Plus free plants, silent auction, and lunch included!
Silent Auction
With over 25 items to bid on, the Silent Auction promises to be very exciting. Silent Auction items range from a mixed case of Arizona Stronghold Wines; to dinners for two at both Heartline Cafe and Red's Restaurant; to a beautiful 5' x 8' Navajo Design fine wool, hand knotted Kilim rug donated by Azadi Fine Rugs; to two brightly painted sunflower designed garden pots donated by Pro Build; toa 1.7oz bottle of Sedona Woman Fragrance perfume; to dinner at Elote Cafe along with The Elote Cafe Cookbook by Jeff Smedstad; to a basket of natural handmade soaps and lotions donated by FarmSoap . To view photos of some of the silent auction items, click here.
Advance signup:
Program:
7:30
Doors Open. Registration begins in high school cafeteria. Silent auction bidding begins. Coffee, tea and savories available.
8:45
Program begins in high school cafeteria - Georgia Munsell, Emcee
Stephen DeVol - President, Keep Sedona Beautiful
Jawn McKinley - Chair, Sedona Water Wise Alliance
9:00
Organic Vegetable Gardening in Arid Climates - Cynthia Lee Cartier
10:00
Go to your first workshop
11:15
Go to you second workshop
12:00
Lunch in the cafeteria featuring a wrap, fruit, chips, dessert and beverage
12:45
Silent auction closed.
1:00
Turn Your Desert Dust into Black Gold - Merle & Michele Herrick
2:00
Native Plant gift distribution. Winning bids collect silent auction items
Bios:
Keynote Speakers:
Cynthia Lee Cartier is a Master Gardener with the Yavapai County, U of A, Cooperative Extension. Cynthia has been gardening since she was a child and much of that time was digging in the dirt in the Prescott area. Once the issues of poor soils and limited water resources are addressed, she believes the arid southwest climate is one of the best places in the country to grow vegetables. Cynthia is passionate about growing food without the use of chemicals and supporting and promoting locally grown agriculture.
Merle & Michele Herrick Merle and Michele both grew up in families that raised their food organically.
Merle grew up in Sonoma, California, an area bountiful with fruit orchards. He was fortunate to learn alongside his Grandmother as she gardened and used various composting methods, including worms. He continued to garden and compost his adult life. Once working on a potato and wheat farm in S.W. Minnesota, he witnessed first hand 4,000 acres of dead and contaminated soil, killed by the over use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides- void of micro organisms and earthworms that are vital for the soil's life. Making a strong impact on Merle, he eagerly shares the importance of healthy soil life.
Michele grew up on the rugged North Coast of California with her family dependent on what they grew or raised and put up in their harvest kitchen. They dried, smoked, froze, and canned all their foods. Michele too, was fortunate to live and garden along her Grandparents- having a life that was so close to our earth,in a most healthful and stewardly way. She continued with this lifestyle throughout her life, gardening and advocating the importance of chemical free nutrition for her family.
Fast forward to 2005 when Merle and Michele moved to the Verde Valley, bringing their knowledge and experience with them. Using Red Wiggler worms for vermicomposting for over 30 years, they continued to share their knowledge here throughout the Verde Valley, and Prescott area. Their love and expertise for gardening and community is shown by their many hands on workshops and lectures on soil and composting, volunteering at the County Fair, and local organizations and the many hours volunteering for the Yavapai County extension as Master Gardeners; giving lectures on vermiculture, vermicomposting and the food soil web and soil structure.They are active vendors at two of the Verde Valley's community Farmers Markets selling their organically grown fruits, vegetables, flowers and red wiggler worms from their bountiful gardens.
Workshops:
Chris Anderson has been practicing sustainable living since 1994. He worked on organic farms and nature centers in West Virginia, Vermont, and New York before creating his own market garden business, Onion Creek Gardens, in Ohio. From 1999-2002, Chris co-created the Rural Action Environmental Learning Program, a mobile environmental education program bringing the joy of nature to children in four school districts of Appalachian Ohio. Chris received a Permaculture Design Certificate in 2001 and has continued to seek advanced Permaculture training since moving to Arizona in 2005. Chris is also a Rainwater Catchment Systems Accredited Professional, accredited by the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association. Chris gardens at his West Sedona home and is creating a Food Forest near Red Rock Crossing. Chris is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Eden on Earth Landscaping, an ecological landscaping company specializing in creating abundant and edible landscapes that are irrigated naturally with rainwater and greywater.
