​Speakers Bureau
The following is a current list of topics available through the Virginia Beach Master Gardener Speakers' Bureau.  
To request one of these programs, please complete this form. These programs are designed for adult audiences. For youth and children's programs, please visit our Youth Programs page. 
AREC Garden Tours (Hampton Roads Agricultural Research Extension Center at 1444 Diamond Springs Road).  Speakers will be a Master Gardener Water Steward. This walking tour is conducted at the Agricultural Research Extension Center only. 

- Rain Garden Tour ​
Join a Master Garden Water Steward for a tour and            talk about rain gardens – how and why they are                  built, what to plant, how to maintain.
April - October
Time:  30 minutes

- Buffer Garden Tour
Join a Master Garden Water Steward for a tour and talk about buffer gardens – why they are constructed, what to plant.
April – October
Time:  45 minutes

- Sustainable Garden Tour
Join a Master Garden Water Steward for a tour and talk about sustainable gardening:  what makes up a sustainable garden and how to manage it. 
April – October
​Time:  45 minutes

​Backyard Composting
Let’s talk trash! Get answers to your questions about composting – even the ones you’re afraid to ask. This talk covers the basics of establishing a backyard compost, various methods of composting, and how to maintain it. Vermiculture (worm composting) is an optional topic that can be requested with this presentation.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 30 or 45 minutes
Speaker: Eileen Walsh                

Color in Your Autumn Landscape
Explore plants that offer great fall color in your garden. Annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees are discussed for their flower and foliage colors.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 30 or 45 minutes
Speaker: Betty Villers 

Concrete Leaf Casting
Learn how to make a concrete leaf casting for use as a bird bath, feeder, or decorative garden art. This presentation can be either a demonstration or a hands-on workshop.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: No
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Eileen Walsh

Container Gardening
Learn the important elements of putting together your own container garden:  how to plant, choosing the right container, picking and arranging the plants, and taking care of the container throughout the season and beyond.  Focus can be on flowers in the container and/or containers including vegetables.
Handouts Available:  Yes
PowerPoint:  Yes
Time:  30 or 45 minutes
Speaker:  Mary Hubbard

Crape Myrtles
This presentation provides an in-depth look at one of Virginia Beach’s favorite plants. Learn about the different varieties and sizes of crape myrtles and how to choose the right one for your landscape, as well as general care guidelines and correct pruning practices.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 30 or 45 minutes
Speaker: Betty Villers

Destination Trees: Trees to visit on your next road trip
Don’t know where to go on your next road trip? Make a tree your destination and see parts of the country you may have not seen before. Start locally with the Emancipation Oak and “branch” outward from there. Go to Utah to visit Pando while you’re visiting the national parks there. Visit the bristlecone pine, a tree that existed when Stonehenge was being built and the pyramids were not yet built. Visit a live oak that was saved due to a lie published in the newspaper. Trees can give you a glimpse into weird pruning styles, human history, and the joy of forest bathing.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 30 or 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern

​Sex and the Single Flower
How can you tell if a holly is male or female? How do gingko trees propagate? Where are the female flowers on an oak? What is a dioecious plant? Have you ever seen a fig flower? These and many other questions are answered in this talk about plant sex. So sit back and enjoy hearing about the sex lives of our plants.
​Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern

The Essence of Tree Chatter: How Trees Communicate with Each Other and the Roles Played by Fungi
As more research is being done, we are understanding the notion that trees can communicate with each other via a vast underground network of fungal mycelium that connects with trees’ roots. How does this happen? Books such as “Finding the Mother Tree” by Suzanne Simard, “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake, and “The Hidden Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben have piqued our interest in this vast topic. This talk breaks down the information into manageable bites that help us to “discover the wisdom of the forest” as stated by Simard.
​Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern

