[Education] Midwest Grows Green invites you to attend our sustainable landscaping workshops!

[Leah McSherry]

Dear Chicago Community Gardeners Association,

Have you considered transitioning your greenspaces away from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers? The non-profit Midwest Grows Green<https://midwestgrowsgreen.org/> (MGG) initiative invites you to attend one or both of our October 26th half-day workshops<https://midwestgrowsgreen.org/the-forum/> at Thatcher Woods Pavilion<https://www.forestpreserveevents.com/thatcher-woods-pavilion> in River Forest, IL! The workshops will identify, teach and demonstrate organic and sustainable landscaping. Registration is $30 for each at bit.ly/SustainableLandscaping22<https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5536034>.

The morning workshop will cover natural lawn care practices, equipment, products and approaches. Keynote speaker Dr. AJ Lindsey<https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty-profiles/aj-lindsey/>, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, will discuss how to improve turfgrass sustainability with organic soil amendments and fertilizers. Following, MGG's Technical Assistance Program<https://midwestgrowsgreen.org/nlc-technical-assistance/> team of Ryan Anderson and Vytas Pabedinskas will demonstrate soil and site assessment techniques at River Forest Park District's pesticide-free Priory Park.

In the afternoon, MGG's Anderson and Natural Communities LLC.'s<https://naturalcommunities.net/> Nick Fuller will share pest and weed management practices and strategies that demonstrate proficiency in sustainable and/or organic landscaping. Their presentations will detail how to reduce or eliminate herbicide use in natural area management by implementing the Flywheel Weed Management Approach<https://lawnandland.org/natural-area-management/the-flywheel-weed-management-approach> and its four spokes of (1) Investigation, Planning and Prevention<https://lawnandland.org/natural-area-management/flywheel-spoke-1-investigation-planning-and-prevention>, (2) Plant and Seed Selection<https://lawnandland.org/natural-area-management/flywheel-spoke-2-plant-selection>, (3) Alternative Weed Control Products and Practices<https://lawnandland.org/natural-area-management/flywheel-spoke-3-alternative-invasive-weed-management> and (4) Evaluation and Improvement<https://lawnandland.org/natural-area-management/flywheel-spoke-4-evaluation-improvement>.

Attending either the morning or afternoon workshops will equip you with the necessary tools to pursue and achieve our new sustainable landscaping standards, Green Shield Certified for Landscapes<https://greenshieldcertified.org/for-landscapes/>. Learn more about GSC for Landscapes from our overview video at bit.ly/GSCoverview<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p-AFfQxXKM>.

I hope to see you on October 26th! Thank you and please let me know of any questions,

Leah McSherry (she/her/hers)
Marketing & Community IPM Specialist

IPM Institute of North America, Inc.
211 S Paterson St., Suite 380<https://goo.gl/maps/B1p4Tv7iyWGJJope6>
Madison, WI  53703<https://goo.gl/maps/B1p4Tv7iyWGJJope6>
P: 608 232-1410 x1017
F: 608 232-1440
IpmInstitute.org<https://ipminstitute.org/>
GreenShieldCertified.org<https://greenshieldcertified.org/>
MidwestGrowsGreen.org<https://midwestgrowsgreen.org/>

[cid:image001.png at 01D8B3E7.421A5970]

Unsubscribe<mailto:LMcSherry at ipminstitute.org?subject=Unsubscribe%20885EC407%2DBA02%2D4EEE%2DBC41%2DD92EC4BC9ADB&body=Please%20don%27t%20change%20the%20email%20content%20and%20send%20this%25email%20to%25unsubscribe.%0D%0A%0D%0Aeducation at chicagocommunitygardens.org>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/pipermail/education_chicagocommunitygardens.org/attachments/20220822/36ca8a6e/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 64047 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/pipermail/education_chicagocommunitygardens.org/attachments/20220822/36ca8a6e/attachment-0001.png>