​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 program handouts are now available.  Listed below and on our 2020 Events Handouts page. 

• PDF of PowerPoint Slides
• Native Plant List from Minnesota DNR
• Link to an article about Nativars  
• More Phenology  Planting Tips ​
  
• UW Soil and Forage Lab - link for soil tests (note as of 3/23/20 tests are suspended due to COVID-19)
• Some additional recommendations on reading: 
  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants  by Robin Wall Kimmerer  It’s a bit of a cultural exploration of the relationship between plants, animals, the earth and humans.  More like essays than a look up info book.
  • Grow Native, Lynn Steiner  This author writes and provides recommendations on how to incorporate natives into our gardens. 
  • Bringing Nature Home and Nature's Best Hope, Doug Tallamy
  • The Living Landscape, Dick Darke and Doug Tallamy
    
    

This program covered what, when and where to cultivate native plants that provide food for butterflies, song birds, hummingbirds and beneficial insects.   By using your observations you can know the best time for planting, the blooming cycles of plants, and the emergence of insect pests.  All will help you become a more natural gardener. 

The vegetable beds have been planted and the display beds are beginning to show evidence of the creativity intended by the gardeners.   The vegetables are doing well in colorful grow bags and the straw bale bed. 

The All-America Selection display beds have been completed by the trainees in the just completed Master Gardener Level 1 training.  In a few weeks you will be able to see what is intended with the Recycle, Repurpose, and Re-imagine theme for 2019.  

The Teaching and Display Garden is open for self-guided tours during day light hours daily from mid-May through mid-September.    Meet Me in the Garden series starts on July 16 at 6:00 pm - we hope you plan on attending. 

Author and photos by Sue Reinardy, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

​2018 Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardener State Conference note highlights from Donna Amidon, MGV

Session: Pollinator Friendly Gardening.  Rhonda Fleming Hayes (Author of Pollinator Friendly Gardening: Gardening for Bees, Butterflies and other Pollinators, writer for Star Tribune, Northern Gardener magazine and other publications).

There is a growing body of evidence that supports mixing native and non-native plants in designed landscapes benefits pollinators.  Bees do like non-native plants in addition to natives but some cultivars may have less pollen or other changes that are less desirable to pollinators.   Bees love flowers with multiple florets for foraging and then they do not have to fly around so much to collect pollen and nectar.   Herb gardens can be attractive to pollinators if you let some go to flowering stage. Other beneficial insects also love the flowers.  

Other suggestions:

• Leave some bare soil for ground nesting bees, and leave long stems on plants, grasses, yard trimmings, and deadfall over the winter for the pollinators.
• Avoid pesticides but if you MUST spray do it in the evening or very early morning when bees are least active.  

 

It seems the garden season has barely begun and already plants are crowding each other.  So out comes my pruning shears and by-pass pruner.  Pinch and prune can refer to a variety of techniques including pruning, deadheading, pinching stems or buds, or cutting back leggy plants to shape, form and trim.  It is usually species-specific and based on common sense.  Don’t worry about hurting your plants by experimenting. ​

​Now showing in the Teaching & Display Garden are the most perfect peonies.  The peonies were some of the few non-native plants retained when the Garden was converted to a Monarch Way Station.   In bloom now along with the peonies are Baptisia (False Indigo), Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine),  Prairie Pholx, Azaleas, and Nepeta Walker’s Low (Catmint).  The Baptisia, Aquilegia, and Pholx are all native plants.   Bees and several Monarch butterflies were busy at  the blooms.  It’s an excellent time to make a visit, check out the blooming plants and see the All American Selection displays as they are being planted (#AASWinners).  The common expression when people stop by is “Wow”.