Dorman Greenhouses and Mississippi State Trial Gardens will be offering classes and putting on various events for the community. There will be three events this month alone.
The month kicks off on Oct. 7, with Bully’s Pumpkin Patch, at the Trial Gardens. This will be an event open to all. Tickets are free, and can be accessed through the Facebook page of the Trial Gardens, https://www.facebook.com/mstrialgarden/
The pumpkin patch will be open to folks of all ages. The event will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Bully’s Pumpkin Patch will also feature pictures with Bully and will feature maroon and white pumpkins. Pumpkins will be for sale, and there will be games for children. Volunteers are also welcome. If interested, feel free to contact the Facebook page for information on volunteering.
On the second Tuesday of each month, the Trial Gardens puts on a class at 7 p.m. People can be enrolled in these classes for a fee of around $25 a class.
This month’s class will incude making Mumpkins. Attendees will plant mums into a pumpkin. Each person in the class will receive information on how to take care of mums, a hands-on teaching experience about the weatherization of pumpkins and a mum plant inside a pumpkin, made by each participant.
Enrollment is accessed through the Facebook page. On the first class, each participant will get a punch card. After filling up these punch cards with events, the Trial Gardens gives a free class. This month’s class is taught by Kandiace Gray.
On Halloween, the Trial Gardens will host Halloween in the Garden, another free event, open to all ages. Currently, there are over 400 children registered, so those who are interested might want to get a jump on it now.
Several local businesses in town and student organizations will have booths set up in the garden for children to trick-or-treat. The event will start at 4 p.m. Hunter Stewart, a student worker in the greenhouse, will help set up the event.
“We are inviting families to come to both events and spend the day in the gardens,” Stewart said.
Trial garden workers and volunteers will be helping children stay safe and have fun in the pumpkin patch.
The Trial Gardens are located in the Research Loop of campus. Folks are welcome to come see the gardens at any time. The Gardens grow plants year-round and sell off surplus each season. There will be a surplus sale around mid October.
In November, the “Do-It-Yourself” class will be making holiday centerpieces. The base of each class involves a presentation on the plants, maintenance and planting the plant that participants get to take home.
Geoff Denny, the assistant extension professor of the Trial Gardens, encourages people who are novice gardeners to come to any of these classes.
“The general public is intimidated by gardening,” Denny said. “The idea with these classes was to give people hands-on projects, for people who have never gardened before, designed to teach you something along the way.”
The Trial Gardeners believe that people will learn more by actually putting the soil in the pot, planting a plant and arranging it.
For those who think all gardening hope is lost, Denny has some sage words.
“It’s not a puppy,” Denny said. “Nobody calls PETA if your plants die. People develop a sense of guilt or failure about it. No. Think of it as a floral arrangement that lasts six weeks instead of six days.”
