Home and Garden Show Provides a Wealth of Information by Heirloom Fan

If you have never attended one of the Home and Garden shows, you must give yourself a treat next year and plan to attend. The garden displays are well planned and give inspiration to those who want suggestions or help in choosing the right plant for their location.
This year, I volunteered as a Master Gardener at the CSU Extension Service booth. There were four of us as volunteers, and we were all kept busy for the entire 4 hour shift, answering questions and providing Garden Notes and Fact sheets for the many people who came to our table. It was fun to meet so many enthusiastic gardeners who want to improve the beauty of their home and yard with Colorado tested plants, trees, shrubs and lawns.

Colorado gardeners are well aware that what works for Front Range gardens may not work well in the mountains or other areas. The Fact Sheets that are available through the CSU Extension website are research based information which provides more sound advice to help you make the right choices. For example, when you visit your local garden center, look for plants that are marked with the PlantSelect logo. This means that the plants with this designation have been tested by both CSU and the Denver Botanic Gardens for proven performance and hardiness for gardening here in Colorado.

There is also a wide variety of fact sheets available including those for lawns, trees, vegetable and flower gardening, pest management and soil amendments. These are all available at no cost to you – all you have to do is access one of these sites, and browse at your leisure. If you find a fact sheet that you need, all you have to do it click on print and it prints right to your home computer printer. Here are the links you can access:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/pubs.html#water
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/reviewed.html
If you still need assistance after reading the material, you can call Jefferson County CSU Extension Office at 303-271-6620 and ask to speak to one of the experts on hand who can give you more help with your problem or question.  And remember that Master Gardeners will be on hand at other events such as some of the local Farmer’s Markets, so look for us, come up and say hi and feel free to pick up any materials we have on hand for you!