The West Virginia University Extension Service’s Master Gardener program in Kanawha County will offer a tree pruning class on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the North Charleston Community Center located at 2009 7th Avenue in Charleston. The class is free and open to the public.

Sharing my garden knowledge with my son has been a top priority for me since finding out that I would be a father.

As members of the human race, we have had countless experiences, from the unbearably mundane to the spectacular. This influences everything, from the choices we make to the way we think. And no two people have had the same set of experiences.

By the time a young Tom Hardman started working at his family-owned business in Spencer in 1972, the Hardman Supply Company’s happenstance relationship with a very specific green bean had already been long established.

School bells and school buses — it must be September. As summer is winding down and the school year is getting started, I am thinking about the ABCs of fall gardening.

I’m just back from visiting my friends who live in the big city.

The frost-free spring and the high temperatures this summer were the perfect conditions for a bad wasp year.

When I was young, I had — surprise, surprise — a LOT of opinions.

County fair, school fair, heck, “My Fair Lady.” I love a fair, but nothing is quite like a state fair. It’s August, which means I’m headed to Fairlea, home of the fairgrounds and the State Fair of West Virginia, which runs Aug. 8-17.

I’m just in from walking my back gardens, and the blackberry lilies are getting ready to bloom. It’s always fun to watch new buds turn to flowers, but this plant excites me. There is something special about its flower, like it is hiding a secret to reveal later.

The other day as I commenced my weekly lawn mower disentombing from the garden shed, it dawned on me that I may have too many garden and lawn tools.

Referencing the American Begonia Society, there are over 1,000 named species in the begonia genus or family, and they are often divided into seven different categories. Some are much more common than others, so for the sake of this column, let’s focus on two of the well-known types — cane and wax.

Around this time each year, I start getting calls from family, friends and the general public asking about sick or under-performing apple trees. Most of these calls revolve around the same three questions:

Dearest readers, I have a secret. Sort of. Not really, though it’s perhaps not the common knowledge one might expect. Quite simply, it is this: Gardening is an incredibly accessible and feasible hobby, as long as you approach it with flexibility and without specific expectations.

My first kitchen garden was truly just that ... a few pots hanging on the railing outside my kitchen door. I loved it! I felt like a gourmet cook, stepping out the door and snipping plants, then adding them to my dish.

With the spring planting and summer garden seasons upon us, it will not be long before some type of disease or critter is having its way with my garden crops.

Last month, my column was all about rooting for the underdog and being willing to open up to the possibility that certain “nuisances,” like weeds, are actually quite beneficial. It was about love and acceptance, of a sort.

As I was thinking of ways to share my love of gardening, I thought of pizza. Yes, pizza. Planting a pizza garden to be exact. Gardening, cooking and eating pizza — a trifecta of delight!

I run across very few people who can tell the difference between soil and potting media. To make matters worse, companies that sell soil products are not always forthright on the labeling.

Look at that beautiful weather. Spring flowers are blooming, trees are leafing out. All of this can all only mean one thing: Weeds. The weeds are back in all of their glory and majesty. Huzzah and jubilation!

I mentioned in a previous article that the No. 1 question I get asked is, “How do I keep the deer from eating my plants?”

Jane, what are your top 10 perennials? The question was an innocent one, asked casually and off the cuff, with no idea of the tailspin it would create in my mind.