Grass-roots gardening fairCommunity gardeners can connect with other growers and go to workshops on fruit orchards, increasing productivity, the 2012 Farm Bill and other topics at the Community Garden Spring Resource Fair, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, at Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th St., Mpls. The event is free, but sponsor Gardening Matters will accept donations. For more information or to pre-register, go to www.gardeningmatters.org.
Westonka Horticulture Day"From Seed to Supper" is the theme of the Westonka Horticulture Day on Saturday at Mound Westonka High School. The daylong event explores the benefits of sustainable agriculture and how we can take charge of our food supply. Greg Reynolds of Riverbend Farm in Delano will explain how to grow your own food or purchase from a local CSA farm and the benefits of joining a CSA cooperative.
Workshop topics include apples for Minnesota gardens, espalier, composting, edible ornamentals, from vine to wine, city chickens and small-space landscaping. It runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 5905 Sunnyfield Rd., Mound. Cost is $30. Go to www.westonkahort.org or call 612-702-8059.
Start planning your projectsThe Apple Valley Home & Garden Expo will feature seminars by Bobby Jensen of KARE, Channel 11, and more than 100 home- and garden-related businesses and organizations, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Dakota County Government Center, corner of County Road 42 and Galaxie Avenue, Apple Valley. The free event includes face-painting, blow-up slide and other kids' activities. Call 952-432-8422 or go to www.applevalley chamber.com.
LYNN UNDERWOOD
Kitchen garden guide"The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook" (Timber Press, $22.95) supplies a four-season spin through the kitchen garden, chock-full of plant notes and recipes, and dreamy photos of fresh-from-the-garden bouquets. You'll find sustainable-garden plans, sketches and plant lists, so you can dig along with author Jennifer R. Bartley.
In turns, Bartley considers the vegetables, fruits, greens and herbs for every season. At heart, this is a book pulsing with the belief that we are richer for our connection to the patch of earth outside our kitchen door -- whether it's the food we bring to our table or the beauty we tuck into a vase. Above all, it's a survival guide for those among us who hunger for what the garden gives.
A perfect antidote for those off-season gardening blues, this is the tome to reach for when you've reached your limit of reading about picture-perfect gardens. It's a book you can't help but tuck with scraps of paper, and turned-down page corners, as you harvest a bumper crop of fine ideas.
