Landscape architect Craig Bergmann will illustrate how he creates gardens appropriate to its site and its surroundings at Gateway Technical College’s 21st Annual WinterGreen conference, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 25, in the Madrigrano Auditorium, located in the Conference Center of Gateway’s Kenosha Campus, 3520-30th Ave.
“This is a nice thing for people to come and do in the middle of the winter,” said Horticulture instructor Kate Jerome. “The biggest draw is the chance to network with others and a chance to ask questions of the professionals. You can get a lot of answers at this event.”
Gateway president Bryan Albrecht will kick off the day with welcoming remarks immediately after the 8 a.m. registration.
Rebecca Nelson, co-founder of aquaponic technology company Nelson and Pade Inc., will discuss the first topic of the day, aquaponics. She will explain what aquaponics is and how it works. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Nelson will explain the benefits of aquaponics and the many ways this method of food production is being applied around the world.
A discussion of demystifying natives for designers will take place prior to the lunch break. Nathan Gingrich and Shannon Flaherty of Applied Ecological Services will help equip designers to avoid the unnecessary costs, confusion and multiple change orders by creating workable, realistic designs using native seed and plants. The focus will be on writing specifications that use terms and language that will help create a beautiful, affordable native design the can be integrated into the environment.
After lunch, Bergmann will show how he creates gardens appropriate to the site and its surroundings.
Jeff Epping, Director of Horticulture at Madison’s Olbrich Botanical Gardens, will discuss sustainable meadows and gravel gardens. He has been researching and implementing a number of new gardens at Olbrich that are more environmentally sound and can be easily incorporated into home landscapes. He will demonstrate how they have replaced lawns and traditional perennial beds with sustainable and beautiful fescue, prairie dropseed and sedge meadows, as well as new gravel gardens.
The day will include a silent auction and a used book sale. Several area and regional horticulture vendors will be on hand as well.
“The talks are great, but it’s the networking with people which makes this event so popular,” said Jerome.
The cost to attend is $75 to attend, payable at the door. To obtain a registration form, or for more information, go to www.gtc.edu/wintergreen; call (262) 564-3904; or e-mail carstensj@gtc.edu.