Carol DeVries
13330 40th Marne, MI
(616) 915-9744
carolydevries@gmail.com
Honorarium: $25.00 to $75.00 plus mileage, depends on size / resources of group. Happy to skip honorarium if a good cause.
Topics: After decades of presenting, I have assembled a list of my most popular talks. I will be happy to bring my own equipment to project onto your screen, or connect to your HDMI compatible TV, or insert my flash drive into your equipment.
Beastly Battle – There are so many animals that create issues for us and so many conflicting opinions on how to deter them. After committing the time and money to arm yourself like your friends advised, you find your plants are still under attack. This talk explores what really does work as a defense and what doesn’t.
Can You Dig It? (Soil) – Improving our soil is the single most important thing we can do for our gardens and yet we give it little though. It is possible to get great soil without all the heavy lifting and lots of digging. This talk explores simple fixes for our soil and why clay & sand are different.
Container Contentment – We love the look of flowers at the front door, but oh the work! Let’s look at how to put together your containers so they will be easy to maintain, how to select the right plants to make a beautiful arrangement, how to keep your container looking fresh through the summer, and how to overwinter that container for use in the coming year.
Discovering Daylilies – Daylilies can seem like a ho hum plant, but the modern hybridized varieties are stunning. Here we get practical direction on things to look for in a good daylily, general care of them, three methods to propagate, and how to landscape with them.
Hosting a Hosta – Of course you love your Hosta, but there is so much more to a lovely shade garden then plopping it in the ground. This is a fresh look at this mainstay of the shade garden. Down to earth direction on all care aspects through all four seasons and putting together an attractive shade garden.
Quit Bugging Me! – There are so many insects out there. Which are beneficial and which are harmful? It can be hard to tell them apart and know what to do. This talk explores how to figure out who you are facing and what to do about the ones that are bothering your garden as well as your family.
Seasonal Steps - We love our plants, don’t we? But why do we always start with so much eager anticipation in the spring only to end up with a weedy mess by August? It doesn’t have to be that way, and it doesn’t have to make a wreck of us to have it looking nice all year. This talk explores some simple changes in the timing of what we do and how it can simplify and beautify our gardens.
Surviving Your Garden - Keeping your garden lovely shouldn’t make a wreck out of you! So, let’s open my bag of tricks and look at what I have discovered that helps to make maintenance of our gardens less of a chore. There is plenty of advice on how to do it perfectly, this is the talk on how to get it done. Discussing what equipment works, easier ways to do things, issues with commonly grown plants, and designing a garden layout that works for you.
Winning Against Weeds – Weeds are the enemy of all gardeners and the single most hated thing we deal with in our gardens. But how much time have we spent studying them and how best to approach ridding ourselves of them? This talk lays out practical steps to stop them from emerging and slowly evolve your weeding from a summer long chore to an occasional task.
Background:
Advanced Master Gardener for over a decade
Past President of Grand Valley Daylily Society
Past President of Grand Valley Dahlia Society
2008 Volunteer of the Year for the Master Gardener Program
2004 Volunteer of the Year for the Junior Master Gardener Program
Three years as Chair of the “Stuck on Gardening” Tour by the Kent County Master Gardeners
