Ah, the cold and rainy days of January. Might as well curl up with a good book; there’s nothing you can do in the garden. Or perhaps you’re looking longingly through the pages of all those seed catalogs that have been arriving over the past few weeks.

While you relax, Napa County Master Gardeners are busy planning our first-ever all-day garden festival, scheduled for Saturday, March 29, at Napa Valley College. We will offer 16 different classes that day, 12 in English and four in Spanish. There will also be a professional track in Spanish for landscape workers, with continuing education hours provided.

The classes in English have three themes, or tracks, with four classes in each.  

The Easy Gardening Track classes are: “Getting Started: Gardening FUNdamentals;” “Let’s Talk Roses: Yes, Roses Can be Easy;” “Gardening on the Cheap: Money-Saving Tips;” and a session on animal pests titled ”Gophers and Moles and Voles, Oh My!”

The Family Gardening Track sessions include “All About Lawns and Alternatives;” “Fantastic Fruit Trees;” “Wonderful Vegetables;” and “Bugs and More Bugs.”

In the Sustainable Gardening Track, we’ll be discussing “Gardening with the Earth in Mind: ‘Green’ Gardening Ideas;” “It Starts with the Dirt: All About Soil;” “How Much Should I Water? Irrigation Basics;” and “Winning over Weeds.”

Between sessions, you can visit the help desk and resource room or watch the demonstrations scheduled throughout the day.

The help desk will be staffed by people knowledgeable about different gardening topics.  Garden-related organizations, such as Napa County Recycling and the California Native Plant Society, will also host tables.

In our resource room, you’ll be able to view all the Master Gardeners’ television segments on  MGTV and learn how to access gardening information on the Internet. You will also find many handouts on gardening topics in the resource room.

Demonstrations, many of the m hands on, will illustrate the basics of  worm composting; planting seeds and bulbs; propoagating plants; installing drip irrigation; analyzing your soil; building a trellis; growing edibles; container gardening; and more.

We’re also planning some terrific door prizes and other surprises for the day. Come join us for “Get Growing!,” an entire day of education devoted to gardening, and learn more than you ever thought you would. The “Get Growing!” information line is 253-4147.

Napa County Master Gardeners are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 253-4221, or toll-free at 877-279-3065, or on the Web at www.master gardeners.org