- Climate Change
- Composting
- Container Gardening
- Crafts & Recipes
- Foraging
- Garden Design & Planning
- Gardening Practices
- Gardens to Visit
- Health
- Herbs
- Houseplants
- Invasive Plants
- Lawns
- Native Plants – General
- Native Plants – by Growing Conditions
- Native Plants – by Season
- Native Plants – by Type
- Pests
- Pruning
- Soil
- Vegetable Gardening
- Water
- Weeds
- Wildlife
About Public Education Classes
Our public education classes fall under three broad categories use by Virginia Cooperative Extension.
These are:
- Best Management Practices
- Sustainable Landscaping
- Urban Agriculture
Best Management Practices
Basic techniques to start, rejuvenate or troubleshoot any garden – ornamental or vegetable – and keep it thriving.
Sustainable Landscaping
Techniques for the design, construction and management of landscapes in built environments that conserve storm water, reduce pollution, integrate locally native plants to support wildlife, and reduce or eliminate the uses of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and fossil fuel inputs.
Urban Agriculture
Techniques for successfully growing vegetables, herbs and fruit in urban and suburban landscapes – whether backyards, front yards, rooftop gardens, balconies, school yards or community gardens – for you and your family and sharing the harvest largesse with others.
Online Public Education Classes & Glencarlyn Videos
New! Meet Our Public Education Speakers
Enjoy our complete collection of videos from MGNV/VCE, organized by topic. There are two types of videos in our collection:
- Public Education Classes: These include a webpage with the class video and additional resources. These videos are close-captioned and have chapter breaks so you can pick and choose which section to watch.
- Glencarlyn Library Community Garden videos: These short videos, created by the coordinators of Glencarlyn and averaging 5 to 10 minutes in length, cover a range of gardening topics, including best gardening practices, native and invasive plants, recipes, crafts, and wildlife.
Glencarlyn videos are marked with an asterisk.
Gardening Practices
Build Healthy Soil and Manage Water in Your Yard
Caring for Your Native Plants Garden
Challenges of the Summer Garden
Cutting Back Hellebores & Epimedium in Spring *
Native Plants, General
Beautiful Native Plants *
(series of 12 short videos)
Climate-Conscious Gardening: Native Plants *
Container Gardening with Native Plants
Native Plant Species & Cultivars
Native Trees & Shrubs for Pollinators
Selecting Native Plants for Your Home Garden
Sustainable Landscaping Basics
Native Plants, by Growing Condition
Managing Salt Damage in Your Garden
Native Plants, by Type
Common Native Ferns of the Mid-Atlantic
Fruit Trees and Berries for the Urban Landscape: Natives
Getting to Know Beautyberries *
How to Advocate for Healthy Trees, Healthy People
Keystone Species of Native Plants
Keystone Plants for the Home Landscape
New in 2026!
Vegetable Gardening
Drink Your Garden! Herbs, Fruits & Flowers for the Glass
Harvest at Home: Mastering Vegetable Gardening in Containers
How to Grow a Salsa Garden
Arlington 4-H & Junior Master Gardeners
Introduction to Vegetable Gardening
Wildlife
Audubon at Home Wildlife Sanctuary Certification
Managing Wildlife in the Urban Home Landscape
Small Space Gardening for Pollinators
Welcoming Birds to Your Garden
Updated in 2025!
Welcoming Beautiful Butterflies, Moths and Skippers
Welcoming Fireflies and Other Creatures to Your Yard
SEE ALSO Pests