The Garden Club of Newtown's Tuesday, May 22, program will be "Creative Container Design" by Karla Dalley (pictured).

It will begin at 1 pm in the lower meeting room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street. The program is free and open to the public.

Ms Dalley's first gardening experience dates back to when she was 3 years old, and she used to run ahead of her father's reel mower, "saving" the johnny jump ups from being mowed under.

Her first paying job was also in "horticulture," when at the tender age of 11, she was paid $1 a week to deadhead her neighbor's numerous pots of petunias.

Ms Dalley was employed for five seasons at Gledhill Nursery in West Hartford, one of the state's destination nurseries. While there, she founded Gledhill's retail water garden department. She also lectured at Gledhill and wrote two email newsletters for them, one exclusively on water gardening and one on general gardening.

She has lectured at Capital Community College, where she offered various one-hour courses on gardening, both at the Hartford campus and through the community in conjunction with various towns' Parks andamp; Rec departments. She currently lectures to homeowner associations, garden clubs, women's clubs, nurseries, and in locations including Gardeners Supply in Burlington, Vt., and Envirothon, an annual environmentally themed academic competition for high school students organized by The National Conservation Foundation.

Ms Dalley has done landscape design and garden coaching, and she has advised homeowners on topics as varied as houseplants, pond placement, garden redesign, and planting. She continues to assist her homeowner's association with aquatic weed control and native planting to control stormwater runoff.

She is currently the garden columnist for West Hartford Magazine, the book reviewer for Connecticut Horticulture Society, and the sole author of an organic gardening blog, "Gardendaze."

Ms Dalley's backyard is certified a backyard habitat by both the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the National Wildlife Federation. She has been a totally organic gardener since 1994.

Finally, Ms Dalley is a member of The Garden Writers Association, Connecticut Horticulture Society, The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group, and Connecticut Orchid Society.

She does her best, whenever possible, to tread lightly on the earth.

Reservations are not needed for Garden Club of Newtown programs, but additional information is available by calling 203-791-8321 or visiting gardenclubofnewtown.com.

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