Ideas bloom for Dan River Region gardeners at 12th annual Spring to Green

In a first for the 12-year tradition, there was a cooking demonstration.

Technically it was just mixing, presenter Brannon Blount explained before her portion. Blount, a registered dietitian and master garden, had a table with ingredients for two recipes at the front of a room at the Old Dominion Agriculture Complex.

“Today I’m talking about honey and two recipes you could easily incorporate honey instead of sugar,” she told the Register & Bee about 10 minutes before she took the center spotlight, or at least the spotlight ring that illuminated her demonstration for the audience to see.

The Danville Master Gardeners Association and the Virginia Cooperative Extension hosted the event that drew about 150 people to Chatham on a chilly February afternoon.

“The mission of our event is to provide education and fun to the community,” Bonnie Hill, secretary of the Spring to Green committee, told the newspaper.

This year’s theme was “Grow! Healthy” which Hill said was not only for individuals but also the health of the environment.

Hill’s favorite part of the event is talking about gardening in February.

“Wasn’t it beautiful,” she said of Friday’s weather with highs reaching into the mid-60s. That came days before a potential bout with snow and ice this week, which illustrated Hill’s point of gardening talk in the dead of winter.

Debra Bailey, the chair of the Spring to Green committee, has been with the Danville Master Gardeners since 2001.

“My husband signed me up,” said with a laugh.

When she found out she had muscular dystrophy and couldn’t work anymore, her husband nudged her to do something to get out of the house.

He told her “you are the only person I know that can go to a store, buy a dead plant, bring it home and bring it back to life,” she said.

“I love it,” Bailey said of the organization, before quickly adding that the Spring to Green event has grown over the years.

The first one had 43 people.

Talking with other master gardeners is what Bailey likes the most about Saturday’s event.

“Even though I’ve been with them since 2001, I still learn every day,” she said.

Back at Blount’s portion, she highlighted honey as a more nutritious alternative to sweeteners.

“You want to consume honey just because it contains a lot of stuff,” she told the crowd. “It not only contains sweetness, it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins and pollen.”

Honey also is an antioxidant and has antiviral properties, she said, and it helps with the cardiovascular system.

“My whole thing as a dietitian is to showcase how easy it can be to make little small lifestyle factor changes,” she said, like swapping out table sugar for honey.

She’s not a believer in a mega diet overhaul. Instead, it’s smaller substitutes that can make a lasting impact.

Earlier in the morning, John Bowen, from Buncombe County, North Carolina, presented on lifelong gardening and aging.

“How you can think about the changes you may have to make in yourself and your garden as you find it more difficult to keep on gardening,” he told the newspaper of his earlier talk. “It’s really about coming to terms with the changes, what you can do to allow yourself to let go of some things and focus on the things that really matter to you.”

Bowen is a master gardener in the Asheville, North Carolina, area. Using container gardens — something that raises the plants off the ground — can help as people grow older.

“I love it because it brings together master gardeners and community gardeners that are not master gardeners and it’s a place to share ideas, just to talk to people, to hear things that you wouldn’t normally hear,” he said of Saturday’s event. “That blending of master gardeners and not-master gardeners is fantastic.”

That’s a point that Bailey also stressed. Saturday’s workshop was geared toward the general public.

Dale Batchelor, from Raleigh, North Carolina, focused on how landscape management practices can help wildlife.

“Basically it’s about how what we do in our yards support and provide for birds and pollinators,” she told the newspaper of her earlier talk. It’s also about working “with the environment instead of against it.”

Batchelor, the owner of a landscape consulting business, said she does a lot of speaking to garden groups.

“I like to speak to master gardeners because they are the front line,” she said. “I’m a missionary trying to spread a word, and the master gardeners are on the end of the phone when the homeowner calls and has a problem to solve.”

Rounding out the session was Ian Caton, of Wood Thrush Nursery, in Floyd, speaking on edible plants.

Caton’s deep-dive included some plants that can be consumed and was broken down into whether it’s a chore or hobby. Things like blue passionflower or elderberry are more labor-intensive to manage than wild strawberries or ramps.

“Anywhere I go, whether it’s Boston or here or wherever, you’ve got these different interesting mixes of people,” he said of events like Spring to Green. “It’s always interesting to see who’s attending, the general makeup of the participants.”

Applications are still being accepted through Feb. 17 for a new class of master gardeners. Training is a mix of online courses and in-person classes. There’s a $175 fee that covers the training materials.

To learn more about the class, contact Hill at 434-203-2554 or dabohill@verizon.net.