Come listen to some of the foremost garden experts in our area and the Southeast! The Sacred Heart Garden Festival has welcomed many garden experts over the years, offering visitors how-to demonstrations as well as tips and tricks to add more splendor to their own gardens.
We invite you to learn from their wealth of knowledge and experience through educational seminars and interactive demonstrations on many garden-related topics.
Please scroll down for the speaker schedule.
| Friday April 22 | |
|---|---|
| 9:30 AM |
Brie ArthurThe Plant LadyA New Era of Foodscaping |
| 11:00 AM |
Mary CaddellGeorgia Native Plant SocietyGardening Is for the Birds |
| Saturday April 23 | |
|---|---|
| 9:30 AM |
Mike GibsonTopiary ExpertFor the Love of Topiary |
| 11:00 AM |
Laurie RitchieJ and L FarmsYou and Sustainable Growing |
| 12:30 PM |
Campbell VaughnUGA Agriculture and Natural Resource agent for Richmond CountyNavigating Your Landscape |
Known for her leadership with the national Foodscape movement and her lively, information packed presentations, Brie Arthur is a celebrated speaker and bestselling author. With two decades of professional horticulture experience she now shares her expertise as a correspondent on the Emmy award winning PBS Television show “Growing a Greener World”. You can follow Brie’s gardening journey through her website, BrieGrows.com or her social media and YouTube channel, Brie the Plant Lady.
A NEW ERA OF FOODSCAPING
With so many new people interested in gardening now is time to address all the benefits that growing beauty and bounty offer! Join best-selling author and horticulturist Brie Arthur for a BRAND-NEW presentation combining expert gardening advice from both of her books. From container growing, to creative combinations to attract pollinators this program will offer a fresh take and practical gardening advice no matter your skill level. Get ready to be inspired to foodscape!
Mary has been playing in the dirt since childhood. Her love for wildlife and birds grew into an awareness of the increasing loss of the plant diversity and habitat they rely on. Recently retired from practicing Physical Therapy, she can now be found in the garden or outdoor spaces, the wilder the better. Mary is a founding member and President of the newly-formed Augusta chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society. She is active in the Lifelong Learning program at Phinizy Center where she also assists in invasive plant removal and is a volunteer at a local nursery focused on native plants. Over the past few years, she has replaced non-native plants on her own property with native plants, and is now reaping the benefits of a beautiful and diverse landscape filled with native pollinators and birds.
Mike ‘GibbySiz’ Gibson is an internationally recognized self-taught Topiary Artist, and currently the Artist-in-Residence helping to restore the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden in Bishopville, SC. Gibson fell in love with art and landscaping at a young age and has spent the past 25 years beautifying residential and commercial spaces throughout the country. He even created 330 (representing the zip code) topiaries to help revitalize the neighborhoods around his hometown of Youngstown, OH. He was most recently a featured contestant on Discovery Plus topiary competition, “Clipped” (2021) with Martha Stewart, and created topiaries in collaboration with sculpture artist Pamela Council’s Fountain for Survivors in Times Square, NYC. To date, Gibson has created close to 500 whimsical topiary sculptures. Gibson will be discussing the art of topiary, his current work with Pearl Fryar, and demonstrating his own style. Photo by Lamar Sykes Photography.
A respected farmer-member of Augusta Locally Grown, Laurie Ritchie is a former middle and high school English teacher. When Laurie and her husband, John, purchased their 14-acre farm in Hephzibah in 2007, they planned to grow lots of vegetables for themselves. It didn’t take long for them to realize much more was involved than putting plants or seeds in the ground. Re-education herself in an entirely different “field,” Laurie has been a speaker at Georgia Organics Conferences, a Farmer Friend at local elementary schools, a farm-to-table caterer at Brandon Wilde Assisted Living, and offers various classes year-round at J and L Farm and Stables.
Campbell Vaughn was born in Augusta and graduated high school from Augusta Prep in 1990. Campbell earned a Bachelor’s of Science of Agriculture at UGA in 1994. He worked in corporate sales for 7 years in Atlanta with Georgia Pacific and Bellsouth. Campbell then returned to UGA for a Landscape Architecture degree and graduated with a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture. After graduating from UGA for a second time, Campbell moved back to Augusta and opened his own Landscape Architecture business called Campbell Vaughn Design Group, specializing in residential redesign. He currently serves as the UGA Augusta-Richmond County Cooperative Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as director of local office of 12 Extension employees.
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