Traverse City Record-Eagle

Business

February 16, 2013

Farm Focus in Brief: 02/16/2013

Traverse City Record-Eagle

Community Garden

SOUTH HAVEN — “Starting a Community Vegetable Garden: Community Garden Leadership Training” will be offered from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at Lake Michigan College in South Haven.

Neighborhood groups, community organizations, educators and religious and nonprofit volunteers can come and learn about the essentials of coordinating a successful community garden. The workshop would be appropriate for those interested in school and institutional gardens as well.

The workshop will help garden leaders learn proven methods and techniques that can simplify organizing and sustaining a community garden. Also discussed will be ways to avoid conflict and methods for engaging and inspiring higher levels of participation. The workshop is based on American Community Garden Association’s Growing Communities curriculum and will be taught by an MSU Extension educator. The cost of the workshop is $25.

To register or for more information, call (269) 657-8213.

ANR Week 2013

EAST LANSING — Are you interested in gardening? Searching for ways to make your garden flourish this spring? Agriculture and Natural Resources Week 2013 provides several workshops to enhance that green thumb.

ANR Week is an annual event on the Michigan State University campus that hosts a wide variety of meetings, workshops and conferences in areas including agriculture, horticulture and natural resources. The event is slated for March 2-9.

The following horticulture-related conferences are featured during ANR Week 2013:

n Michigan Wildflower Conference, March 3-4 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center; information and registration form at http://www.wildflowersmich.org/index.php?menu=5.

n Michigan Herb Associates 26th Annual Conference March 8-9 at the Eppley and Kellogg centers; to register online, visit http://miherb.org./?path=registration.

In addition, the Michigan Gladiolus Conference is at the Holiday Inn West in Kalamazoo. For more information, contact Ewart at ewart@msu.edu.

Formerly known as Farmers’ Week, ANR Week is in its 98th year. Learn more at www.canr.msu.edu/anrweek.

Free webinars

EAST LANSING — The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development is offering a series of webinars, “Innovations in Agriculture and Rural Development.”

The free online workshops are designed for business owners and entrepreneurs in agriculture-related industries to learn more about land-grant university-developed technology that is relevant to current and future business operations.

Registration for each webinar will be open until the day of the event. Upcoming sessions include “Working with Distilled Spirits” Feb. 26, “Farm-Based Biocontrol Seed Treatments for Improving Soybean Yields” March 28 and “Biodiesel Production and Water Capture from Swine Waste” April 26.

To register or for more information, visit http://web2.msue.msu.edu/events/event.cfm?folder=Agruraldev or contact Rosa Soliz at 517-355-3373 or soliz@msu.edu.

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