​Do you enjoy gardening or want to start gardening?  Have you watched the TV show Escape to the Chateau? If you have, then you would recognize the term “potager garden”.  Join us on how to Create a Potager Garden presented by Sue Reinardy, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer, virtually on Zoom on Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 10 am to Noon as part of a celebration of National Library Week at the Sherman & Ruth Weiss Community Library.  Attendees will have a chance to win a special Library T-shirt!
 
Potager is a French term for a kitchen garden.  These gardens can include not only vegetables but herbs, fruit, berries and cutting flowers.  During the presentation you will learn where to site your potager, what plants to include and how to maintain it through the growing season.
 
For the first 15 people who sign up, we will offer them a Take ‘N Make Kit of a Potager Starter Garden.  The kit consists of a container, donated by Marketplace Foods, and seeds and a planting medium donated by Sue Reinardy.
 
You can register for the event by going to the following link – https://bit.ly/3rtyZq9  or by calling the library to register and to receive the link for the Zoom event. We suggest that if you don’t have the free Zoom app, download it before the program begins and go to the presentation at least 5 minutes before it starts. If you have any questions, please call the library at 715-634-2161 or email hlibrary@hayward.wislib.org

This All America Selections winner in the annuals category, Celosia Kelos® Candela Pink, with its profusion of bright pink spikes will dazzle in containers or as dramatic interest in garden beds or bouquets both fresh and dried. Less dense and more delicate than other varieties of celosia , expect blooms of 10 to 15 inches, with an overall plant height of 25 to 30 incles. Blooms beginning in late spring and continuing well into fall make this plant ideal as a filler or tall background or boarder plant. 

Plant in full to partial sun in well drained soil. Water as needed.  This celosia can tolerate dry conditions and is heat, wind and rain tolerant, and deer resistent!
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Article by Pam Davies, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

This All-America Selections winner in the annuals category hasn't got the most alluring name but the Zinnia Profusion Red Yellow Bicolor is an outstanding zinnia new for this year, 2021. The outstanding feature that wowed the judges was that as the growing season progresses the colors will morph from the red/yellow to apricot, salmon, and dusty rose.

Pollinator friendly, this variety can be grown in containers, hanging baskets or beds. Use them for groundcover, low edging or as a medium-height divider. Expect compact mounds of 8 to 14 inches in height. Plant in multiple clusters to get the full impact of the range of striking colors you can expect from this winner. Bloom size is about two and a half inches.
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Plant in full to partial sun. No deadheading or staking are necessary. Typical of zinnia, this variety is heat, wind and rain tolerant.  If starting your own seeds, first flower will come at 60 days. Transplanted from seedlings, flowering will be at about 30 days.
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Article by Pam Davies, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

​Have you visited our Teaching & Display Garden? This is a wonderful visit to make during this socially distant summer. Kevin Schoessow, Area Ag Development Agent, takes you on a tour of the popular pinwheel bed of the gardens. These beds have been "adopted" by Master Gardener Volunteers and reflect their different visions. Our gardens are open for self-guided tours during all daylight hours. Please follow the social distancing guidelines that are posted.

UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Carla TePaske provides tips for great bouquets in this video.  For more tips, check out this handout: "Cut Flower Tips" . 

​Easy steps for a successful Victory Garden 2.0…(with recommendations from the 1943 Victory Garden Manual by James Burdett, adapted for today’s world.)
1. Know your growing zone!– Just enter your zip code here to find your zone.

​You are invited to a Zoom  program.
When: May 14, 2020 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
 Register in advance for this program:
https://uwextension.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrdO6urTgqGtNnaA1I0y3rpgP6VS5s8xNv
 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Spooner Agriculture Research Station Teaching and Display Garden will host visitors for a final workshop on end of the season activities Saturday, September 7 10:00am to Noon.  This garden session will be held at the Teaching & Display Garden and focus on seed saving, fall garden activities, tender bulb storage, garlic planting, spring bulbs and what was learned during this garden season. 
 
