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If 2008 is any guide, then the coming year will be another one of transitions for many of us -- at home, at work, even in the garden.

One notable transition finds Olbrich Botanical Gardens assuming the role long held by Horticulture Magazine: presenter of the annual winter garden symposium held in Madison each February. The nation's oldest gardening magazine (founded in 1904), Horticulture was acquired recently by F&W Publications for an undisclosed amount, according to the Business Courier of Cincinnati.

I have notes, plant lists and handouts going back to the mid-'90s from all the fabulous symposiums Horticulture presented in Madison at Olbrich. They were a winter tradition and a much-anticipated breath of spring -- like WHA-TV's Garden Expo -- for local enthusiasts. This year's event was advertised in the December/January issue of the magazine but abruptly canceled; likely the first of other changes we'll see at the venerable publication.

Luckily for us, Olbrich didn't miss a beat and scheduled its own "Midwest Gardening Symposium: Incredible, Edible Gardens" on the exact same date. Olbrich is partnering with Allen Centennial Gardens on the UW-Madison campus and its new director, Ed Lyon, to put on the daylong event at Olbrich. (Most recently, Lyon was the executive director of Rotary Gardens in Janesville but he has close ties to Olbrich. Before leading Rotary Gardens, he was in charge of the education programs at Olbrich.)

The Midwest Gardening Symposium "is a great opportunity to collaborate with Allen Centennial Gardens," said Olbrich's director, Roberta Sladky, when I visited the gardens just before Christmas. She also noted that the "mainly Midwestern" event promises to "be a really fun day" as well as offering participants "cutting edge ideas." Looking at the emphasis of this year's event and the speakers these two local institutions have pulled together, I think we actually will be getting a much better program -- at a better price -- than Horticulture offered.

Some of the hottest topics in the garden world (and in the news itself) will be on tap at "Incredible, Edible Gardens" including Fritz Haeg's international "Edible Estates" project that began in Kansas. This architect/artist proposes replacing front lawns with productive edible landscapes -- an idea whose time may just have arrived along with the economic downturn. Haeg has a book on the subject, "Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn," and is turning up everywhere from the New York Times to the Whitney Biennale to L.A.'s Dwell on Design conference.

Haeg will be joined by Jennifer Bartley, whose specialty is kitchen gardens in the elegant French potager tradition that are integrated into your residential landscape; David Cavagnaro, a professional photographer and gardener at Seed Savers Exhange who will share 25 years of experience growing heirloom varieties; Janet Macunovich, a Michigan landscape designer who will teach you about adding more color to your garden, and Mark Dwyer of Rotary Gardens, who will show you how to incorporate veggies into the smallest city plot without giving up your sunny perennial beds.

In a nod to the sustainable nature of the program, Olbrich has arranged for a sandwich buffet for lunch, noting that the Horticulture event generated too much plastic and paper along with food waste. It's another way for Olbrich to demonstrate conservation, said Sladky.

The symposium appears to be a perfect partnership between these two great gardening and learning institutions.

Closer to home, my 25-year-partnership with The Capital Times ends with the publication of this column, a victim of budget cuts and the changing world of newspapers. But I'm a writer so I will continue writing on my daily blog, Each Little World (eachlittleworld.typepad.com). If you're a believer in artful living or just want to know what I think of the symposium, the blog is now the place to find me -- along with book reviews, recipes, home and garden ideas and lots of great photos.