Cowlitz County Expo Center plants roots for 2020 Home and Garden Show

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The Cowlitz County Expo Center, located at 1900 Seventh Ave. in Longview, is getting ready to offer two days of free gardening workshops for home gardeners as the growing season starts up once again. 

Taking place March 21-22, the Home and Garden Show will offer more than 10 free classes ranging in focus from mason bees to irrigation tactics over the two days.

On March 21, head over to the expo center early as classes start at 9:30 a.m. with a “growing vegetables, where to start” workshop hosted by Washington State University Master Gardener Billie Bevers. Bevers will discuss what to do in your vegetable garden, how to get an early start on growing and what it takes to maintain healthy plants. 

At 11 a.m., WSU Master Gardener Wendy Santiago will offer landscaping tips and lead landscapers through the common mistakes made by novice landscapers. Santiago will also show how to bring texture, form, shape and more to your landscape. She will also teach creative design techniques and what to consider when selecting plants. 

WSU Master Gardener Bryan Iverson is set to talk about controlling moles at noon on Saturday. Discussion will include which techniques are the most effective in getting rid of moles as well as what products work and which fail.

Mason bees are the topic of the fourth workshop hosted on Saturday. Bring all your questions to the “Mason Bee Quick Class” hosted by Bille Bevers at 1 p.m. The brief demonstration and talk will help save you money on nesting materials. Bevers will also answer questions about the important pollinators. At 1:20 p.m., WSU Master Gardener Roxanne Nakamura will share ideas on how to use native plants in landscapes to create a “beautiful pollinator heaven.” 



At 2 p.m., WSU Master Gardener Gary Hinderman will explain common sense and methodical approaches to growing healthy gardens and creating a sensible, comprehensive and systematic way to handle pests and diseases in the garden. At 2:20 p.m., Master Gardener Trisha Bonapace will teach attendees how to grow microgreens and what they are, how they can easily add color to a meal and their ease of growth. 

Closing out the Saturday classes is an introduction to worm composting at 2:40 p.m. Learn how to compost your kitchen scraps and create nutrient-rich compost for the garden and how to cultivate the hard working red-wiggler worms to help you. 

Three hour-long classes will be held on Sunday, March 22. Kicking off the day will be a do-it-yourself irrigation workshop at 11 a.m. WSU Master Gardener Jerry Winchell will explain how to construct a simple and inexpensive sprinkler system that can be used for vegetable gardens, hanging baskets, porch plants and more. At noon, WSU Master Gardener Helen Redmond will teach the benefits of growing certain plants alongside each other in a “companion planting” workshop. 

Closing out the weekend of fun will be Duane Leaf and Debbie Stanley from the Three Rivers Regional Wastewater Authority. Leaf and Stanley will explain what class-A biosolids are, the process that renders them safe and useful and how to use them in your garden. The solids work as a slow-acting fertilizer that gradually release nutrients into the soil for vegetables, perennials and trees.