Thought some GW members might be interested in this press release:

Myriad Botanical Gardens Announces Topic, Speakers for Gardening School 2014:
"From Chard to Chickens: Rethinking the American Kitchen Garden"

Oklahoma City The theme for Myriad Botanical Gardens annual Oklahoma Gardening School, sponsored by Devon Energy Corp., is "From Chard to Chickens: Rethinking the American Kitchen Garden." Date and times are March 15, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Gardening School will be held in the Devon Auditorium, located at the corner of Sheridan and Hudson in downtown Oklahoma City. Parking is available on the street, in the Sheridan-Walker parking garage or at the Cox Center.

Cost to attend is $30 per member and $60 per nonmember. An optional box lunch is available for $13. To register, visit myriadgardens.org or call 405.445.7080 Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to register by phone.

About the event:
You can't get more local or fresh than by growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs. Join us for an exciting day of garden talks where you will learn about how to apply new ways to design, plant and maintain a healthy kitchen garden.

Topics covered will include ways to: design edible garden spaces; grow edibles in containers; amend soil and water/irrigate plants; prevent or treat common insect and disease problems using organic methods; recommend fruit, vegetable and herb cultivars that will flourish under our unique Oklahoma conditions. The program will also offer ways to conserve water in your edible garden and tips on raising chickens in the urban environment.

Whether you have a balcony or a big backyard (or front yard!), we have a terrific line-up of nationally-known and local experts who will share their knowledge, creativity and years of experience to help you become a successful gardener.

A special, pre-conference session entitled Chicken School, led by Rosalind Creasy has been added. It will take place from noon to 1:30, March 14, in the second floor conference room at the Crystal Bridge. Cost to attend is $10 members; $15 nonmembers. Participants may bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy during the session.

About Chicken School: Chickens make great additions to any Kitchen Garden. They of course produce tasty and free eggs for you but also help to control bugs and fertilize soils in your garden too. Plus, they are just plain fun and fascinating to watch roam around. Learn all about how to successfully keep chicken in your backyard to maintain healthy and happy egg laying hens. You'll learn about how to select hens, providing different types of coops and how to feed, water, clean and troubleshoot or treat disease issues. You'll also learn the latest City of Oklahoma City policies on keeping chickens so residents can be in compliance with current guidelines.

Gardening Schedule highlights include:
9:10-10:15 a.m.
Delicious Designs: Harvesting Creativity for Your Garden
Tres Fromme, Landscape Design and Planning Manager, Atlanta Botanical Garden

How do you make your dream Kitchen Garden a reality in the space you have available for planting and growing edible plants? People are familiar with the end product of a successful design process, but they rarely see all the mysterious steps and ideas leading up to the final product. Fromme will share inspiring design ideas and recommendations for approaching designing a garden. You will learn fundamental garden design tips and techniques that you can apply to both edible and ornamental gardens. His talk will conclude with a virtual tour of the innovative and popular Edible Garden the Atlanta Botanic Garden recently opened.
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Vegetable Gardening in Oklahoma
Brian Pirtle, Manager, Cedar Springs Farm

Pirtle will give you an overview of when and how to plant specific cultivars, varieties, hybrids and heirloom plants, and a month-by-month yearly schedule of necessary maintenance. With his tips and training, you can be sure you're doing everything possible to ensure a successful harvest.
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Edible Landscaping The New American Garden
Rosalind Creasy, Gardener, Author, Garden Photographer, Lecturer

In this presentation, you will see and learn about how to rethink your growing spaces to create sustainable and ornamental edible gardens. Rosalind Creasy, a pioneer in the field of edible landscaping, award-winning professional photographer, and author of the Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, will give a mouth-watering slide presentation sure to help you reenvision how you can grow edible crops to have beautiful, productive garden. Among the topics she will cover are an A to Z of her recommended beautiful edible plants for home gardens and the principles of landscape design particular to edibles as well as many tips and techniques for growing edibles.
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Preventing and Treating Common Oklahoma Pest and Disease Problems in Your Edible Garden
Samantha Synder, Garden Radio Show Host, KTOK

Samantha will combine her education and expertise with her own personal garden experience to give attendees insight in soil development, pest and disease management, and integrated pest management practices so that you too can garden in a way that stays close to organic. It is often said that a good defense is the best offense - the garden is no different.

About the speakers:
Rosalind Creasy helped re-envision how Americans think about where and how they garden with edible plants. As far back as 1970, Rosalind Creasy was a pioneer in the field of Edible Landscaping. Her work has since revolutionized the way that many of us think about gardening. Cooking from the garden, eating organic and eating fresh are all possible and not as hard as you might think to do yourself. Her groundbreaking classic book, Edible Landscaping, was updated in November of 2010 and is now in its third printing.

Tres Fromme is the landscape design and planning manager at Atlanta Botanical Garden in Atlanta, Georgia where he oversees the design for the Gardens' indoor and outdoor displays and seasonal exhibits. Tres helped create the state-of-the-art Edible Garden displays at the Atlanta Botanical Garden which opened several years ago and has become of the more popular garden sites. From vertical edible gardening to raised beds and more, this garden has much to teach any home gardener about how to design kitchen gardens that are productive, useful, stylish and beautiful.

Brian Pirtle is a passionate, enthusiastic presenter who will share more than 25 years of horticulture knowledge. He is currently the manager of Cedar Spring Farms, a hydroponic vegetable farm that specializes in tomatoes, lettuce, culinary herbs, edible flowers, micro-greens, wheat grass and some traditional agriculture crops such as squash, eggplant, okra and peppers. His background also includes landscaping, maintenance, plant production, and nursery management. You may recognize him from his regular appearance on TLC's Lets Talk Gardening Show and recall his voice as he was often a guest on a weekly gardening radio show in Tulsa.

Samantha Snyder is a local gardener who can be heard every Saturday from 11-1pm on KTOK 1000 AM where she helps listeners with their own horticultural dilemmas. She is also an adjunct instructor for the thriving OSU-OKC Horticulture Department. Prior to this, Samantha was a horticulture educator for four years at Oklahoma State University Extension where she helped homeowners with a wide array of gardening issues. When she isn't taking care of those two jobs she is at home with her husband and two daughters working in her own flower and vegetable gardens while the small flock of chickens cluck away in the background.

The Myriad Botanical Gardens is one of Oklahoma City's most beloved public spaces, offering its visitors a 17 acre natural escape in the very heart of downtown. A half-acre children's garden, an off-leash dog park, restaurant space, splash fountains, and paths for walking and jogging provide guests young and old with a place to seek solitude with nature, or seek community and the company of others. Additionally, the Myriad Gardens offers a variety of horticultural education programs for adults and children.
The Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory's unique design has earned attention and praise in the architectural community. It is 224 feet long, 70 feet in diameter, and is covered by 3,028 sections of translucent, double-layered acrylic panels. The Conservatory includes 13,000 square feet of plant display area in two distinct climates: the Tropical Wet Zone, which is at the south end and is watered daily; and the Tropical Dry Zone at the north end which receives water from April through September, followed by drought from November through March. Some 2,000 varieties of plants and a 35-foot waterfall round out the spectacular features of the Conservatory.