Workshop 1:
Lesley Alward: Landscape Design Made Easy
This workshop will be on landscape design, using native plants in your home landscape, creating native habitat and hands-on tips to maximize the success of your gardening efforts.
***Since this is a hands-on plan and design workshop, please bring a draft of your yard. If possible, please take pictures of the space you would like to design in your yard with approximate dimensions. We will work on a draft of your landscaping design.
A Yavapai County Master Gardener emeritus (Class of 2005), past gardener and landscape contractor in both California and Arizona (1989 – 2007), and past landscaping and gardening consultant as AZ Garden Gals, Lesley aspires to make gardening a fun, rewarding and successful enterprise by sharing her knowledge and experience. Lesley gives garden-related talks to Quad Cities and Sedona garden clubs, at the Prescott and Prescott Valley Public Libraries and at Yavapai College through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). Her favorite subjects are landscape design, using native plants in your home landscape, creating native habitat and hands-on tips to maximize the success of your gardening efforts.
Workshop 2:
Dennis Arp: Importance of honeybees and other pollinators
The workshop will cover the importance of honeybees and other pollinators in native plants, backyard gardens and in agriculture. Basic honeybee biology, including social structure and development, will be explained. The efforts of beekeepers to manage bee hives and the effect of public impact on keeping food sources available and safe, such as maintaining flowering plants adapted to the Verde Valley and curbing the use of pesticides, will also be explained.
Dennis lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, and is the owner of Mountain Top Honey, one of only a few full time beekeepers in Northern Arizona. Growing up on an Iowa farm, hunting with fellow teenagers, Dennis realized his interest in bees when they stumbled upon a hive. He tried to extract honey without success. What started as a hobby in 1978 turned into a passion and full time business in 1982. Starting with 120 beehives, a truck and trailer, the business has grown to an ever changing 800 to 1300 hives. Honey production from the Arizona locations has ranged from 30,000 to 126,000 pounds per year.
Dennis travels with his bees, doing his small part of the 1.8 million hives that pollinate the California Almond orchards in February and March. In late March the hives are transported back to Arizona for honey production in the Phoenix Sonoran desert areas during March, April and May. June and July finds the hives moved again to Winslow and Holbrook , and moved again, August- October to the Flagstaff area. The hives are moved again November- January to the Desert areas around Phoenix for the winter, and February back to California.
Workshop 3:
Al Cornell: Native Plant Walkabout (Rain or Shine, Max of 15 per session)
The walk-about will showcase local plant subjects and include the use of these plants by local American Indian Cultures in support of medicine, tools, and food.
Al and his spouse settled in Sedona in 1994. He has a BS in Nautical Science, an MS in Aerospace Operations Management and an MA in Latin American Studies, with a major in Mesoamerican Anthropology. He served as the Training Officer for Verde Search & Rescue and is a U.S. Forest Service Volunteer with Friends of the Forest-Sedona.
Al regularly gives presentations to the membership of civic groups, as well as to personnel of various governmental agencies on a variety of outdoor-related subjects, to include “Wilderness Safety and Survival,” “Land Navigation,” and “Animal Tracks and Signs.” As a practitioner of Prehistoric Skills, Al has given numerous classes and demonstrations to museums, archaeology groups, and the public on prehistoric fire starting, the fabrication of yucca sandals and cordage, and pigment technology. Al’s most recent article in the subject area of Prehistoric Fire, titled The Role of Fire in the Domestication of Man, was published in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology, Fall edition, 2009.
Workshop 4:
Brock Delinski: The impact of composting on the climate crisis
What is composting? In this workshop Brock will discuss why composting is one of the most impactful things an individual can do for the environment. Attendees will learn about composting on an individual level and the answer to the question, “What is compost’s relation to the climate crisis.” There will be a Q & A at the end of the workshop.
Brock is a passionate environmentalist who leads his life knowing that the time to save the planet from the point of no return is quickly running out. He is the co-founder and owner of a local small business, Compost Crowd, that was started to provide an option to residents and businesses in Northern Arizona for diverting organic waste from the landfill. Brock is a former city council candidate, served on the Sedona Sustainability Tourism Advisory board, and is on the executive planning committee for Sedona VegFest.
Workshop 5:
Dee Norleen: (Keynote & Morning Only Workshop) Native Plant Medicinals
Join Dee in a discussion of landscaping with native plants and the use of native plants medicinally. Both topics will touch on our bomb-proof natives, plants whose attributes serve us aesthetically and medicinally. Learn insider tips on the how-to’s of landscaping with natives and identifying and using native medicinals for a healthier you!
As a professional landscape designer and practicing herbalist, Dee is an avid naturalist seeking to connect plants and people. With decades of bio-regional plant studies from coast to coast, Dee believes each region has within its natural community the plants necessary to balance human constitutions, both physically and mentally. Dee currently owns and operates SunRae Herbals as well as working full time as a landscape designer in residential landscaping here in Sedona. Her passion is native plants and edible/medicinal landscapes!
Workshop 6:
Jeff Schalau: Planting and Staking Trees and Shrubs for Success
Many trees and shrubs are planted improperly. Jeff Schalau will teach science-based techniques and rationale for planting containerized trees and shrubs in landscapes. Staking of planted trees can also have negative effects on proper tree establishment. Proper staking techniques will be discussed to minimize tree injury and successful tree establishment. Mulching and maintenance will also be discussed.
Jeff is the Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Yavapai County. His expertise lies mainly in the areas of woody plant physiology and soil science, but his almost 20 years working in Yavapai County have taught him much more. In addition to teaching/coordinating the Yavapai County Master Gardener Program and providing science based horticultural information, Jeff delivers educational programs in direct farm marketing, small acreage, noxious weeds, and range management.
Workshop 7:
Shaun Symond: Our Favorite Native Plants, How to be Successful with Natives in Northern Arizona
This class will cover information on xeriscapes, the process of landscaping or gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation but 95% of the plants presented will be natives from Sedona and the Verde Valley. Since Shaun loves birding, he will also incorporate any natives that work well for wildlife.
For Shawn, growing plants has been a life-long passion. He opened his first nursery in Northern Utah at the age of 17. When he moved to Flagstaff in the late 80’s, he saw the obvious need for low water landscaping & began extensive work with native plants that continues today. Shaun travels far and wide, collecting hardy plant seeds that withstand the demanding climate of Arizona. Verde River Growers, a 15 acre nursery in the heart of Cottonwood, is where you’ll find him, producing the best plant palette in Northern Arizona.
