UT prof will discuss vegetable gardening in Zoom presentation

Published 7:59 am Monday, January 16, 2023

Dr. Natalie Bumgarner, Assistant Professor of Residential and Consumer Horticulture at the University of Tennessee and Tennessee Extension Master Gardener Coordinator, will discuss the “Results of the Latest UT Vegetable Trials” on Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in a free Zoom presentation. Dr. Bumgarner will share the findings of the latest UT Extension vegetable garden cultivar trials that include not only evaluating garden performance but taste tests as well. She will also highlight some of the recent introductions that might be of interest to home gardeners this year. This program is sponsored by Southern Appalachian Plant Society (SAPS). For the link to join the webinar, go to the SAPS website http://saps.us/. For more information, call 423-348-6572 or e-mail sapsnews@gmail.com.

Natalie Bumgarner is the UT Residential and Consumer Extension Specialist with responsibilities for educational content development and programming across Tennessee. She is also the coordinator for the Tennessee Master Gardener Program. Natalie is a West Virginia native with a background in agriculture and has been active in various facets of horticulture for over 15 years. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from West Virginia University in 2005 with a focus in ornamental greenhouse production. In 2007, she received a M.S. degree from WVU in Horticulture with research focusing on growing practices for small scale organic vegetable producers.

In 2012, she completed a Ph.D. in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University. At OSU, Natalie’s research focused on vegetable production systems, specifically growing environment impacts on yield and crop composition in leafy vegetables. Following completion of her graduate work, Natalie undertook postdoctoral work in the areas of vegetable grafting and cropping to target international nutrition needs at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, Ohio. Prior to joining the UT Department of Plant Sciences, Natalie was the Horticulturist and Research Director for CropKing, Inc. in Lodi, Ohio, where her work focused on research and education in the area of small to medium scale greenhouse vegetable production.