Win a Backyard Greenhouse at Garden Gathering
Contact: Gleason Gray, 942-7396 or 1-800-287-1485
ORONO — Have you ever wished Maine’s growing season was longer? Learn how to extend it during the Garden Gathering at UMaine’s Rogers Farm on August 20. Master gardener Elliott Scott will feature a “how to” session on building a backyard greenhouse, constructing an 8 ft x 8 ft. greenhouse during his workshop. The finished product will be raffled off at the end of the day. Raffle tickets will be on sale for $1 each.
Scott will also demonstrate how to make a simple cold frame suitable for growing late-season crops, or for wintering over plants marginally hardy in Maine’s zone 4/5 climate. Participants in the season-extender workshop will be given plans, costs and specs for both the greenhouse and cold frame. “So even if you don’t win the greenhouse you can be a winner by extending the season a couple of months. Imagine home-grown lettuce with Thanksgiving dinner” Scott says.
Scott is also holding a workshop on making and using incense. The idea for the session grew out of Scott’s fledgling business Incense Man, where he offers scents “for the magical and the mundane.” For demonstration purposes on August 20, he will use lavender as a base for his on-the-spot created incense.
In another hands-on workshop offered by master gardeners Pru Betterly and Roberta Lobo, participants will learn how to mold hypertufa, a mixture of Portland cement and several other easily obtainable materials, into unique and affordable planters. The method was developed for gardeners who wanted planters resembling old English watering troughs without paying the greatly inflated prices charged for originals. According to Betterly, “It’s a lot of fun, sort of like making mud pies—only you come out with something attractive and useful instead of just a pile of dried mud.”
Another craft-based workshop is making tussie mussies, back this year by popular demand. The presenter will again be master gardener and craftsperson Lydia Mussulman. Some sources say tussie mussies were first made by Victorian ladies and fitted in nicely with that age’s obsession with sending secret messages via flowers. Others believe these elegant bouquets are direct descendants of the Elizabethan “posey,” a gathering of flowers kept in the hand, ready to be held to one’s nose to ameliorate the unpleasant odors which were all too common.
“Tussie mussies are so pretty and sweet, and so easy to do, it’s a shame they ever fell out of fashion,” says Mussulman. “Since I almost never send messages via bouquets I just use the flowers or herbs I have at hand,” she continued. “Any wonderful smelling flower or herb that’s smallish and pretty is suitable for one of these dainty bouquets.”
Garden Gathering 2005 will be held, rain or shine, on Saturday, August 20, at the Penobscot County Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden at Rogers Farm. Rogers Farm is on Bennoch Road in Old Town, between Stillwater Avenue and Route 43. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. and the first workshop at 10:30. As in previous years, admission and parking are free.
“If you remember last year’s Gathering, it rained the entire day and we actually had a few sessions when the chairs were sitting in small puddles. But everyone stayed for the entire workshop and had a great time,” says Gleason Gray, head of the Master Gardener program for Penobscot County Extension.
This is the fifth year the Penobscot County Master Gardeners have put on the Garden Gathering, which was conceived as a day for families to come to the Demonstration Garden and participate in various garden-themed workshops, tour the various gardens and displays. In addition to the adult sessions there is a special, well-supervised children’s area which features garden-themed games and crafts.
Lunch will be available on the grounds, with organic, vegetarian-style food available as well as more traditional burgers and hot dogs.
Programs may be obtained from the UMaine Penobscot County Cooperative Extension office at 307 Maine Avenue, or by calling the office at 942-7396 or 1-800-287-1485.