Tom DeGomez is an Area Agent and Regional Specialist with University of Arizona serving Coconino and Mojave Counties. His office is based on the Northern Arizona University campus in the School of Forestry. Tom received a Ph.D. in Forest Entomology from NAU in 2002. He was deeply involved in the 2002-04 bark beetle epidemic in Arizona and continues to work on bark beetle projects that apply to private land owners. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Agronomy and Agricultural Education, and a M.S. in Horticulture. In his 26 years with Cooperative Extension he has authored dozens of publications including the popular tree selection book “Beyond the Ponderosa: Successful Landscape Trees for the High Elevations of the Southwest”.
Stephen DeVol is an accomplished photographer with 45 years of experience in all aspects of photography, beginning with black and white film, into color and the photo lab industry and evolving into the exciting digital realm. A 23-year resident of Sedona, DeVol is currently serving as the president of Keep Sedona Beautiful.
Ross Hawkins
Since 1996 when he founded the nonprofit Hummingbird Society, Dr. H. Ross Hawkins has kept busy spreading the word about the tiny flying jewels we call hummingbirds. Currently the Executive Director of the Society, Hawkins directs the education and international conservation programs which comprise its core mission. Society headquarters have been in Sedona since he and his artist wife, Beth, moved here in 2006 from the East Coast. He admits with pride that the Society has members in every state and over twenty countries and still has many of its charter members from 1996. He is editor of The Hummingbird Connection (the Society's newsletter), author of the popular "Ask the Hummerman" column in the Red Rock News, and has been an invited speaker to many bird clubs, garden clubs, and festivals.
Wherever hummingbirds are found, you can be sure that nectar-rich blossoms are found, for nectar is the high-energy food hummers need in large quantities every day. And long before the Society existed or even before feeders were invented, gardeners knew that by planting selected flowers they could attract hummingbirds to their yard and garden. The relationship between hummingbirds and flowers goes back thousands of years, and in this presentation you will gain a better understanding of what hummingbirds are looking for in your high-desert garden--and why. If you want more hummingbirds as regular visitors to your garden, you will find Hawkins' presentation of great interest.
Feather Jones is a Registered Clinical Herbalist with 29 years experience and has a part-time private practice helping individuals with their health care needs. She is Adjunct Professor at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. She also owns and operates Canyon Spirit Botanical Ventures, LLC, a tour company that specializes in herb walks, earth ceremony and vortex hiking tours. She also writes articles occasionally for Four Corners magazine.
Feather is an herbal consultant for the natural products industry. She offers classes in Western Herbal Medicine open to the public as well as various gatherings and conferences around the country. With a background in Mandan tribal teachings, Earth Centered Herbalism infuses her teaching style.
Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, a company devoted to helping individuals attract wild birds to their back yard. Eric’s love of wild birds began by the time he was five years old and grew rapidly in the deserts of southern Arizona where he grew up. At the age of 13 Eric joined the Tucson Audubon Society and is still involved in the Audubon Society to this day. Eric has birded extensively from Maine to California and just about everywhere in between.
Eric combined his retail experience with his love of birds when he opened his first backyard wild bird store in Prescott in 2003, followed by his second store in Sedona in 2010. Eric writes a weekly column about wild birds for the Prescott newspaper, the Daily Courier.
Eric’s passion is centered on what is best for wild birds - native plants, native landscaping, and landscaping with birds in mind using no pesticides or herbicides.
Jean Searle and husband Dick moved to Sedona in 1984 from Southern California. Inspired to learn more about native plants in the area, she attended a KSB native plant workshop and took a class in plant taxonomy at NAU. Shortly thereafter, she began leading monthly botany walks, then twice monthly, and eventually weekly year round.
Jean taught a course about Native Plants of the Region for four semesters at Yavapai College and worked one day a week in a local nursery for four years. For eight years she led the plant walks at Dead Horse State Park for the annual Verde Valley Bird and Nature Festival. She has given many talks to local groups on plant-related topics. She served two years as chairman of the Flagstaff Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society.
In 1998, she received a certificate of appreciation from the Red Rock Pathways for promoting appreciation and understanding of native plants and received the 2009 Norman B. Herkenham Award for outstanding contributions to “preserving the wonder” through native plant landscaping.
Between times, she continues to tend her garden where success and failure have taught her much. She welcomes plant-related questions and continues to lead botany walks.
• • •
April 4, 2009 Native Plant Workshop
We appreciate David Sunfellow of Sedona Community Gardens for this video:
Keep Sedona Beautiful promotes conservation of the greater Sedona area, and, by all practical means, seeks to preserve the unique natural environment and to enhance the quality of life for future generations.
Saturday, April 10th
