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.

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.

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.

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.

Common Gardening Mistakes and How to Fix Them We will explore some easy to make, and just as easy to avoid, gardening mistakes. And if we didn’t avoid them, how to remedy the problem.

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.

Demystifying Hydrangeas Some common questions about hydrangeas include what type do I have and how do I prune them? This class will provide some answers.

Everything Asparagus We will discuss what you need to grow asparagus. We cover planting, maintaining, harvesting and the major pest issues.

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.

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. The introductory class covers steps from selecting your garden site through recipes using your homegrown herbs.

Honeybees, the What where and How We all know pollinators are important. How can you make a difference as gardener, as a beekeeper, or as an informed participant?

Houseplants Learn how to select, display, and care for houseplants though the seasons. This class will also cover how to transition, and care for plants you bring in from outside to winter over.

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 gardens require less maintenance than lawns, but they need regular care to look their best and stay healthy. Learn about some of the tasks 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 plants and amazing migration. See a butterfly and chrysalis (hopefully) up close and personal and find out what you can do to help the monarchs.

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.

Plants for Winter Interest What is winter interest and selections of plants that will add winter interest to your landscape?

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.

Shade Pollinator Gardens Worried your yard has too much shade to attract our pollen-loving garden companions? Find out what kinds of plants and habitats will attract helpful pollinators and thrive in the shady parts of your garden.

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.

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 your garden? Learn how with native plants, composting, and rain barrels.

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.

Trees 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.

Victory Gardens in 2021 Create Victory over your fears and improve your health by starting a Victory Garden. We will define Victory Gardens, learn about their history, and explore best practices for starting a vegetable producing Victory Garden.

Wake Up Your Garden Gardeners are always anxious to 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.