Landscape workshop to focus on healthy yards

Designing, developing and maintaining yards and landscapes in Western Nebraska is, to say the least, challenging.

From high P-H soils to weather extremes, the Panhandle throws many challenges toward homeowners and gardeners seeking healthy lawns and gardens.

But the conditions can be overcome, and that’s what Landscape Wise, a workshop hosted by the South Platte Natural Resources District, sets out to demonstrate. Landscape Wise brings together experts to show how to overcome and work with local conditions to develop and maintain healthy landscapes.

The workshop is Saturday, April 25 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and includes a free lunch. Pre-registration is required and can be done by calling the SPNRD at (308) 254-2377.

This year the workshop features Lucinda Mays, author and former host of the PBS television program “The Victory Garden” to share her insights on gardening in the Panhandle.

Mays has served as the public horticulturist for Chadron State College since 2006. Mays graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1979 and entered the field of public horticulture as assistant director of Kalmia Gardens in South Carolina, rejuvenating historic plantings and creating native plant collections. She followed that with work as curator of demonstration gardens at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Through that time she hosted southern segments of “The Victory Garden” and later worked with Iowa Public Television to created “Iowa’s Favorite Garden” television specials. She co-authored “Vegetable Gardening with David Chambers and has also contributed articles to Southern Living magazine and other publications.

Also speaking will be Amy Seiler, a community forestry specialist with the Nebraska Forest Service, who also has extensive experience with landscape plants and design. She will be joined by Annie Folck from the city of Scottsbluff, who shares experience with plant selection and placement in alternative landscapes. The duo will show how to transform a traditional landscape using a variety of design elements from rain gardens and native beds, and how to blend the elements into the landscape.

They will also share valuable information on how to avoid being overwhelmed by the costs and work related to developing a landscape no matter what size.

Arborist Galen Wittrock will share information on choosing trees for varied landscape needs, and will also show how to properly plant and later prune and care for trees. Wittrock and Seilers will team up with a presentation called “Tree Health from the Ground Up.”

There will be opportunities to get outside for many of the demonstrations, including a look at the NRD’s rain garden, which was installed last spring. Project coordinator Ryan Reisdorff will lead the discussion on why, where and how the plot came to be.