Put together for the Growing Season at Gardening for Food, Flowers, Fun

WINNEBAGO COUNTY, Ill. — Garden lovers are invited to arrange for and welcome within the rising season with University of Illinois Extension and U of I Extension Master Gardeners at Gardening for Food, Flowers, and Fun. The day can have one thing for each gardener in each stage of their rising journey. Whether you have an interest in rising your individual meals, having a visually putting backyard, studying about pollinators, or extra, there’s something for you!

Gardening for Food, Flowers, and Fun will happen on March 14^th on the NIU Rockford Conference Center (8500 East State Street, Rockford, IL). Check-in begins at 8:30 AM, and the final session concludes at 12:00 PM. Kicking us off at 9 AM will probably be our Keynote speaker, David McKinney, Curator of Collections and Grounds from Iowa Arboretum, who will lead us by means of creating resilient gardens in his session Gardening in a Changing World: planning now in your backyard’s future.

Following the Keynote session, there will probably be two breakout periods. Session I choices are Beyond the Bees: an up-close have a look at lots of the different necessary creatures concerned in pollination, Happy Houseplants 101: Make and Take ($15 Cost), and Vegetable Gardening in Raised Beds and Containers. Session II choices embody Myth Busting Nature 2.0, The Joy of Growing Your Own Food, and Inside the Moonlight Garden at Midway Village. Throughout the day, members may take part in a silent public sale and seize free backyard books and magazines.

Preregistration will not be required, however it’s requested. Preregistration is $20. For extra data or to register, go to go.illinois.edu/GFFF2026Event or name our Winnebago County workplace at 815-986-4357.

If you want affordable lodging to take part on this program, please contact the Winnebago County Extension Office at 815-986-4357.

About Extension

University of Illinois Extension develops academic packages, extends data, and builds partnerships to help folks, communities, and their environments as a part of the state’s land-grant establishment. Extension serves because the main public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties by means of a community of 27 multi-county items and over 700 workers statewide. Extension’s mission is conscious of eight strategic priorities — neighborhood, economic system, surroundings, meals and agriculture, well being, partnerships, expertise and discovery, and workforce excellence — which can be served by means of six program areas — 4-H youth growth, agriculture and agribusiness, neighborhood and financial growth, household and shopper science, built-in well being disparities, and pure sources, surroundings, and vitality.

–Erin Garner, Illinois Extension serving Winnebago County