Learn tips and techniques for 365 days of gardening with garden experts Bob Hyland and Margaret Roach, on Saturday, March 27, from 10:00 – 1:00 at the Berkshire Botanical Garden (www.berkshirebotanical.org).  This is a hands-on workshop devoted to preparing for the upcoming gardening season, and will cover a “to do” list packed with detailed tips and techniques.  Learn about soil/bed prep, garden clean-up after the long winter – what’s really necessary and when shortcuts are appropriate.  Consider cool season techniques, what’s myth and what’s most useful.  Consider cool season container plantings – violas, pansies, arctotis, osteo’s, and prepare cuttings for summer containers, ensuring a supply of plant favorites from previous seasons.  Learn about new perennials and shrubs for 2010.  The speakers will share their thoughts on color trends (what’s in, what’s out) and how to read between the lines in catalog hyperbole.  Margaret and Bob will bring some of their very favorite plants and the botanical garden will lend its fabulous scented geranium collection for cuttings.  Finally, participants will transplant newly propagated woody shrubs.

Bob Hyland is former vice president of horticulture and operations at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and worked for 25 years in leading public gardens on both coasts, including Longwood Gardens and San Francisco Botanical Garden.  He is currently co-owner and principal of Loomis Creek Nursery in Hudson, NY.  He is the author of Designing Borders for Sun & Shade.  Margaret Roach is the former garden editor and editorial director of Martha Stewart Living.  She currently gardens in Colymbia County, NY, where her garden has been open for the Garden Conservancy Open Days program for eleven years.  Her book, A Way to Garden, was named best garden book of the year in 1998 by the Garden Writers Association of America.  Margaret launched her garden blog www.awaytogarden.com in 2008 to great national media acclaim.  Members of BBG – $45, non members $50.