Blue skies, bright sun, bursting earth — what a week.

Crocuses push through the soil. The witch hazel sprouts frothy yellow blooms. But, oh my, those shrubs crushed by this winter's deep snow sure need to be pruned. And it's time to find something to fill the space created when the voles killed off the lilies.

Shirley Wagner is familiar with gardener's itch, that urge to get out and get your hands in the dirt (not yet, it's too wet, she said) and plant (dream but wait is her advice) and ponder the latest trends (edible ornamentals and native plants top her list).

Wagner is a Master Gardener and coordinator of the Master Gardener program at the Penn State Cooperative Extension here. The program is hosting a symposium (sorry, reservations are closed) for professional and home gardeners today, on the beautiful first day of spring.

Though she has been gardening for more than three decades, Wagner, 79, still is a student. She is eager to hear some tips that she might use in her garden at her Mount Joy home.

Symposium presentations include garden planning, ornamental edible plants, native plants, winter/early spring gardens and naturalistic gardening.

Wagner is looking forward to hearing more about edible plants, which include the pawpaw, the persimmon, the American potato bean, the ostrich fern and the American water lotus.

"I don't know if you eat the flower or the leaves," she said of the lotus. "This is going to be interesting for me."

At the Penn State Extension, Wagner works part time coordinating the efforts of 80 local Master Gardeners.

Their volunteer efforts include raising vegetables with juvenile offenders who have been committed to the county's Youth Intervention Center as well as manning the phones to answer gardeners' questions at the extension office on Arcadia Road.

Gardeners' questions — about growing vegetables — and their interests — garden design is a hot topic — reflect the lean economic times of recent years, Wagner said.

Due to tighter budgets, more people are staying home and enjoying their back yards, she said. More also are growing their own food.

Even people without large yards are growing things, just in smaller spaces. That has led to a rise in container gardening, where gardeners raise anything from tomatoes to blueberries in pots, Wagner said.

In an earlier career, Wagner worked for Armstrong World Industries in its interior design department and photography studio.

She planted her first garden at a city home where she and her late husband lived after they were married, raising tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and marigolds.

Wagner still grows tomatoes and peppers but has added herbs and other plants to her garden.

She is fond of native varieties of hydrangeas.

Like other gardeners, Wagner has been pulling back leaves and clearing debris from her garden. She's waiting for the ground to dry so she can really get going.

"I enjoy the nice, warm days," she said, "and just the opportunity to be out of doors."

cstauffer@lnpnews.com