Plenty of gardening activities around town

It's a busy week for gardening. We have a plant tour, master gardener training, a pear and apple festival, and farmers market.

NATIVE PLANT TOUR

You live in the desert so make use of plants adapted to the climate in your landscaping. Landscapers now using native desert plants are capturing awards because of these plants' vivid colors. The Springs Preserve is offering these desert wonders for the sole purpose of introducing them into our landscapes.

Five of these mature natives will be available after a tour at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., at Dr. Green Thumb's booth. Here are highlights of plants on display:

■ Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is an eye-catching clump grass that is perfect as a backdrop in perennial beds or as an accent around rocks and trees. In the fall and into the winter, it really shows off with its classic autumn colors.

■ Arizona pencil cholla (Cylindropuntia arbuscula) lends itself to any desert planting. Its treelike habit makes it usable as a barrier plant. Yellow-green flowers turn to a reddish orange for a prolific spring display in late April. It's easy to prune to keep in check.

■ Broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae) is a low-growing shrub, making a great border for flower beds, or it stands alone nicely in desert landscapes. Its bright green foliage adds lushness to a dry bed, and then yellow flowers smother the foliage to add interest in late summer.

■ Green Ephedra (Ephedra viridis) is a medium-sized shrub with bright green stems that makes a great foundation plant. The stems gnarl with age, making an outstanding stand-alone plant, or group it with cactuses and succulents in desert gardens.

■ Brown spine prickly pear (Opuntia phaeacantha) has the best tasting reddish-purple fruit for Opuntias, which ripen in August. Young pads (before spines develop) also are edible. It's a tremendous choice for rock gardens or dry perennial beds mixed with native flowers and grasses. It may sprawl, but it's easy to keep in check when harvesting fruit from the pads. Yellow flowers with red streaks appear in late May.

TRAINING FOR MASTER GARDENERS

There still is time to register for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension's fall master gardener training beginning Sept. 13. Classes are from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays into December.

The master gardener program teaches sustainable desert gardening practices, including proper plant selection and care, disease and pest management, and water-efficient gardening.

To become a master gardener, you need to complete 72 hours of horticultural instruction and volunteer 50 hours on community projects each year. A $150 fee is due with completed applications; scholarship plans are available. To register, call 257-5501.

Master gardeners have many volunteer projects going on across the valley, which I believe is the heart and core of the master gardener program. They're at Acacia Park, Nathan Adelson Hospice and the Springs Preserve. Additional projects include the Doolittle and Lieburn Senior Center Community Gardens, Extension Orchard and Nellis Air Force Base Environmental Grove.

PEAR AND EARLY APPLE FESTIVAL

The Nevada Cooperative Extension's Orchard in cooperation with Whole Foods Market at 8855 W. Charleston Blvd. will host a festival from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. It's your chance to purchase homegrown, pesticide-free fruit fresh from the tree. There also will be freezing and drying demonstrations and information for canning pears and apples.

LAS VEGAS FARMERS MARKET

More and more, people want to shorten the distance vegetables must travel from the farm to their table, says Ginger Johnson of Las Vegas Farmers Market. Johnson has established three farmers markets across the valley. They're at Bruce Trent Park, 1600 N. Rampart Blvd., from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays; Gardens Park, 10401 Gardens Park Drive, from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays; and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every third Saturday of the month at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs, 9200 Tule Springs Road. Call 562-2676 or go online at www.lasvegas farmersmarket.com to find out more.

Johnson encourages local growers to come sell their produce. They need a permit from the Nevada Department of Agriculture to become certified. This next week, shoppers will be able to get stone fruit, sweet corn, herbs, figs, summer squash, tomatoes, carrots and beets.

Linn Mills writes a garden column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@ springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.