated in a simple way to get your started!
Container Gardening - This class will teach you how to get the most from your containers. We will discuss proper planting methods and soil mixes. Learn how to create seasonal displays and proper maintenance of your flower or vegetable container garden.
Deer Oh Deer - A program that addresses the problem of increasing deer herds and the encroachment of development into natural areas. Learn which plants deer love to eat and which ones’ they avoid.
Extending Your Gardening Year - Wouldn’t you love to have home grown tomatoes in March? You can! Learn the basics of Greenhouse, Cold Frame and Tall Tunnel Gardening.
Forcing Bulbs - Enjoy fresh flowers year-round. Learn how to force bulbs and extend your garden magic. This would make a wonderful gift.
Garden Design - Before you start planting, it’s important to do your homework. We will discuss what you should do before you pick up the shovel or buy your plants and show you some of the mistakes you will want to avoid.
Gardens Under Cover: Basics of Mulching - Everything (or nearly everything) you need to know about mulching your gardens.
Green Gardening Makes a Difference - Learn what green gardening means and contributions you can make to the solution.
Good Bug Bad Bug - Before you kill that bug learn whether it is a true garden pest or an insect that is beneficial to your yard.
Herbs 101 - Plan your first herb garden with 10 great, easy to grow herbs. This introductory class will cover steps from selecting your garden site through recipes using your home grown herbs.
Know It Before You Grow It - Learn how to select plants for your landscape. Discover plants you will love and plants to think twice about.
Maintenance of Perennials - Perennial garden require less maintenance than lawns, but they need regular care to look their best and stay healthy. Learn about some of the task that will keep your perennial beds looking beautiful from year to year.
Monarchs - Welcome to the world of the beautiful monarch butterfly! Learn about the monarch’s life cycle, host plant and amazing migration. See a butterfly and chrysalis (hopefully) up close and personal and find out what you can do to help the monarchs.
Native Plants for the Landscape - Why use native plants? Learn about the multi season interest, the wildlife they feed, their adaptability to the local weather extremes, their easy care. Can you use some in your landscape? This power point presentation could help you decide!
Orchids as Houseplants - Most orchids, especially those that are readily available to the home grower, are quite hardy and will reward the new owner by reblooming regularly if proper water, light, temperature, humidity and fertilizer are provided.
Perennials for Continuous Bloom - With careful selection, the perennial garden can bloom from early spring until late fall. This class will show examples that can be used for our area. Some plant combinations will be shown and criteria for effective combinations will be discussed.
Putting the Garden to Bed - Fall clean up, composting, soil testing, amending the soil, mulch for winter protection - all of these activities help your garden have a good winter nap. Pruning will also be reviewed.
Shade Gardening - Shade gardening is an opportunity and a challenge. This approximately one hour presentation will cover some of the fundamentals of shade gardening such as: How to evaluate your site, What things to consider for a shade garden, How to plan for a shade garden, What to consider when selecting plants. The presentation will also review shade plants that bloom in early spring, summer or fall. Many of these are new or unusual plants. Come and learn how you can meet this challenge.
Square Foot Gardening - All you need to know to decide if square foot gardening is for you. We will discuss and show the methods used in setting up the garden, creating the soil needed, sectioning off the garden and the types of plants used to make the most of the space available in your yard.
Starting Seeds - Discover a way to combat the winter blahs and get a head start on spring by starting seeds indoors. This inexpensive hobby can be very rewarding while offering the gardener a larger variety of herbs, annuals, perennials and vegetables than can be found at the local garden center. A small space in the corner of the basement can produce large numbers of plants. You will learn how to get started, what materials are needed, how to select seeds and the requirements for success.
Succulents - An introduction to the care and propagation of succulents; those grown indoors as houseplants and those we grow outdoors. Learn how to successfully bring the non-winter hardy one outside in the spring and back inside for the winter.
Sustainability - What is sustainability? And how can you practice in you garden? Learn how with native plants, composting and rain barrels.
The Where, What, and When of Vegetable Gardening - Planning is key to having a productive vegetable garden. It includes choosing the right location, testing and amending the soil, selecting which vegetables to grow, and knowing when to start plants indoors from seed so you will be ready to move into the garden in the spring.
Tips on Sharing Your Bounty - To keep your perennials healthy, beautiful and protected from disease and insects, you should divide them every 3-4 years. We will show you how to do it.
Tree and Shrubs for the Home Landscape - Overwhelmed by the many choices? Understand the factors to be considered when making selections for your yard, plus learn proper planting techniques for successful results.
Wake Up Your Garden - Gardeners are always anxious get started in the spring. This class is an overview of gardening tasks to be performed. Clean-up, composting, pruning, fertilizing, soil testing, mole problems, and impatient gardeners will be discussed.
Winter Sowing - You don’t have to wait until spring to start your seeds. Learn the techniques of Winter Sowing, a method for starting your seeds in winter, then sitting back to watch them flourish as the snow falls.