Gardening series meets this Wednesday

A monthly gardening series offered by the Columbia County Cooperative Extension office will continue Wednesday, this time focusing on tree pruning.

//

Since October 2003, Charles Phillips, the county extension agent, has led monthly seminars on timely gardening topics that were requested in a survey by those who have attended past gardening series meetings.

"If we haven't had a program on it in about 18 months, we'll do it again," Phillips said. "This is driven by what people want to hear topics on."

Wednesday's lunch meeting will be from 12:10-12:45 p.m. in the Columbia County Library in Evans.

The series is not just for beginners. Master gardeners Mary and Brooks Handy, of Evans, attend most of the seminars to see friends during a lunch that is part of the seminar and to walk away with even more gardening knowledge.

"We always learn something when we go to (Phillips') lectures," Mrs. Handy said. "Maybe he tells us something that is new or something he's just learned."

Phillips said an average of 25 people, varying in gardening experience, attend each meeting.

"We've got people new to the area or beginners and master gardeners and people who are kind of in the business a little bit," he said.

Upcoming topics will be on managing lawns in March and understanding fertilizer in April.

The program is free and open to the public. Each installment of the seminar is held the same time on a Wednesday to accommodate busy schedules.

Sack lunches are welcome. Since moving the series to the library last summer, Phillips said, many people attending enjoy treats from the Footnotes Cafe inside the library.

"I think it would be worthwhile to a lot of people who don't realize they have this service available to them," Mrs. Handy said.

For more information, call (706) 868-3413.