Fall Fundraiser

Next year’s Fall Fundraiser is set for Thursday, September 12, 2024.
Watch our website for details next summer.

Many thanks to the folks who registered in support of our Fall Fundraiser ’23, “Garden Opera” with Marianne Binetti! With your help we raised over $2,000 for Thurston County Master Gardener and Master Recycler Composter Programs.                                       

We want to thank our sponsor Olympia Federal Savings and the following entities who generously donated items for prizes:

  • The Barn Nursery
  • Corona Tools
  • Downs’ Rhododendrons
  • Evergreen Valley Lavender Farm
  • Marianne Binetti
  • MGFTC Handicrafts Committee
  • MGFTC Plant Sale Committee
  • Ornamental Grasses of Puget Sound                                         
  • Wild Birds Unlimited, Olympia

Be sure to thank these folks if you visit their businesses or committees. Next year’s Fall Fundraiser is set for Thursday, September 12, 2024. Watch our website for details next summer.


The Master Gardener Foundation of Thurston County (MGFTC) hosts their fourth virtual fundraiser with local gardening expert Marianne Binetti entertaining and informing with creative garden ideas.

Sponsored by Olympia Federal Savings

“Garden Opera”
Dramatic ideas that will turn your garden into a symphony of bloom!

Virtual Presentation
by Marianne Binetti
(via Zoom)

Thurs, Sept. 14, 2023
6:30 to 8:00 pm

Registration – $35
Each registration enters you in our prize drawings.
Click Here to Register!
Registration closes Sept. 14th at noon.

Join Marianne and learn how to coordinate blooms and repeat melodies of color and texture in your landscape—with tips that will raise the volume on dramatic garden moments including great shrubs and perennials to add to your landscape. Some plants can be exclamation points in your landscape while some can be used to slow down the tempo. Pick up some easy maintenance ideas that can also be show stoppers. Expect some light hearted and fun ideas as well – some operas are comedies and your landscape may need some comic relief.

Marianne Binetti is the local area’s national gardening celebrity, sharing her passion for gardening with hilarity and witty wordplay. She has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and has written or co-written 10 gardening books and writes a syndicated gardening column that runs in several newspapers each week including the Tacoma News Tribune and The Olympian. Marianne lectures and gives seminars on a variety of topics, has appeared on HGTV and hosts radio and TV programs. Marianne and husband Joe lead garden tours around the world.

Prize Drawings!

Prize Drawings for gift certificates to local nurseries and our own Plant Sale, as well as garden tools and garden related handicraft items.

Plus a Grand Prize Drawing at the end of the presentation for a future private tour of Marianne Binetti’s garden for up to 10 people!


Funds raised from this event support education and enhancements at three demonstration/learning gardens in Thurston County (Olympia Farmers Market, garden, Closed Loop Park at the county waste management site, Dirt Works at Yauger Park) and free outreach programs in gardening, composting and recycling related topics throughout the county.