The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga presents the Sixth Annual Garden & Landscape Symposium on Saturday, April 8^th in the Mars Education Center. Geared for both beginning and experienced gardeners, this day-long symposium provides helpful insights from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and northern New England. This event is open by pre-registration only.

Focusing on easy-to-implement strategies for expanding and improving your garden or landscape, these programs are offered in an informal setting that encourages interaction between presenters and attendees.

This year’s featured speaker is Dr. Lee Reich, an advocate of “farmdening”—more than gardening, but less than farming. Dr. Reich conducted plant and soil research with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cornell University, and now writes, lectures, and consults. His farmden serves as a test site for innovative techniques in soil care, pruning, and growing fruits and vegetables. His presentation “Luscious Landscaping, with Fruiting Trees, Shrubs, and Vines” explores ways to beautify your yard and put local, healthful, and flavorful food on the table.

Dr. Leonard Perry, Fort Ticonderoga’s Horticulturist in Residence, will speak on “Deer in the Garden: Controls and Deterrents,” providing tricks to outsmart deer in a number of low-cost approaches. Dr. Perry is an emeritus professor of Horticulture at the University of Vermont and continues as a regular contributor to “Across the Fence” on WCAX television.

Dr. Annie White is the owner of Nectar Landscape Design Studio & Consulting in Burlington, Vermont. She is also a part-time lecturer of landscape design at the University of Vermont. Her presentation “Top Perennial Flowers for Attracting Pollinators in Northern Gardens” identifies some of the top flowering perennials that pollinators love and that flourish in northern gardens.

Riley Clark-Long is an Environmental Studies graduate of Connecticut College and was the 2016 Edward W. Pell Graduate Fellow in Horticulture in the King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga. His research based on the apple orchard adjacent to the King’s Garden identified important survivors of a different era in the history of American fruit cultivation and provides the basis for his presentation “The Pell Family Apple Orchard and the Golden Age of Pomological Diversity.”

Reserve Your Spot!

Space for the Garden & Landscape Symposium is limited. The cost, including the day-long symposium and a lunch prepared by Libby’s Bakery Café, is $85 ($75 for Members of Fort Ticonderoga). There is an Early Bird rate for registrations received by March 15^th of $75 ($65 for Members of Fort Ticonderoga).

A brochure with the complete schedule and registration form is available on Fort Ticonderoga’s website at www.fortticonderoga.org by selecting “Education” and then “Workshops and Seminars” on the drop-down menu. A printed copy is also available upon request by calling 518-585-2821.

The Garden & Landscape Symposium is one of numerous opportunities for continuing education for the public at Fort Ticonderoga in 2017. You can learn more about these programs, including the annual War College of the Seven Years’ War and the Seminar on the American Revolution, by visiting the Fort’s website at www.fortticonderoga.org and selecting “Education.”