Gardener Denise DeSpirito leads a demonstration on the end-of-season herb harvest at Merryspring Nature Center on Tuesday, September 20 at noon.

The seasons are shifting and the transition to colder months and shorter days are here. Now is the time to harvest herbs from fall gardens to prepare for winter wellness. In her final Backyard Herbalism demonstration, Denise DeSpirito will speak about how fall roots are used as medicines, how to harvest and prepare herbs, basic garden clean up, saving herbs for seed, and planning next year's herbal garden.

DeSpirito is the current Head Gardener at Merryspring. Her third season in the Midcoast, Denise comes to Merryspring after spending two years managing four acres of medicinal herb production at Avena Botanicals in Rockport. She has also grown herbs and flowers around the northeast, including Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York and Farmacy Herbs in Rhode Island.

This is an outdoor presentation. Guests should meet at the Hexagon and wear weather-appropriate clothing and sturdy shoes. Copies of the recommended books Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar and The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer by Jeff and Melanie Carpenter will be for sale after the presentation, along with a selection of gardening tools and plants.

This lecture is part of the Summer Talk series at Merryspring, sponsored by The First National Bank. Admission to Tuesday talks is $5, with free admission for members of Merryspring.

Merryspring is your community nature center offering walking trails, cultivated gardens, wildlife, and ecology and horticulture educational programs all year round. The park is located at the end of Conway Road, just off of Route 1 in Camden behind Hannaford Shopping Plaza. For more information on this program, please contact info@merryspring.org or call 207-236-2239.