(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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