Vermont Certified Horticulturist Program

This program was created to help clients find qualified professionals in the field of horticulture and set a high level of ethical standards within our industry. Vermont Certified Horticulturists can answer questions on landscape design, construction, arboriculture, lawn care, disease, insects and plant knowledge. A VCH must pass a rigorous exam and possess a Bachelor's degree or post secondary education combined with employment in the horticulture field.

I became a Vermont Certified Horticulturist in 2000 and have remained certified ever since. To maintain certification a Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association member must achieve continuing education credits throughout the year. This includes attending 2 annual VNLA meetings, educational workshops, presenting seminars to organizations and subscribing to horticulture literature. My business has benefited by keeping up to date on the latest trends and research in horticulture. There are currently 80 certified horticulturists in Vermont.

http://greenworksvermont.org/

FHF Perennial Gardens - Spring 2011

I hope everyone is ready for Spring as much I am, this has been a long, cold snowy Winter! I have come up with a plan to renovate the front entrance gardens to the Hortfarm this Spring. Fairfax Perennial Farm, a local wholesale nursery has agreed to donate the perennials for these beds, thank you! Most of the existing perennials will be potted up and sold at our annual Plant Sale in July. The beds will be prepared with compost and planted with showy low maintenance perennials. The beds will feature new cultivars of the following perennials: Phlox, Echinacea, Leucanthemum, Rudbeckia, Sedum, Hemerocallis and Iris. The FHF interns will be involved in the planting and maintenance of these beds and should be a great learning experience for them. My goal is to improve the look of the front entrance and invite people to come through the gate.

Please consider volunteering to help clean up and maintain the gardens on the following maintenance workdays: April 23rd 9-1pm and May 7th 9-1pm. The gardens have to be edged and mulched to look their best before the Bloomtime festival on May 21st. Master Gardener's receive volunteer hours for this and I can guarantee you there will be no shortage of work and fellow gardeners to chat with! There will be another maintenance day later on July 16th 10-1pm to spruce up the gardens for our annual Plant Sale on July 24th. I want to thank all of the volunteers who have helped in the past and future, without you the gardens would not look as beautiful as they are. I am continuing to work on making new labels for the perennial garden. This is a long, tedious task that will require the expertise of Leonard Perry to help I.D. the plants. The labels are made by UVM interns under the direction of Mark Starrett. I hope to have some new labels made by the Spring of 2012. I'll see you around the Hortfarm, Brian.