Speakers Bureau

Talks on horticulture and environmental sustainability

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Our Presentation Library

Fruits and Herbs

Berries

Would you like to grow your own blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries? This presentation covers soil and site preparation, sunlight and water needs, planting, pruning and pest management of these delicious fruits.

Fruit Trees

This presentation discusses apples, pears, and plums. How do we select our varieties? How do we prepare the planting site? How do we control pests? These topics and more are addressed, to help you have a successful orchard.

Herbs

Culinary, aromatic… herbs have so many uses! Learn how to grow them, in the ground or in containers, and how to care for them.

Containers and Indoor Plants

Houseplants

What do you need to have happy houseplants? This presentation discusses soil, water, light, and fertilizer requirements for your houseplants. Various popular varieties are also discussed in detail.

Grow a Garden in a Pot

Are you short of space to have a garden, but you really want one? This presentation will show you how you can grow beautiful and/or edible plants in containers.

Growing Groceries in Small Spaces

Geared towards gardeners that don’t have much room, this presentation shows you that you can grow many edibles in containers, from vegetables to berries to fruit trees!

Growing Vegetables in Containers

Would you like some homegrown vegetables but don’t have garden space? You can grow them in containers! This presentation will tell you how.

Making Open Terrariums

Would you like to create a miniature world that tells a story? Terrariums require minimal care, to fit into our busy lives, and they make great personalized gifts. Come and learn how to make one!

Growing Perennials

Carnivorous Plants

Want to learn about these fascinating plants? They are natural and beautiful insect exterminators. We’ll discuss how to grow and care for pitcher plants, sundews, Venus fly traps, and cobra plants.

Dahlias

Have you ever wanted to grow dahlias, but were not sure how to start? This presentation will show you how. We will also present the history, classification, and the different types of dahlias.

Roses

Want to learn more about rose varieties, how to care for them and how to address problems? This presentation will help you grow better roses.

Soils and Compost

Soils

Soil is the most important part of a successful garden. What is soil made of? What nutrients do plants need, and how can we provide them? All these are answered by this presentation.

Compost

How does compost work? Can I make my own compost, and how do I use it? These and other questions are answered by this presentation, including how to fix problems you may encounter when composting.

Propagating Plants and Seed Saving

Plant Propagation

How do we get new plants? This presentation will discuss growing new plants from seeds and growing new plants from cuttings, grafting, and division.

Propagating Plants by Seed

If you want the nitty-gritty details of starting all kinds of plants by seed, this is the presentation for you. Everything from which plants are best to start from seed, to soil, light, water and fertilizer requirements will be covered.

Seed Saving

Would you like to save your own seed to grow plants in future years? This presentation will take you through all the steps needed to do this successfully.

Gardening Techniques

Basic Tool Care and Sharpening

Do you have some gardening tools that need some TLC? This presentation provides the basic knowledge needed to maintain garden hand tools, including a demonstration.

Two people holding flower pots with flowers in them.

Gardening 101

Are you new to gardening? Are you new to Washington State? This presentation covers our climate, our soil, how to grow vegetables, fruits and ornamentals, and how to solve common gardening problems.

Pruning your Garden: The Basics

Why do we need to prune our plants? What tools do we use? How do we prune? How do we avoid pruning mistakes? How do we prune some specific plants, for example, roses? All these topics will be discussed in this presentation.

Hoop Houses

Hoop houses are the quintessential season extender in our northwest climate! Learn how to use them, what materials to use, and how to build them.

Late Winter/Early Spring Gardening

Is there anything to do in late winter and early spring in the garden? Yes! This is a good time to clean and maintain your tools, plant and divide, start seeds, prune, and start controlling pests early.

Insects and Other Garden Fauna

Mason Bees

What is a mason bee? How can we use them for pollination? How do we attract them to our garden and keep them happy? These and other questions are answered by this presentation.

Good Bugs / Bad Bugs

Can you tell a beneficial insect from a harmful insect? Most insects we interact with are beneficial. Learn how to tell them apart, how to encourage the good ones, and how to discourage the bad ones.

Pollination

How does pollination happen? Which insects are good at pollination? How do we attract these insects to our garden? These questions and more are answered by this presentation.

Moles and Voles

Do you have moles in your garden? Most of us do! Learn all about these creatures and their friends, the voles, including how to cope with their damage to our gardens.

Slugs and Snails

Who doesn’t have these pests in their garden! Learn about their lifestyle and how to deal with them with this presentation.

Native Gardening and Climate Change

Caring for our Backyard Forest

Do you own some forest land? Regardless of the size of your forest, this presentation will inform you about how to care for your trees and other forest plants.

Lawn Replacement and Natives

Replacing your lawn with plants that require less water and maintenance is a good idea. This presentation goes over whether your site can support this, how to remove the lawn, planning the landscape, and how to care for it.

Climate Change

How does climate change affect our gardening options? Join us to learn about climate change’s effects on our gardens and how to mitigate them.

Waterwise Gardening

When dealing with climate change, one thing to do is to save water, while still keeping our gardens happy. This presentation will go over all the ways we can use less water in our gardens.

Speaker Request Form

Donate to the Snohomish County Master Gardener Foundation

Foundation fundraising helps cover the costs of training, materials, and community outreach that make programs like this possible.

Frequently Asked Questions:

A: The Master Gardeners Program is an Extension Program of Washington State University. Part of our charter as a Land Grant University is to provide this type of education, without charge.
However, Land Grant Universities also have restrictions on what activities we can fund. So, we have a parallel Foundation organization that helps us fund raise for those activities. So, if you find value in these presentations and have budget, please consider making a donation to our Foundation. The monies contributed go to expanding the programs and reach of Master Gardeners activities within the county.
Please use the link “Donate to the Snohomish County Master Gardener Foundation” above. This link re-directs you to the Snohomish County MG Foundation page.

Ask us for a “Custom” presentation when you submit your request. We cannot promise we’ll do it, but sometimes the topic you are interested in is also an area of interest to one of our Master Gardeners and your request could be the ‘call to act’ for them. Also, we can sometimes ‘lego-together’ modules from related presentations to better map to the topic you want covered. It never hurts to ask.

A: Yes, please specify this in the Speaker Request Form. Master Gardeners have access to WSU’s staff Zoom accounts, but they are subject to availability.