The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga presents the Twelfth Annual Garden & Landscape Symposium on Saturday, April 6, 2024. This program features practical strategies for expanding and improving your garden and landscape. We invite you to join us, whether you are an experienced gardener or you are just getting started, for helpful insights from garden experts who live and garden in northern climates. 

STREAMING THE GARDEN & LANDSCAPE SYMPOSIUM! Those who are unable to travel to Ticonderoga for the symposium can sign up to participate online through Fort Ticonderoga’s Center for Digital History using Zoom. 

Symposium Schedule: 

9:00 Welcome—Stuart Lilie, Vice President of Public History, Fort Ticonderoga. 

9:10-9:20 Challenges of the 2023 Growing Season—Fort Ticonderoga’s Horticulturist-in-Residence Ann Hazelrigg a brief review of the challenges gardeners faced in 2023. 

9:20-10:20 No-Dig Gardening Makes Gardening Easier and More Environmentally Friendly—Gardeners are always looking for ways to garden easier, more productively and in a way that helps our environment. No-Dig Gardening is a perfect way to use natural systems to build healthier soils and gardens, while making for less work. Charlie Nardozzi covers the basics of No-Dig and how it works, how to set up a no-dig bed, different ways of planting including companion planting, and ways to reduce your gardening work with No-Dig. He will also cover straw bale and hugelkultur gardening as other alternatives to traditional gardening methods. Charlie is an Regional Emmy award winning, nationally recognized garden author, speaker, garden tour leader, and radio and TV personality based in Vermont. Charlie delights in making gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. Visit www.gardeningwithcharlie.com for more information. 

10:30-11:30 The Lenox Horticultural Society—In the late nineteenth century, the great country houses of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, cultivated horticultural expertise, from England, Scotland and Scandinavia, training younger talent in their exalted gardening skills, today only found at botanical gardens. Explore the Lenox Horticultural Society, founded in 1893, an important local institution for the next 50 years, organizing sumptuous, hotly competitive, flower shows in the summer months, and in winter greenhouse meetings to discuss horticultural findings like pollinating peaches, or propagating rare orchids. A lifelong Berkshire resident, Cornelia Brooke Gilder was educated at Vassar College and Cambridge University. She grew up in Lenox and has lived in Tyringham for forty years. 

11:45-12:30 Lunch—Included in the registration fee. 

12:30-12:40 What to Expect in 2024—Fort Ticonderoga’s Horticulturist-in-Residence Ann Hazelrigg shares about what to expect in the 2024 growing season. 

12:40-1:40 Reimagining Forests—What is a forest, why are forests important, and what does it mean to take care of them? Join Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, for a presentation that will invite you to reimagine forests, ecosystems, and our relationship to them. As the Chittenden County Forester, Ethan Tapper advises private landowners, municipalities, conservation organizations, foresters and loggers on the responsible stewardship of forests. Ethan also writes a column for 10 community newspapers and a quarterly column for Northern Woodlands magazine, maintains a YouTube channel, leads dozens of public events throughout New England each year, and is the author of How to Love a Forest, to be published by Broadleaf Books in September, 2024.  

1:50-2:50 1:50-2:50 Meet Little-known Perennials—There are some mostly native treasures that we all should know about! Gardeners love to find plants that add pleasure to their gardens, particularly when they are easy to maintain, and attract bees, butterflies, and birds. Marijke Niles will introduce you to some of those plants, explaining how to grow and maintain them.  She will also discuss how to start your gardens in the spring to best benefit plants and wildlife. Marijke is the owner of Marijke’s Perennial Gardens Plus in Starksboro Vermont. She is an Extension Master Gardener and Composter. She is featured in Jana Millbocker’s book: the Garden Tourist’s Book NEW ENGLAND A guide to 140 Outstanding Gardens and Nurseries. Marijke serves on the Board of Directors for the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association. Marijke is a favorite speaker and has presented many workshops such as for the Vermont Flower Show, the Flynn Garden Tour, (Master) Garden Clubs, and for some prestigious businesses. She is known for her suggestions on making gardening easier. Visit www.perennialgardensplus.com to learn more about Marijke and her gardens.

3:00-3:30 Unique Gardens of Europe—Take a ride with Charlie Nardozzi as he briefly highlights some of the more innovative and unique gardens he’s visited over the years in Europe. He’ll highlight ornamental and edible gardens with beauty and diversity.