Pre-registration required.

Cost: $25 (25% off for BGA Members)

Sometimes the cure can seem worse than the disease. So it is with pesticides for insects, funguses and invasive exotic weeds. This class provides pointers on defining what is truly a pest and when and how to manage it with the least harm to pollinators. SPOILER ALERT: Insects sometimes viewed as pests, like wasps, are among the best pest managers, and diversity is a gardener’s best friend! 

INSTRUCTOR

Brannen Basham, with his wife Jill Jacobs, owns Spriggly’s Beescaping, a nature education and habitat restoration business from Western North Carolina. Brannen is a horticulturist and landscape designer who cut his teeth in the native gardens at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Brannen presents regularly on a variety of nature-based topics, including pollinator-focused presentations with the Organic Grower's School, Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, and WNC Gardening Symposium, along with writing for local, regional, and national publications. Brannen has also published two books, a non-fiction collection of nature articles, A Guide to the Wonderful World Around Us and a children's book co-authored with his wife, Finding Home: A Story of a Mason Bee. They have an online course series, called Gardening for the Planet, that features over 16 hours of on-demand beneficial wildlife and sustainable gardening content. In addition, Spriggly's offers services to homeowners, businesses, and municipalities, focused on designing and implementing spaces to support pollinators, wildlife, and the ecosystem around them.

Crowfields Community pollinator garden by Phyllis Stiles