Chautauqua-Wawasee has invited John Edgerton to return for a second workshop, discussion and presentation focused on “Gardening in the Face of a Changing Climate.” The workshop will be held from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 24, at the Syracuse Community Center, 1013 N. Long Drive.

The event is open to the public and free to attend. The first hour consists of a presentation followed by a time for deeper discussion and questions.

John Edgerton of Shelbyville, Mich., returns to Syracuse for a second workshop to explore wholistic, resilient, sustainable techniques for gardening and small farming. He will share his experience and practical knowledge on the importance of healthy soil, healthy plants and helpful insect habitats. Other topics will include variety selection and ways to account for climate-related imbalances of diseases and insects. He will share what others in the bioregion are doing to address these issues. Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation and the Syracuse-Wawasee Garden Club are jointly sponsoring this program with Chautauqua-Wawasee.  

This event is free to the public but pre-registration is required. Register at www.chqw.org or facebook.com/ChautauquaWawasee.

Edgerton lives with his partner and fellow farmer, Amy Newday. Together, they have done both market gardening and community supported agriculture. Edgerton has done dozens of workshops on gardening and seed saving, most recently, at conferences sponsored by the Michigan Food and Farm Alliance, Michigan Integrative Food and Farming Systems, and KEEP GROWING DETROIT. He and Newday have worked with the Inter-Tribal Food Summit to grow out and repatriate several varieties of indigenous northern flint corn. They also work with a network of northern gardeners to perform grow-out trials of Upland Rice varieties to determine suitability for the northern bioregion. Edgerton and Newday co-taught a course for seniors at Kalamazoo College on “Slow Farming” a form that is committed to limited and appropriate technology. Edgerton co-founded a local community garden in Martin, Mich. He has also served as a schoolteacher in the Martin Michigan public school, and, long ago, at The Learning Center, a parent-teacher non-public cooperative elementary school, in Fort Wayne.

Oakwood Foundation Chautauqua-Wawasee, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization focused on providing life-enriching programs to the northern Indiana region. For more information visit: www.chautauquawawasee.org or the Facebook site: www.facebook.com/ChautauquaWawasee.

Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was created to protect, preserve, and enhance the Wawasee Area Watershed for present and future generations. Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation was formed in 1991 to anticipate, seek out and resolve threats to the water quality in the Wawasee area watershed.

For more information visit wacf.com.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND — John Edgerton is returning to Chautauqua-Wawasee to offer a second workshop, discussion and presentation focused on “Gardening in the Face of a Changing Climate.”  The event will be held at the Syracuse Community Center. The event is free, but pre-registration is required. Photo provided.