Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Gardening with Natives Workshop, Update

How cool is this. Here is the updated program (In no particular order) from Catherine Cain president of the Calypso Chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society:

"Local Gardener's Favorite Native in Their Garden" Karen Porter, Pipestone

"Developing a Garden Blog" Catherine Cain, Glen

“Native Plant Garden Design and Installation” Kathy Settevendemie, Potomac

“Wildlife Gardening” me, Missoula

Plus: Heirloom vegetable & flower seeds, native plant seed packets, books, "Bee Motels" and native plants for sale

The whole event looks great, but one thing that really caught my eye is that Catherine is giving a talk at this workshop on how to start a garden blog! That is so cool and progressive. I have always thought that a place like Montana, especially more rural areas of Montana (and for those reading this outside of Montana, that might sound redundant), garden blogs are wonderful tools to share what is going on in your garden. In wide-open Montana, it's not always as easy as leaning over the fence to talk to your neighbor and compare garden notes... and that's a big part of enjoying gardening.

I am really impressed that the Calypso Chapter is taking on this topic, especially since many chapters don’t maintain their websites and haven't embraced the “new” social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs for sharing information, interacting with members and recruiting new members. It seems like recruiting new members is a big issue facing many chapters.

Like I mentioned in the last post, the event last year was really well attended and there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm. I am looking forward to this years’ program even more.

I hope to see you there.

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