Registration now open.

Spring Gardening Know-How Series

Four 1-1/2 hour online sessions - one week night per week for 4 weeks.

Wednesday evenings, 7:00-8:30 PM 

February 4, 11, 18 & 25th, 2026

Join us ONLINE for a Spring Gardening Series!

While it’s winter out there, gardeners know spring is in sniffing distance.  Make your spring feel just a little closer with our Spring Gardening Know-How Series.  Join us for informative sessions on preparing your garden for spring and starting flowers and vegetables from seed.  Once you’ve laid that groundwork, get ready to gussy up your garden with sweet-smelling lilacs and juicy raspberries.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: The Know-How Series is tailored to meet the needs of both novice and experienced gardeners, reflecting the Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association's commitment to science-based education. Our sessions are led by senior Massachusetts Master Gardeners, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to foster a supportive learning environment. Participants will receive handouts for most sessions, enhancing their understanding of the material. Additionally, there will be ample opportunity for live Q&A, allowing for active engagement and interaction with our expert speakers. 

TOPICS: At the MMGA, we love to talk about gardening and horticulture. But we also like to listen. We’ve selected four timely  topics based on countless discussions with home gardeners to create our four-week Spring Gardening Know-How Series with all new topics: 

• Preparing Your Garden for Spring: Spring is right around the corner: the ground begins to warm, trees and shrubs start to bud, and before you know it, gardening is in full swing. Starting from the soil up, you will learn how to get your garden off to a great start.

• Stop and Smell the Lilacs: In this presentation, Senior Principal Master Gardener Christine Paxhia discusses the history of lilacs, along with information about lilac growing, propagating, caring, and more. This very visual presentation is filled with photographs of Christine’s personal collection and local lilacs in bloom. Sit back and enjoy the photographs, and imagine the sweet fragrance of spring.

• Raspberries for the Home Garden:  The goal of this presentation is to set you on the path to success at growing this delicious and nutritious fruit. First, we’ll talk about the many varieties of plants...then move on to planting and raspberry care (watering, fertilizing, mulching, pruning, support) and, yes, even diseases. Armed with your new knowledge, you’re sure to have a bountiful raspberry harvest; we’ll cover that, too, as well as storage. 

• Starting Flowers and Vegetables from Seeds: Get a jump on the season by starting your plants from seeds! Doing so is cheaper than buying transplants and offers a much broader variety of plants. Seed starting can become quite addictive. Whether you are interested in annuals, perennials, edibles, or even shrubs and trees, this lecture will give you the information you need from starting a seed to planting in the ground.

SPRING KNOW-HOW SERIES PRESENTERS are senior Massachusetts Master Gardeners (MGs) who are passionate subject matter experts and trained speakers.

• Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, and a recently-retired systems engineer for Raytheon.  She won the MMGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Gretel established and maintains a 20,000 square foot food production garden that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro and Maynard Food Pantries for the last ten years.  Her primary interest and focus is always in the science behind horticulture.

• Christine Paxhia has been a Massachusetts Master Gardener since 2012. Her appreciation and admiration for “growing things” started as a child on woodland hikes with her mother. At the age of ten she saw her first peony; today her Milton home garden is filled with 38 varieties (and growing!). A member of the Milton Garden Club, Christine is a Garden Club of America Photography Judge. She is the MMGA’s Project Manager for the Fletcher Steele Garden, Milton, which is home to an impressive peony collection. Christine is a graduate of the MMGA Speakers Bureau Training Program.

• A gardener for more than 40 years, Barb McIntosh has been a Massachusetts Master Gardener since 2016. She is a former volunteer Head Steward in the Trial Garden at Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Elm Bank. She is also a principal contributor in the Northeast Correctional Center (NECC)  Concord Massachusetts Horticultural program where inmates are trained on vegetable gardening and landscaping techniques with the hope that they will be able to secure a job upon release. Barb is presently bringing the horticulture program to Pondville prison. Barb also is the co-project manager for the Carlisle Center Park site, providing outreach as well as gardening programs. Barb participates in a variety of other MMGA activities, including mentoring master gardener students, training, and the MMGA newsletter.

• Tony Bonanno has been a Massachusetts Master Gardener since 2007. He designed, built, and oversees the Victory Gardens at the Veterans Community Health Care Center in Lowell and is the horticulture leader for the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord’s Outreach Organization, teaching and running a volunteer program at the facility’s farm. Tony also chairs the Topsfield Fair Home Garden committee and is a Certified Massachusetts State Fair Judge. An accomplished vegetable grower, he was named a Top Vegetable Exhibitor at the 2017 and 2019 Topsfield Fairs.

COST: The cost of the four-lecture Spring Gardening Know-How Series is $75.00, payable online by credit/debit card or PayPal. Classes are not available individually. Price includes a number of handouts and  live Q&A time with speakers. 

Grow your gardening skills - Join MMGA’s online

Spring Gardening Know-How Series 

February 4, 11, 18 and 25th, 2026 

To ensure everyone has a great educational experience, space is limited. Registration closes once we are full or February 1st, 2026. Refunds for series cancellations must be requested by February 1st, 2026. Refunds not available for individual missed classes. 

Have questions about how to register, class payment or other related topics? Please see answers to frequently asked questions here

or

Email us at KnowHow@MassMasterGardeners.org