Roger Swain to discuss how to grow fruit at home

KINGSTON, R.I. – June 4, 2008 – Skyrocketing food prices are sending thousands of Americans back to their gardens to grow their own vegetables and fruit. But for many of today’s gardeners, growing fruit has become a lost art.

Roger Swain, the beloved “man in the red suspenders” and former host of the popular public television program The Victory Garden, will share his insights about growing berries and other small fruits in a lecture at the University of Rhode Island on Saturday, June 28 at 10 a.m.

Sponsored by the URI Master Gardener Association, the event will be held in Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute building on the Kingston campus. Tickets for the lecture are $25 for the general public and $20 for Master Gardeners.

“This lecture will provide home gardeners with the information they need to choose the plants and growing techniques necessary for a bountiful – and delicious – harvest,” said Cynthia Drummond, the URI Master Gardener who is coordinating the event.

Swain is a native of Massachusetts who earned degrees from Harvard and is science editor of Horticulture magazine. He is also the co-host of the HGTV program People, Places and Plants, which celebrates New England gardens and gardeners, and the author of five books: Earthly Pleasures, Field Days, The Practical Gardener, Saving Graces and Groundwork.

Swain received the American Horticultural Society Award for Writing in 1992, and in 1996 he was awarded the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Gold Medal for his “power to inspire others.”

Space is limited at the lecture, so registration is required. For more information or to register, call the URI Outreach Center at 401-874-2900.