This Tuesday evening at 7p.m. the Bowen Island Garden Club welcomes west coast gardening expert Linda Gilkeson, Ph.D. for a presentation titled “Grow the Most Food in the Smallest Space (with the least work).” Her talk will be followed by a workshop at 10a.m. on Wednesday titled “Natural insect, weed and disease control.”
Gilkeson earned a Ph.D in Entomology from McGill University in 1986, then moved to British Columbia to work for a company that produces biological controls. She later worked for the provincial government, promoting programs to reduce and eliminate pesticide use.
Gilkeson has co-authored pest management training manuals for the government and organic gardening books for Rodale Press. She has also self- published three books. Her most recent work, “Backyard Bounty: The complete guide to Year-round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest,” is a best-seller.
Gilkeson’s presentation on Tuesday will focus on how even the smallest gardens can produce a surprising amount of food 12 months of the year. She will teach us how to increase the harvest of organically grown fruits and vegetables from gardens of any size, using easy, low maintenance methods that leave us lots of free time to smell the roses.
Wednesday’s workshop will cover how to identify, prevent and manage pests and disease using organic methods. This is a hands-on workshop and the range of topics will depend on the interest of the participants. Linda can discuss how to deal with common problems such as aphids, late blight on tomato, root maggots and newly introduced or increasing problems of spotted wing drosophila, apple maggot, and many more.
Tuesday evening’s presentation will give Bowen’s current and aspiring gardeners an opportunity to re-acquaint or acquaint themselves with Bowen Island’s Garden Club. Linda Gilkeson will have her books for sale and one of them will be the door prize.
There will be a charge of $10 for Wednesday’s workshop, but with that comes a promise to answer all your questions about pest and disease control. Bring your questions, specimens, and/or photos to learn how to manage these from an expert. Everyone is welcome. The more people attend the more we learn from the questions and issues raised by the participants.
Both events will take place at the Gallery at Artisan Square.
