Wild Ones, which “promotes native landscapes through education, advocacy and collaborative action,” is hosting a webinar on practical and evidence-based strategies for designing and maintaining native plant landscapes that respond to climate impacts like drought, flooding and biodiversity loss.

 

 

Attend and you will discover how ecological landscaping with native plants can make your landscape more resilient and help address the climate crisis. This webinar will highlight practical, evidence-based approaches to designing and maintaining landscapes that build resilience to climate change and support native biodiversity.

Environmental horticulturist and ecological landscape designer Kim Eierman will be the presenter. 

 

It's slated for Thursday, September 18, at 7 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Central.

 

Register HERE.

Looking to step up your biocontrol program? The University of Connecticut’s Biological Control Conference for Ornamental Growers is always a solid choice. Commercial growers will learn how to properly implement a biocontrol program, discover the latest tools and products, and learn how to train staff to find pests and insects. 

The full-day conference features speakers such as Suzanne "Buglady" Wainwright Evans; grower Chris Schlegal from D.S. Cole Growers; Dr. Michelle Jones from The Ohio State University; Dr. Michael Brownbridge from BioWorks; Doug Barrow from BioBee, Phil Gerry from Koppert and Liz Keyser from IPM Labs. 

As a bonus, you can get six pesticide credits from the New England states and Pennsylvania.

 

It's slated for Thursday, September 28 in New Haven, Connecticut.

 

Learn more HERE.

A few weeks ago in GreenTalks, I discussed possibly installing raised beds with mesh wire to keep rodents (voles in particular) out of my vegetables. GreenTalks reader Sky Hoyt of California had a few pieces of advice for me, noting that a former student had tested out this theory with half-inch galvanized hardware cloth.

 

In his trial, the wire failed at the five-year mark.

 

And thus, dear readers, comes my next question: Any advice on the best materials for a wire bottom? Surely someone has experience deterring gophers and voles long-term. EMAIL ME.

Now available for you to participate in: GrowerTalks/Green Profit Salary & Benefits Survey (in partnership with AmericanHort, and with Industry Insights, who’ll be crunching the data for us).
 

We are again partnering with AmericanHort on this decades-old survey to provide you with an even higher-level and more useful tool. Companies like yours that take the survey can better understand salary and benefit trends and see how their businesses compare to other survey participants. The survey includes company demographics, staffing and benefits and salary data on up to 34 different job titles across full-time, part-time and seasonal employees.
 

But in order for us to provide the best data to you, we need you to participate!

You don’t have to be an AmericanHort member to benefit—all survey respondents will get the full report prepared by Industry Insights. And you don’t have to be a certain-size operation—anyone and everyone can participate. Also, if you’ve taken the survey in previous years, some data will automatically be prepopulated for you, saving you time.

 

And, of course, key parts of the data will be published in the December issue of GrowerTalks (January for the retail report in Green Profit).

 

GO HERE to fill out the survey (which is confidentially collected and securely stored by Industry Insights’ professional data team).

The bounty of our high elevation gardens here in Montana has started to roll in.

 

A friend showed up for cocktails with a zucchini in hand. I picked up a neighbor’s dogs for an overnight stay and found her kitchen counter covered in tomatoes and jars of pickles. This particular neighbor gave me nearly all of my tomato starts, and her selection of ripened heirlooms matched mine exactly. It’s also the time of year when we share fish and venison with friends and family.

 

No one ever brings over a bag of tater tots or a spare jar of olives “just because I have extra.” But garden harvests seem to naturally inspire a different kind of communal sharing—one we could all use a little more of in our lives.