Various Weeds Talks
These talks look at common landscape weeds seen at the time each talk is given. Because they are so timely, scheduling needs to be done several weeks in advance. If possible, freshly harvested examples are shared with the audience. Managing a weed’s population begins with proper identification. Plus, it is lots of fun correctly identifying a weed. 
​​Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern
Herbs Then and Now
Learn about herbs used in Colonial times to Victorian times, to counter-act the odors in the street and during a time when people bathed infrequently.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: No
Time: 30 minutes
Speaker: Paula McCann            
​
Jumpstart Your Garden with Seeds
Find out how to extend your garden season by starting seeds indoors. This PowerPoint-based talk covers indoor seed sowing, seedling care, and transplanting. The presentation is appropriate for high school and adult ages.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 - 60 minutes
Speaker: Deb Henry                     

Miniature Gardens
Learn about the fundamentals of creating a miniature garden.  Presentation will include discussion of outdoor and/or indoor gardens, succulent container gardens, terrariums and aeriums.  Discussion will include choosing the right container, soil, choosing plants, how to plant in different containers, choosing accessories, and taking care of your garden.
Handouts Available:  Yes
PowerPoint:  Yes
Time:  45 minutes
Speaker:  Mary Hubbard 

Our Natives Are Under Attack!
Just when we think we can sit back and enjoy our wonderful native trees and shrubs, another pest lurks. Our oaks, sassafras, American beech, ashes, hemlocks, dogwoods and more are busy fighting off the pests they evolved with and now have to fight off more pests such as gypsy moth, thousand cankers disease, oak wilt, and more. You will also learn how to either manage the pests or learn what to expect as a pest infestation progresses. Let’s do our part in protecting our native trees and shrubs.
Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern 

Opening a Can of Worms: A Threat to Consider
We will look at characteristics of invasive earthworms such as the European earthworm and the Asian jumping earthworm to determine what makes them invasive and how they are disrupting our native forests and affecting biodiversity. We will also look at the ecology of our native earthworms and take a peek at the “new” invasive hammerhead worm.
Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern 

Can the Woolly Bear Caterpillar Predict Winter?  A peak at nature's calendar
When the seasons change, we notice changes in the length of the day, the air temperature, and plants and animals. The science is called phenology, which is keeping track of these changes that can help us see other changes related to climate. What trends are we seeing now and how are organisms in our environment being affected? And we may be able to answer the question, "Just how reliable is Punxsutawney Phil?"
Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 or 60 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern 

The Things We Do to Our Trees (And Still Expect Them to Live!)
We all want attractive landscapes with trees, yet we don’t always take care of them properly. These plants are the backbone of our landscapes and are the main focal points so we want our “yard art” to be not only attractive but also healthy. What practices do we need to become more aware of and how can we “fix” our mistakes? This talk looks at pruning practices, mulching, planting and placement and other strange things that people do to their trees.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern

​Virginia Beach Master Gardener Volunteers
​This talk provides an overview of the Virginia Beach Master Gardener volunteer program and the goals of the Virginia Cooperative Extension. It includes information about Master Gardener projects throughout the city of Virginia Beach, as well as how to become a Master Gardener.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 30 or 45 minutes
Speaker: Betty Villers
​
Water Quality: You and Your Garden Can Make a Difference
This presentation guides the homeowner through simple steps that can be taken in the yard to positively affect water quality.  Hampton Roads has many waterways….and even more paths to those waterways.  Everyone benefits from clean water...the oysters and you.
Handouts Available: Yes
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 25 minutes
Speaker: Mary Ann Kincaid

​Ghosts of Evolution and the Trees That Have Not Caught Up
Learn about plants that lost their living seed dispersers, plants with megafauna-adapted traits and now of little to no use, and plants chronologically out of place. Think about nonhuman consumers of avocadoes, osage oranges, and paw paws. When was the last time you saw a giant ground sloth or a mastodon? Yet their food sources still hang around. What other trees have not caught up with evolution?
​Handouts Available: No
PowerPoint: Yes
Time: 45 minutes
Speaker: Sherry Kern


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