The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga will present its Fifth Annual Garden & Landscape Symposium on Saturday, April 9, 2016. This day-long symposium, geared for both beginning and experienced gardeners, provides insights from garden experts who live and garden in Upstate New York and Northern New England.

This one-day program focuses on practical, easy-to-implement strategies for expanding and improving your garden or landscape. The programs are offered in an informal setting that encourages interaction between presenters and attendees.

The featured speaker at this year’s symposium is Peter J. Hatch, long-time Director of Gardens and Grounds at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Hatch’s presentation “Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden” focuses on both Jefferson’s original 1,000-foot-long terraced vegetable garden as an experimental laboratory and how the 1984 restoration of that garden at Monticello continues to inspire the farm to table movement today. Hatch oversaw the care of the restored gardens at Monticello for 35 years. He is the author of four books on Monticello and its gardens.

Leonard Perry, Fort Ticonderoga’s new Horticulturist in Residence, will also speak at the symposium. Perry’s talk “Top Flowers and Vegetables for North Country Gardens” is based on his coordination of the All-America Selections flower display garden at Burlington’s Waterfront Park for over 20 years. He will also highlight the top ten vegetables from his online course on home vegetable growing. Perry is the author of The Fruit Gardener’s Bible, and served as the Extension Horticulture Specialist at the University of Vermont for 34 years.

Judith Irven from Goshen, Vermont, will give a presentation on “A Sense of Place: Gardens that Celebrate the Natural Landscape.” She will explore how to evoke the imagery of the land in garden-making, including: the design of natural spaces, layered compositions, contrasts of sun and shade, the cycle of the seasons, using stone and wood in the garden, and the choice and arrangement of garden plants. Irven is a landscape designer, garden writer, and life-long gardener. She is a Vermont Certified Horticulturist and teaches Sustainable Home Landscaping for the Vermont Master Gardener program.

Sarah Salatino, from Full Circle Gardens in Essex, Vermont, will talk about “Planning Perennials for Pollinators.” With the alarming decline of butterfly and bee pollinators, Salatino shares how we can encourage and support pollinator populations with careful choices in what we plant in our gardens. Salatino’s nursery grows over 650 varieties of northern hardy perennials on site, including many native varieties.

This event takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center and is open by pre-registration only. Space for the Garden & Landscape Symposium is limited, so register early. The cost, including the day-long symposium and a lunch prepared by Libby’s Bakery Café, is $85 ($75 for members of Fort Ticonderoga).

A brochure with the complete schedule and registration form is available on Fort Ticonderoga’s website.

The Garden & Landscape Symposium is one of numerous opportunities for continuing education for the public at Fort Ticonderoga in 2016. You can learn more about these programs, including the annual War College of the Seven Years’ War and the Seminar on the American Revolution, by visiting Fort Ticonderoga’s website.

Photo provided: Peter J. Hatch, long-time Director of Gardens and Grounds at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.