See signs of spring in Secrest Arboretum

CFAES’ Secrest Arboretum in Wooster hosts a Guided Spring Walk at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 24. “Take a stroll through the arboretum and listen as our experts point out the signs of spring,” the event description says. “Keep an eye out for early bloomers.” Find further details.

A good sign: Wednesday’s forecast by the National Weather Service calls for sun and a high of 63 degrees. (Photo: Saucer magnolia, Getty Images.)

Visiting Secrest? You’re (even more) welcome

CFAES’ Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, a place that’s all about practicing, showing, and teaching ways to sustain healthy plant life, will soon have its first-ever visitor center. Called the Secrest Arboretum Welcome and Education Center (pictured), you can check it out plus buy some plants on Saturday, May 11.

Learn more. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Why get all pruney

CFAES’s Secrest Arboretum in Wooster is holding a workshop on pruning on March 8. Why? Experts say proper pruning of trees and shrubs can help them grow, look, flower and fruit better. It also can cut their pest and disease risk. Find details and a link to register ($25 for Friends of Secrest Arboretum members, $30 for nonmembers.) (Photo: iStock.)

Learn how to cut down a tree safely, and actually get to do it

When it comes to using a chainsaw, there are things you want to cut, like any of Ohio’s millions of still-standing dead ash trees killed by the emerald ash borer pest, and things you don’t want to cut, like … anything not a tree.

A class you can take on Aug. 3 will help you keep them straight. (Photo: iStock.)

Sept. 9 workshop on spotting, managing invasive tree pests

Got problems with emerald ash borers, gypsy moths or other invaders in your woods? Or just want to be ready in case they arrive? CFAES’s Ohio Woodland Stewards Program is giving a Sept. 9 workshop on spotting and managing non-native invasive tree pests. Get details here and here. Register here.

Urban green space expert at conference

Photo of High Line Park in New York 2Tom Smarr, horticulture director for The Parklands of Floyds Fork, a new urban park in Louisville, Kentucky, keynotes the Tri-State Green Industry Conference Feb. 4 in Cincinnati.

“(The conference) is for representatives of all sectors of the green industry,” said Julie Crook, horticulture program coordinator in OSU Extension’s Hamilton County office and chair of the event’s planning committee.

Smarr previously was horticulture director for New York City’s innovative High Line Park, shown here, which was built on an old elevated train track.

OSU Extension is CFAES’s outreach arm; CFAES is a conference co-sponsor. (Photo by Steven Severinghaus from Friends of the High Line licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)

Edible landscape workshop is Oct. 9

crabapples

Filé gumbo from sassafras leaves? Crabapple-powered Malus Mo Mas Magnifico Meatball Munchies? Secrest Arboretum’s first-ever ArborEatUm Edible Landscape Workshop (pdf) goes from 5-8 p.m. on Oct. 9. It features walks, talks, eating and recipe sharing, all based on plants you can grow in your own backyard and maybe already do. Registration varies from $25 to $10; you’ll pay less if you bring a recipe to share, and pay even less if you bring the actual dish. The arboretum is on the Wooster campus of CFAES’s research arm, OARDC. Details: 330-263-3831 or fischnich.1@osu.edu.