The Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community’s first garden forum was a success on Saturday, executive director Regina Brayboy said, and the partnership hopes the event will grow in future years.

“It was very much a wonderful day,” Brayboy said. “We had a series of hands-on demonstrations, the opportunity to network with other gardeners and family activities for children.”

The event included a demonstration on cooking with herbs, another on container gardening and a gardening session for children. It also taught local gardeners about resources available to them, Brayboy said.

Close to 90 people attended, and more than half filled out surveys at the end, she said. Most said they loved the hands-on demonstrations and wanted to see classes on things like canning fruits and vegetables, gardening organically with environmentally safe pesticides and special emphasis on beginning gardeners with things like suggestions for hardy plants that can withstand a little mistreatment by a less-than-knowledgeable caretaker.

The event was held at Johnson’s Gardens on the same day as a memorial fishing tournament, which helped draw almost as many walk-in visitors as those that had registered, Brayboy said.

About half of those attending were beginning gardeners, Brayboy added, and more have never gardened before.

Brayboy hopes the forum will get more people gardening and becoming better at growing their own healthy food.