Port Garden Club to ‘Green Up Your Winter Blues’ with seminar on Feb. 24

The Port Washington Garden Club’s winter seminar, “Green up Your Winter Blues,” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24.

The seminar, which includes four lectures, will be offered both in-person and via Zoom. There will also be three optional workshops to be held in person.

The lectures, which will be presented by a mix of in-person and online speakers, are:

• “Great Seasonal Container Gardens for the Midwest” will be presented by Andrew Bunting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, who will offer a detailed guide to container gardens for all seasons, including soil selection, plant selection and grooming techniques.

• “Winter Houseplant Care 101” will help participants keep their houseplants alive during the winter. Julia Zoltowsky of the Chicago Botanic Garden will also share suggestions for houseplants that work well in colder climates and lower lighting levels.

• “The Kingdom of the Monarch” is a photo journey by Shelly Culea, who  traveled to Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Sanctuaries in 2015. Culea, a member of the Garden Club of Milwaukee, will share the story of the great migration from the mountains west of Mexico City to Wisconsin.

• “Composting for Fun and Profit” will discuss the benefits of creating your own “black gold” of compost. Tom Hudson, past president of the Garden Club and an avid fruit tree gardener, will disprove the myths that composting is labor-intensive or smelly work.

The workshops will be hosted by Garden Club members. There is a materials fee for each workshop.

They include:

• “Baking with Sourdough” will introduce attendees to the care and feeding of an active sourdough culture to enrich baking. Participants will go home with a batch of starter and recipes.

• “Creating Kombucha,” a fermented tea that has blossomed in popularity in recent years, will explore the possibilities and benefits of this ancient beverage. Learn how to make it and take home a “SCOBY.”

• “Build a Solar Fountain/Hummingbird Bath” and enjoy the soothing sounds of moving water in your garden. The fountain you build will have optional perches so hummingbirds may use it as a birdbath.

For more information or to register, visit the Port Washington Garden Club website at http://portgardenclub.org/seminar/index.htm.

Early bird registration is $18 for the lecture sessions. From Feb. 16 to Feb. 23, registration is $20.