Garden education – Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

Close-up view of green tree branches with needle-like foliage and light tips, showcasing vibrant and healthy growth.

Close-up of green pine needles with a small brown cone in the center, showcasing the details of the plant.

(Image credit: David B. Gleason CC-BY-SA 2.0; Tim Sackton CC-BY-SA 2.0; S. Rae CC-BY-SA 2.)

Learn with Us

Ask A Master Gardener

The Ask a Master Gardener Program is an opportunity for members of the community to ask questions about gardening and learn more about the NC State Extension Master Gardener^SM program. Durham County Master Gardener volunteers are available to provide answers using research-based information about plants and plant problems.

Our Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteers will be back in 2026 at multiple community events. Stay tuned for more in January.

Book talk advertisement for 'The Light Eaters' featuring Zoë Schlanger, with a green background and the author standing amid foliage.

Durham Garden Forum

The Light Eaters: A Book Talk with Zoë Schlanger

Tuesday, December 16, 2025, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (virtual presentation). Fee: $10; Free for Members of the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation, Sarah P Duke Gardens, JC Raulston Arboretum, Durham Garden Forum and Durham County Master Gardeners. Pre-registration is required for all attendees. Info and registration.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Author Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.

Presented in collaboration with Sarah P. Duke Gardens, North Carolina Botanical Garden, JC Raulston Arboretum, and the Extension Master Gardener^SMvolunteers of Durham County.

Learn with our Community Friends

North Carolina Botanical Garden

Hybrid Lunchbox Talk: “Selecting Corals for Reef Restoration“

Thursday, December 11, 2025, 12 Noon – 1:00 pm (virtual and in-person attendance options). Free. Preregistration required. Info and registration.

Corals are the foundation of complex and biodiverse reef ecosystems often called ‘the rainforests of the sea’. Reef-building corals are engaged in an ancient intracellular symbiosis with photosynthesizing algae which provides the energetic budget driving bio-mineralization and the physical formation of reefs. Explore the efficacy of sexual and asexual propagation approaches in empirical research-scale restoration plots and seek techniques for predicting and promoting heat-tolerance in coral stocks.

Close-up of vibrant pink cosmos flowers with yellow centers, surrounded by green foliage.

(Image credit: Melinda Heigel)

JC Raulston Arboretum

Midweek Presentation “Garden Standouts of 2025”

Wednesday, December 17, 2025 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (virtual presentation). Free. Preregistration required. Info and registration.

Join arboretum horticulture professionals as they celebrate the plants that shone this year in the garden.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

There are important changes for visitors this year due to construction of the Garden Gateway project. Parking is affected. Learn before you go.

Seasonal Stewardship: Gardening for Biodiversity in Winter (virtual program). Free. Preregistration required. Info and registration.

Thursday, December 11, 2025, 12:00 Noon – 1:00 pm.

A garden in winter can be just as vibrant as in any other season. Join Dr. Neeti Bathala, professor, author, gardener, graduate of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Gardens board member, to learn how to support local wildlife through thoughtful winter gardening practices. Discover native and select ornamental plants that provide food, shelter and unexpected blooms. Gain tools to deepen your connection to seasonal ecology and become a steward of your local environment by contributing to a mid-winter citizen science project aligning with the rhythms of nature.

Midday Meander through the Garden (in person). Free. Preregistration required. Info and registration.

Wednesday, December 17, 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm.

Join Kavanah Anderson, director of learning and community engagement at Duke Gardens, for a conversational stroll in the garden that deepens your relationship with plants. Swap plant stories, dig into horticultural history, question what you know and practice multisensory observation on a playful amble through the Gardens that delights and disrupts your understanding of what a garden can be. Expect to learn from each other, share what you know and leave with more questions than you started with.

Durham County Public Library

A lush, green carpet of moss covering the ground near a body of water, surrounded by ferns and greenery.

(Image credit: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz CC BY-SA 4.0)

Durham Grown: The Durham County Library Garden Club presents The Wondrous World of Moss (in person). Free. Preregistration required. Info and registration.

December 6, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 pm at Main Library (300 N. Roxboro St, Durham)

Discover the wondrous world of mosses with Blanka Aguero, the Bryophyte Collections Manager at the Duke University Herbarium.

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(Image credit: Cathy DeWitt CC BY 4.0; Seuss CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; Bruce Kirchoff CC BY 2.0)

Want to learn more about how you can have a positive impact our our environment? Join the Durham Garden Forum (DGF) on Tuesday, August 20, from 7:00-8:30 pm for an in-person lecture at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Dorris Duke Center, at 420 Anderson Street in Durham. Event parking is free.

This event is free to Durham Garden Forum members and $10 for non-members. Not a member? If you join now through the end of 2024, membership extends to the end of 2025.

Prior to the lecture, the DGF will host a participant Plant Swap from 6:00-7:00 pm. Bring a plant, take a plant, and come to connect with other plant-loving people.

2024 Keynote Presenter

We are living in a time of unprecedented environmental change. Every minute, we cut down nearly 30 football-fields worth of trees. Every year, we degrade and erode billions of tons of topsoil. We are depleting clean water sources. What can individuals do to slow these changes and perhaps begin to reverse them?

Matt Archibald, ISA Certified Master Arborist at Leaf & Limb, will deliver the forum’s annual keynote address titled “Nine Ways to Help Heal Earth.“ He’ll share plant-related strategies meant to restore our struggling, ever-changing planet. Learn how to preserve trees, build healthy soil, and choose native plants for a healthier ecology. You’ll leave with ideas to implement immediately to help address serious environmental issues.

Matt is a 10-year veteran in the tree industry. He discovered his passion in life when he started learning about trees and their ever-expanding universe of information. Identification and biology are two of the subjects Matt likes most, but soil, tree ecology, and fungi are also high on the list.

The Durham Garden Forum is an informal group that meets once a month to enrich gardening knowledge and skill. Meetings are on the third Tuesday of the month from 7–8:30 pm. Most meetings are via Zoom. Members have access to a video library of presentations, and they also receive discounts at Durham Garden Center, and For Garden’s Sake, and Deep Roots Natives.

Durham Garden Forum (DGF) memberships cost $25 per year. You can access the membership form here (scroll down to bottom). If you are a DGF member, you will receive invitations to register for each month’s meeting. For new members joining now through the end of 2024, membership extends to the end of 2025.

Dates, topics, and presenters for upcoming DGF lectures include

October 15, 2024 “Easiest Houseplants Ever, With Style” with Tovah Martin, horticulturalist, author, freelance writer, photographer and lecturer

November 19, 2024 “Strengthening Communities Through Urban Gardening for Pollinators” with Stefanie Steele, NRCS Partner Biologist, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

December 17, 2024 “Cultivating A Sustainable Future: Cornell Botanic Gardens’ Native Lawn” with Todd Bittner, Director of Natural Areas, Cornell Botanic Gardens

January 21, 2025 “Vegetable Crop Production for Triangle Growers” with Michelle Wallace, Regional ANR Extension Educator, Northwest, Central state University Extension

February 18, 2025 “Carnivorous Plants” with Chris Liloia, curator of the Habitat Gardens at NC Botanical Gardens

Questions? Contact durhamgardenforum@gmail.com.

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Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

Tag: Garden education

Upcoming Gardening Events: December 2025