Susan Betz is an author, garden communicator, lecturer, and conservationist specializing in herbs and native plants. She has been actively growing and using herbs to educate the public about gardening and the natural world for over 35 years.

She is an Honorary Master Gardener and a member of the International Herb Association, Garden Communicators, the Ecological Landscape Alliance, and the National Garden Bureau. Susan is a life member of the Herb Society of America and received The Society’s Helen D. Conway Little Medal of Honor in 2018. She is a charter member of HSA’s Native Herb Conservation Committee, the Society’s sustainable garden initiative.

Susan currently serves on HSA’s Notable Native Herb program and is a contributing author to HSA’s native herb fact sheets published annually. She is the author of Magical Moons & Seasonal Circles, Stepping into The Circle of the Seasons, Neighboring with Nature/Native Herbs for Pleasure and Purpose. Herbal Houseplants Grow Beautiful Herbs -Indoors, For Flavor, Fragrance & Fun.

Magical Moons & Seasonal Cycles: Garden Phenology

9:00-10:00 a.m.

“Anyone in close sympathy with flower and tree and shrub and has a general acquaintance with Nature’s moods could tell the time of year without any reference to a calendar.”

Gertrude Jekyll Home, and Garden, Magazine

Phenology explores the timing of natural periodic events in the plant and animal world influenced by the local environment, especially weather, temperature, seasonal cycles, and climate. Plant and animal life cycles are predictors of reoccurring events in nature. Examples include the first dates of budding and blooming flowers, insect hatching, bird migration, and fall color. Solar calendar planting dates can be misleading.

Phenology is a botanical tool that relies on the personal observation of seasonal phenomena of your landscapes and the importance of understanding the sequence and patterns of behavior and life cycle events between and among local wildlife and native and common ornamental plants. By tracking changes in the timing and cycles of seasonal events, scientists, gardeners, and nature lovers can better understand climate change and its effects on our local ecosystems.

Drawing from her decades of gardening experience and nature study, Susan will discuss using “nature’s calendar.”  How, by using phenology, you can plan and schedule seasonal tasks in your garden and take preventive measures to control and prevent unwanted weeds, insects, and plant diseases.