This year’s theme  “Re-use, recycle, and re-imagine” comes from the All-America Selections.  The displays have been created with this theme in mind.  The Teaching and Display Garden is one of eight in Wisconsin that display vegetable and flower varieties who have been awarded this designation as an outstanding cultivar.   
 
Remember to bring your own lawn chair for the Meet Me in the Garden Seminar.  The session is free and open to the public and will be held rain or shine – please dress accordingly.  In case of inclement weather, the program will be held at the Station Building at 1035 E Maple Street (Hwy 70), Spooner.    The garden is located at 780 Orchard Lane, 1.5 miles east of Spooner on Highway 70 or 1/2 mile west of the Hwy 70/53 interchange.  Watch for garden meeting signs.
 
For more information and a map visit the station’s web site at: http://spooner.ars.wisc.edu/ or contact Kevin Schoessow or Lorraine Toman at the Spooner Area UW-Extension Office at 715-635-3506 or 1-800-528-1914. 

The Spooner Agriculture Research Station Teaching and Display Garden will host visitors for a workshop on cut flower gardens and arrangements on Thursday, August 29 starting at 6:00 pm.  This garden session will start at the Teaching & Display Garden with growing tips on a few outstanding plant selections to grow for cut flowers including dahlias and annuals.  The session will then move to the Research Station for an in-depth workshop on tips and tricks of the art of flower arranging using both perennial and seasonal flowers from the garden.
 
This year’s theme  “Re-use, recycle, and re-imagine” comes from the All-America Selections.  The displays have been created with this theme in mind.  The Teaching and Display Garden is one of eight in Wisconsin that display vegetable and flower varieties who have been awarded this designation as an outstanding cultivar.   
 
Save this date for the last program of the season at the garden:  September 7 at 10:00 am focusing on seed saving, fall rejuvenation, bulb storage, winter sown, garlic planting, spring bulbs and what was learned during this garden season.  
 
Remember to bring your own lawn chair for the Meet Me in the Garden Seminar.  The session is free and open to the public and will be held rain or shine – please dress accordingly.  In case of inclement weather, the program will be held at the Station Building at 1035 E Maple Street (Hwy 70), Spooner.    The garden is located at 780 Orchard Lane, 1.5 miles east of Spooner on Highway 70 or 1/2 mile west of the Hwy 70/53 interchange.  Watch for garden meeting signs.
 
For more information and a map visit the station’s web site at: http://spooner.ars.wisc.edu/ or contact Kevin Schoessow or Lorraine Toman at the Spooner Area UW-Extension Office at 715-635-3506 or 1-800-528-1914. 
 

Photo credit:  Sue Reinardy, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer
 

Several years ago there was a Meet Me In the Garden program at the Spooner Agriculture Research Station Teaching and Display Garden featuring growing in containers with invites to compete/show a container from home. I happened to win a door prize of some grow bags with the picture of the plant on the front.

I found that using potting soil mixed with compost proved to be too heavy for those bags. The rain and weight prompted the bottoms to fall apart.  I’ve used several different types of bags since then and have been able to reuse them for almost 5 years now. I have them on my decks facing south and east.

The display grow bags are from Gardener’s Supply Company, which provides many different sizes. Since our garden site is very sunny and often quite windy I chose to use potting MIX with moisture control in all the bags. I also used an organic Tomato fertilizer as well a soluble fertilizer for the other plants.

There is a purple potato bag planted with purple fingerling potatoes, a dwarf tomato plant called Arctic Rose as well as other vegetables.  There are two large black bags one of which contains Kale, eggplant and Spooky Squash which I received from Seed Savers. If the lone squash left survives the critters, it will provide enough for a pie. The other grow bag I used as the “right plant in the right place” of succulents needing less water and lovers of sun.

Like any container you need to water them often, which in our garden setting has been quite the challenge this year. At home, since they are lighter and have handles, I’ve been able to move them out of harm’s way during strong hail and thunderstorms.

I hope that you enjoy this display and consider trying them, a kitchen garden on a patio would be a good place for a large black bag.

Carol Taylor, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer