STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
A Gardening Boot Camp is being offered by the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, beginning today.
The classes will address many of the things that are addressed in the Master Gardener course offered through the University of Idaho Extension Service. That class filled up quickly and has a long wait list.
The classes will address such things as soils and amended dirt, saving water through irrigation, growing food locally, pruning trees and shrubs, site planning and design and vegetables, berries and garden problem solving in the Wood River Valley,
The six-session course may be taken in its entirety or as individual classes.
The first two classes addressing soils and irrigation and waterwise landscaping will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. today—Saturday, Feb. 23.
Pruning Fruit Trees and Other Trees will be addressed from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, and Vegetables, Berries and Garden Problem Solving in the Wood River Valley will be addressed Tuesday, March 12.
Participants will get a lesson in site planning Tuesday, March 19, and they will have an opportunity for a landscape architect and landscape designer to review their designs Tuesday, March 26. All Tuesday classes are from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Instructors include landscape architects and designers, certified arborists and horticulturists.
“Everyone interested in cultivating plants in our challenging ecoregion is more than welcome,” said Jen Smith, executive director of the Sawtooth Botanical Garden. “Spring will be upon us before we know it!”
Classes will be held at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, four miles south of Ketchum at Highway 75 and gimlet Road.
Cost is $35 per class for SBG members or $180 for the series. It’s $40 per class for non-members and $210 per series. Drop-ins are welcome.
For information, visit www.sbgarden.org or call 208-726-9358.