Mark your calendars, because the 2012 “Let’s Grow Sitka” gardening education event opens at noon and runs until 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street. Don’t forget to set your clocks to spring forward so you can get ready to grow.

This annual event brings together local garden supply stores, local gardeners, landscapers and anybody who is interested in learning how to grow food and/or flowers. Sitka Local Foods Network Vice President Linda Wilson, who is coordinating the event with SLFN Board Member Cathy Lieser, was interviewed during the Morning Edition show Thursday on KCAW-Raven Radio and she provided more details about this event (click the link to listen to the interview), which helps Sitka residents get excited about the upcoming garden season.

There will be a wide variety of individuals and businesses with booths for the event, with some booths providing gardening information geared toward and others selling gardening supplies. Lunch will be available for purchase. Here is a tentative list of some of those planning to host booths:

• Linda Wilson, Sitka Farmers Market, Grow a Row for the Market
• Cathy Lieser, Let’s Grow Sitka, Sitka Local Foods Network
• Doug Osborne. Sitka Local Foods Network?
• Johanna Willingham, Pacific H.S./Sitka Farmers Market backup.
• Jud Kirkness, Sicka Waste compost project, Fruit tree map
• Tom Hart, compost, NZ composter ?
• Kerry MacLane. Pest management
• Lisa Sadleir-Hart. St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm
• Laura Schmidt, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm/Seed swap & share
• Maybelle Filler, ???
• Stanley Schoening, Chickens, fig trees, UAF Cooperative Extension Service
• Judy Johnstone, High Tunnel program
• David Lendrum, Guest speaker 3:15, info on new/unusual varieties for Southeast Alaska
• Jeren Schmidt, Sitka Spruce Catering, lunch for purchase
• Robert Gorman, UAF Cooperative Extension Service, history of Experimental Station
• Andrianna Natsoulas, Food Sovereignty
• Tracy Gagnon, Sitka 4H Club
• Eve Grutter, Chickens, produce
• Adam Chinalski, Model greenhouse
• Penny Brown, Garden Ventures – products for sale
• Amanda Grearson, True Value – products for sale
• Lowell Frank, Spenard Building Supply Garden Center ??
• Michelle Putz, Locally grown environmental benefits?
• Rick Peterson, Gardening 101 – easiest to grow, need to amend soil, etc…
• Lori Adams, Down-to-Earth U-Pick Garden – garden promotion and information
• Mike Tackaberry/Robin Grewe, White’s Inc. – products for sale
• Mandy Summers, Pacific High School
• Kelly Smitherman, National Park Service – garden at Bishops House, etc…
• Lisa Teas, Sitka Farmers Market art debut
• Florence Welsh, Forget-Me-Not Gardens, local garden booklet, possible plant starts
• Hope Merritt, Gimbal Botanicals herbal teas – info on wild herbs and herbs to grow

Right after the three-hour Let’s Grow Sitka event ends, guest speaker Dave Lendrum of Juneau will speak at 3:15 p.m. on “New Vegetable Varieties, Small Fruits, and Ornamentals for Southeast Alaska.” Lendrum is a landscape designer who just finished a two-year term as president of the Southeast Alaska Master Gardener Association and with his landscape architect wife, Margaret Tharp, owns Landscape Alaska.

Dave’s life has evolved in partnership with the natural world. He grew up in California on an organic u-pick vegetable farm, learning horticulture from his parents and the 4H club. He did nursery work and continued his post-college adventure in Ecuador by starting a fresh market produce business. After being a city horticulturist at the Eugene (Ore.) Parks Department, Dave started his first nursery, Western Oregon Perennials. A few years later, he found himself in a high-temperature photosynthesis lab at Stanford. In the Pacific Northwest, Dave restored old estate gardens. When he heard Alaska’s call, he moved north to Elfin Cove. Dave and his wife started Landscape Alaska in Juneau 28 years ago. They design and build landscapes on every scale and have won numerous awards both locally and nationally. In addition, Dave is the landscape superintendent for the University of Alaska Southeast and the Southeast representative on the statewide invasive species organization (SNIPM).

For more information about Let’s Grow Sitka, contact Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (evenings, weekends) or lawilson87@hotmail.com, or Cathy Lieser at 978-2572. The two event fliers for this event are posted below as Adobe Acrobat files (PDF files).

• Main flier for 2012 Let’s Grow Sitka event

• Flier for Dave Lendrum presentation after Let’s Grow Sitka event ends