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CHARLESTON -- Green thumbs will be plentiful on Saturday when the West Virginia Division of Culture and History presents a Garden Festival from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston.

This year marks the Division's 11th day-long celebration of the growing season with workshops, exhibitors and demonstrations. With one exception, all activities, located on the plaza deck and in the Great Hall of the Cultural Center, are free and open to the public.

Gardeners, agricultural experts, herbalists, organic gardeners, landscape designers, lawn and garden suppliers, and others will be available to answer questions and sell their wares, including plants native to West Virginia, wheat weavings, stoneware pottery, bath and body products, homemade lye soap, candles, herbs, lip balm, garden signs and T-shirts. In addition, lunches provided by AAA Catering of Charleston will be available for purchase all day.

Concurrent workshop topics include "Growing Various Tropical Epiphytic Plants," "Going Green in the Garden," "West Virginia Native Orchids; "Organic Gardening and Other Bits and Pieces to Protect Yourself from Toxins," "The Fourth Dimension of Design: Time," and "Building Your Own Rain Barrel" ($35 fee, registration required and supplies are limited).

Rain barrels collect and store rainwater from your rooftop to use for lawn and garden watering. Water collected in a rain barrel normally would flow through your downspout, onto a paved surface, and eventually into a storm drain. They help lower water and sewage bills by using free rainwater; reduce stormwater runoff and associated pollutants such as the sediment, chemicals and bacteria into local rivers and streams; conserve water during hot, dry summer months; and the soft, chlorine-free water provides greener gardens as plants prefer rain water. The $35 fee includes one 55-gallon food grade plastic barrel, parts kit, parts list, step-by-step, hands on assembly instruction, and care and maintenance instructions.

In addition, a special keynote session with Shepherd Ogden, executive director of SafeLawns Foundation, Inc. of Maine and Washington, D.C. will take place from 1-2 p.m. He will be speaking about adventures in the seed trade. The talk is a travelogue as well as an introduction to the behind-the-scenes elements of seed production around the world. The talk will be complemented with slides of his travels. The talk and slides explain the background of the seed production process and just what goes into developing and producing the seeds, both vegetables and flowers, that are in the packets people plant each spring.

The SafeLawns Foundation, Inc. was formed for the purpose of developing and promoting the use of ecologically sustainable garden and landscape management methods through research and education. Among other pursuits, Ogden also was the managing director of Heritage Organics in Doylestown, Pa., founded to preserve the working landscape of the Mid-Atlantic region; an adjunct lecturer on sustainable agriculture with Shepherd University; a member farmer and mentor for the Intervale Foundation in Burlington, Vt.; and the founder and president of The Cook's Garden in Londonderry, Vt. from 1980-2003. While there, Ogden took an organic market gardening operation and turned it into one of the country's most respected mail order seed companies.

Ogden has written five books: "Straight Ahead Organic," "The New American Kitchen Garden," "Step by Step Organic Flower Gardening," "Step by Step Organic Vegetable Gardening" and "The Cook's Garden." He also has written numerous articles for magazines such as The American Gardener, National Gardening, Martha Stewart Living, Country Journal and New England Living to name a few.

For more information about the Garden Festival or to register for the Rain Barrel workshop, call Bethany Cline, cultural program specialist for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 171.

File photo/The Herald-Dispatch

Dr. Mike Beck of the Huntington Museum of Art will lecture on Growing Various Tropical Epiphytic Plants at 9 a.m. Saturday during the Garden Festival at the State Capitol Complex in Chalreston.

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