Optimize Vegetable Gardens with Soil and Water Management

A full day of learning - the morning session will include two speakers on soil health and fertility, an educational resource exchange - “show and tell” opportunity over lunch, an afternoon hands-on low flow irrigation workshop and a Randolph Farm tour.

When: Saturday, March 28, 2026. 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Where: VSU Randolph Farm & Pavilion, 4415 River Road, Petersburg Va. 23803

Registration Fee (Lunch included)
VMGA Members- $15; Non-VMGA Members $25‍ ‍
(Please note: Virginia Cooperative Extension MGs are not automatically members of VMGA.

Go to https://vmga.net/membership for information on the advantages of becoming members of VMGA.

For registration, you will need to register and pay on the VMGA website. The other option is mailing a check to our treasurer, Betsy Brown.  Please, do not wait until last minute to register this way.

Elizabeth Brown
1732 Wycliffe Street
Bedford, VA 24523-1223

treasurer@vmga.net

We will have the VMGA Merchandise to buy as well as the Membership Chair there to take money for those who wish to join VMGA and our in-person continuing education opportunity offered by the Virginia Master Gardener Association.

Morning coffee and refreshments will be furnished. Bring your refillable coffee mug and water bottle.  

9:30 – 12:00 AM - Two presentations for the morning session will occur in the Randolph Farm Pavilion classroom as follows:

Speakers:

Leveraging Soil Health for Improved Soil Fertility and Water Quality

Speakers:  Ph.D. Candidate Caroline Wolcott and Dr. John Hoben have been conducting soil health research and will be sharing hot off the press information regarding soil health. 

Dr. John Hoben is a Research Scientist in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech, where he teaches environmental monitoring and conducts research on water and soil quality.  He earned his B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Kentucky, M.S. in Soil Science from Michigan State University, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Kentucky.  Before joining Virginia Tech, John coordinated interdisciplinary water resources research and outreach at East Carolina University, and before that, worked as an analytical chemist at Clemson University's Agricultural Service Laboratory.  Whether in the lab, the field, or the classroom, John's work comes back to a central question: how do we manage soils and water to achieve the best results - for crops, ecosystems, and communities?

Ph.D. Candidate Caroline Wolcott is a Graduate Research Assistant in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech. She works under Dr. Ryan Stewart on a project quantifying the dynamic soil properties of soils in differing cropping systems in Virginia. Caroline earned her B.S. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Furman University in South Carolina and her M.S. in Crop and Soil Environmental Science from Virginia Tech. She grew up in Aiken, South Carolina on a small horse farm on the edge of restored longleaf pine forest, a setting which planted the seeds for a career working in the conservation of the Earth’s natural resources.

Maximize the Effect of Legumes on Soil Fertility

Speaker: Dr. Linda K. Blum

Many plants in the family Leguminosae (synonym, Fabaceae) form a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that are able to convert nitrogen gas (N2) from the atmosphere (unavailable) to a plant-available form (NH4+). Planting legumes is commonly recommended with the expectation that growing these plants will lead to improved soil nitrogen (N) fertility. Frequently this expectation is not met because a functional, and efficient, symbiosis is not formed between the leguminous plant and N-fixing bacteria. In the absence of an effective and efficient symbiosis, legumes obtain the N necessary for their growth from the soil in the same way that non-leguminous plants do. In this talk, seven steps home gardeners can take to maximize the potential for the bacteria-legume symbiosis to maintain soil fertility will be discussed and the biological basis for these recommendations will be explored.

Dr. Linda Blum is a semi-retired, Research Associate Professor in the Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Virginia. She received her BS degree in Forest Soils and her MS degree in Forest Soil Microbiology from Michigan Technological University. Her PhD was completed at Cornell University in the Agronomy Department where her research focused on Soil Microbial Ecology, Plant Pathology, and Microbiology. During her scientific career, she pursued questions about how the interactions between microorganisms and plants influenced soil development and organic matter accumulation. She is the author of 37 scientific journal articles and book chapter, editor of 3 books, and 25 peer-reviewed technical reports. Her first gardening memories are of planting tomatoes with her father at age four. Her first 4-H project, at the age of ten, was vegetable gardening. She has been an avid vegetable gardener ever since then. She is currently the Project Coordinator for the Piedmont Master Gardener’s Main Help Desk at the Albemarle County Cooperative Extension Office.

12:00 – 12:30 PM Lunch (Sandwiches provided)

12:30 – 1:00 PM Educational Resource Exchange – Focused on Soil and Water Conservation theme:  Rapid-fire, “show and tell” - Share your best posters, props, or educational displays. Let’s get inspired by each other’s outreach techniques! Please bring any materials you wish to showcase and share. Send an email to fgcret@gmail.com to let us know what you are bringing. 

Afternoon session: 1:00 – 3:30 PM

Mastering Water Conservation:  Hands-On Drip Irrigation Workshop

Join us for an interactive session on efficient water management featuring Rick Hernandez, Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Agent for Fluvanna County. Rick brings a wealth of specialized knowledge from California, where he honed his expertise in advanced water conservation and professional irrigation systems. In this workshop, you will learn how to identify the different parts that are involved in putting together a low flow irrigation system and grasp an understanding of how to select a low flow system. You will get hands-on practice with the actual mechanics of setting up and using a low flow irrigation system.

Rick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy from California Polytechnic University at Pomona. He has extensive experience both in the private and public sector of the agricultural industry, as a laborer, a supervisor, a manager, and a small business owner and employer. In government, Rick served as a trade dispute mediator, negotiator, and a liaison to industry.  Rick has been farming for most of his life except for six years when he worked for the USDA PACA (Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act).  Rick has lived in Fluvanna County since 2012 and helped start a farm/vineyard and winery in the county.  Rick is currently working on his Master’s Degree in Plant Science and Pest Management at VA Tech.

Ben Dukes will provide a Randolph Farm tour to the group as well as help with the drip irrigation activity. Ben is a regional program assistant for the Virginia State University (VSU) Small Farm Outreach Program. He works with the VSU Cooperative Extension to support farmers, including conducting educational sessions on developing productive and profitable farms. He is also a Certified Virginia Extension Master Gardener with the Portsmouth Unit.  Ben has been extremely helpful as our general coordinator for obtaining the use of this facility.