Tips on how to maximize your vegetable garden during the cold winter season and get the most flavorful, nutritious yield possible is the topic of the next CSUN-al Gardening series at California State University, Northridge.

On Saturday, Oct. 27, from 8:30 to 10:45 a.m. garden designer Stephen Baldonado will explain how to prepare the fall and winter vegetable garden and how to choose the best vegetables to grow and harvest.

“Just-harvested veggies have fuller, well-developed flavors compared to what is found in the grocery store,” said Brenda Kanno, manager of Cal State Northridge’s Botanic Garden, which hosts the CSUN-al Gardening series. “The home gardener can grow more varieties than what is offered commercially. An added bonus is that often times children who are involved with vegetable gardening tend to enjoy eating their veggies.”

Baldonado is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona’s plant science program. In addition to his garden design work, he also maintains a garden-themed blog, http://howigarden.blogspot.com/, that offers pictures and practical garden advice.

Registration for the free class begins today, Sept. 27, and is required. Email botanicgarden@csun.edu to request a space in the class or for more information. Driving and parking instructions, as well as the class meeting location, will be sent upon registration.

Cal State Northridge’s Botanic Garden is operated by the university’s Biology Department, and serves as a field site for botany, entomology, photography, painting and other classes. In addition to outdoor landscapes and natural botanical environments, the garden also features greenhouses where noteworthy botanical specimens are grown. The garden is open to the community. For more information about the Botanic Garden visit the website www.csun.edu/botanicgarden/.

College of Science and Mathematics, Community, Gardening