Items for sale will include annuals, perennials, vegetables (many heirloom), herbs, hanging baskets, deck/patio containers and unique containers filled with small plants. The new cookbook complied by the Rutgers Master Gardeners “From Seed to Table” will be also available.

The spring garden sale will take place rain or shine.

“The annual Spring Garden Sale is a great event for our residents who not only want the tools to start their garden, but also the guidance to do it well,” said Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry. “The Master Gardeners are knowledgeable and eager to help create healthy and flourishing gardens in our communities.”

The Master Gardeners will be present to answer your gardening questions and provide environmental displays, tours and free garden talks each day.

Tours are available on site to see:

• The Master Gardener’s Plant a Row for the Hungry garden which gives hands-on experience in vegetable gardening 
• The Junior Master Garden where young teens grow their own garden under the direct tutelage of master gardeners.
• The herb garden and the rain garden, started last year, which demonstrates ecologically safe ways to minimize erosion and waterway pollution caused by runoff from hard-scapes such as driveways
• The new native plant garden.

Rutgers’ Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Helpline will be live at the Spring Garden Sale to answer everyone’s gardening questions and help trouble shoot home garden, lawn and tree and shrub problems. Bringing a sample of the plant to demonstrate its condition is extremely helpful in pinning down the problem and providing accurate timely advice.

Soil samples are tested free on site for pH (acidity). Rutgers fact sheets are available on how best to cope with pests as diverse as stink bugs, azalea lacebugs, deer and damage from the weather caused by wind, rain, snow, and drought. A helpline is also available year-round weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 732-303-7614, or by visiting the Master Gardener office in the Monmouth County Agriculture Building at 4000 Kozloski Rd.

During the Spring Garden Sale, a series of free discussions by Master Gardeners will provide expert advice on such topics as lawn care, beekeeping and vegetable gardening.

In conjunction with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension, the Monmouth County Master Gardener program seeks to educate everyone in matters horticultural, help answer questions regarding gardening problems around the home, support community gardens for towns and schools, and provide a speaker’s bureau to bring Master Gardener led discussions to local gardening clubs and other interested community groups around the County.

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