Joseph Tychonievich will be one of the featured speakers at this year’s Gardening in the Northern Neck seminar hosted by the Northern Neck Master Gardeners. The seminar is scheduled for Saturday, March 26, at the White Stone Church of the Nazarene, 57 Whisk Drive in White Stone. This will be the 28th Gardening in the Northern Neck Seminar, and the theme of the seminar is “Landscape, Viewscape, Escafpe!”
Joseph’s topic will be “Rock Gardening: Reimaging a Classic Style for Today’s Garden.” He will show how rock gardens can be created in a space that would otherwise be wasted and bring additional beauty to the garden. Rock gardens are also a way to create sustainable, drought-tolerant plantings in a water-wise garden, often offering great color and texture.
A noted garden writer, plant breeder, and self-confessed passionate lover of plants, Joseph is well known on the horticultural speakers’ circuit for his engaging presentations which, as he states, combine rigorous science-based information with lots of silly jokes. He states that his goal for each presentation is for everyone to laugh and learn something new and useful.
Organic Gardening magazine named Joseph “one of six young horticulturists who are shaping the American garden.” The senior curator at the Denver Botanic Garden has described him as “being in the forefront of public speaking in horticulture today.”
After studying horticulture, plant breeding, and genetics at Ohio State University, Joseph went on to work as nursery manager at Arrowhead Alpines, a premier rock garden nursery in Fowlersville, Michigan. He is currently the editor of Rock Garden Quarterly. These low-maintenance gardens remain just one of his many enthusiasms: his personal gardening activities not merely fill his own South Bend, Indiana, garden but spill over into his friend’s garden and even down the stairs into a basement set-up of grow lights and containers. In addition to gardening, experimenting, writing and photography, he also produces a regular series of podcasts on a wide range of topics.
Come and join the Northern Neck Master Gardeners and be educated – and entertained – as Joseph explores the potentials of this often overlooked field. The fee for the seminar is $50. Additional information is available at nnmg.org/gnn. Registration forms are available here.