OTTAWA - The winter series of the University of Illinois Extension’s Four Seasons Gardening Program, which focuses on environmental stewardship, home gardening, and backyard food production, gets underway in January. The public is invited to participate in this free webinar series.

The first session of the series is titled “Planning Your Garden for Seed Saving.” This year, instead of deciding in the fall that you want to save seeds for planting, plan your garden around it. Join Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Gemini Bhalsod in a webinar to learn important concepts and techniques for seed saving, such as open pollination and variety isolation to get the best quality seeds for your garden. Also discussed will be harvesting and seed storage.

This program will be offered via live webinar at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at University of Illinois Extension offices in Princeton, Ottawa and Henry. The webinar may also be viewed from anywhere there is internet access by pre-registering at go.illinois.edu/fourseasons. Recorded videos of these sessions can be viewed after the program at go.illinois.edu/fourseasonsrecordings.

Other topics in the winter series will include “Winter Sowing of Seeds” on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 1:30 p.m. and “Colorful Conifers” on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 1:30 p.m.

Each session is free to the public. Advance registration is needed. Phone or e-mail the LaSalle County U of I Extension office for more details at (815) 433-0707 or e-mail Extension program coordinator Meg Overocker at meo@illinois.edu. 

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please indicate when registering. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time for meeting access needs.