John Edgerton, an expert in small farming, will lead a discussion on gardening in a changing climate at Oakwood Saturday, Feb. 8

SYRACUSE  — Chautauqua-Wawasee, Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation and the Syracuse-Wawasee Garden Club are jointly sponsoring a presentation, discussion and workshop focused on “Gardening in the Face of a Changing Climate.”

The workshop will be held  from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Oakwood Resort Inn, Syracuse. The event is open to the public and free to attend. The first hour consists of a presentation. The 2-4 p.m. period will be for deeper discussion and questions.

The workshop will be led by John Edgerton of Shelbyville, Mich..  Edgerton has been doing small-scale farming for 40 years, striving always to work in cooperation with nature. In this workshop we plan to explore wholistic, resilient, sustainable techniques for gardening and small farming.

Participants will look at the importance of healthy soil, healthy plants and helpful insect habitat. Participants will also want to think about variety selection and other ways to account for climate-related imbalances of diseases and insects.

We will share what others in the bioregion are doing to address these issues. Finally, we want to think beyond our own personal garden: We will consider the importance of collaborating and cooperating in our wider communities to build on food security and justice.