• Home
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Registration
    • Press Releases
    • Plant Sale
    • Kids in the Garden
    • Master Gardeners Present....
    • Twilight Garden Tour >
      • 2020 Virtual Twilight Garden Tour
    • 2020 Handouts
    • 2019 Event Handouts
    • 2018 Handouts
    • 2017 Handouts & Slides
    • 2016 Handouts & Slides
  • Teaching Gardens
  • Members
    • Meetings
    • Member Handbook
    • Presentation Resources for Members
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Continuing Education
  • About/Contacts
    • Speakers Available
    • Annual Impact Reports
  • Helpful Links
  • Training
  • Blog
    • Videos
  North Country MGV

Make an entrance

May 14 - Container Gardening - Zoom program

4/27/2020

1 Comment

 
​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.
With the right soil, light, and nutrients, almost anything can grow in almost any container. Learn how to grow perennials, annuals, and vegetables in containers and which types are best. Containers are a must for small spaces and can also be used when you have less than ideal soil conditions. This program will identify the advantages of various types of containers, the plant varieties that do best, and the maintenance required to get the best results. 
1 Comment

"Going Native" online program - Handouts

4/23/2020

0 Comments

 
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. 
0 Comments

Garden Notes:  Mid-June

6/19/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Spooner Agriculture Research Station Teaching and Display is almost completely planted for the season and the perennial gardens are starting to become brilliant.  

What's blooming:  peonies, baptisma, meadow sage, yarrow,  ninebark, columbine, and coreopsis.  
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
0 Comments

Garden Notes:  Late May

5/31/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Phenology:  the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.
The Spooner Agriculture Research Station is starting to wake up and planting is beginning in the display beds.  The lilacs are blooming which according to phenology is an indicator of the right time to plant vegetables.  

From a UW Horticulture article here are examples of phenological correlations:
• Plant peas when forsythia blooms.
• Plant potatoes when the first dandelion blooms.
• Plant beets, carrots, cole crops, lettuce and spinach when lilac is in first leaf.
• Plant corn when oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear.
• Plant bean, cucumber, and squash seeds when lilac is in full bloom.
• Plant tomatoes when lily-of-the-valley plants are in full bloom.
• Transplant eggplant, melons, and peppers when irises bloom.
New this year in the Teaching and Display Garden will be a straw bale garden display and a dahlia bed featuring 30 unique plants.  We're hopeful that last week's rainy and cold weather did not rot the tubers that have been planted. 

You are welcome to visit the gardens from June through September and watch the progress during our growing season.  For more information on the gardens go to our Teaching & Display Garden page. 
0 Comments

Design Principles

10/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
2018 Wisconsin Master Gardener State Conference note highlights from Sue Reinardy, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.  These are my notes from a keynote speaker, Ben Futa, Director of the Allen Centennial Garden at UW-Madison.  His talk was titled “Principles of Planting Design with Perennials”
 
In this talk I learned a new gardening word, “cespitose”?  It is a botany term meaning “forming mats or growing in dense tufts or clumps”.  Ben Futa used it to describe tight clumping grasses that will stay where you put them.  Non-cespitose grasses will spread overtime, mingle freely, and tend to die out from the center.  As gardeners we like the tight clumping kind.  Doing some research before planting will decrease disappointment in the future.  

Read More
0 Comments

Harvest, Seed Saving & Fall Clean-up

9/10/2018

0 Comments

 
On Saturday, September 8, 2018 a group of gardeners met in the Spooner Agricultural Research Station Teaching and Display Garden for one of the last programs of the growing season.  If you missed the program, here are links to the handouts and a few pictures of the morning. 
  • ​Seed Saving for Vegetables
  • ​Seed Saving Annuals and Perennials
  • ​Winter Gardening with Native Seeds (WinterSown Method)
  • Storing Fruits and Vegetables from the Home Garden
  • Food Preservation Resources
  • Fall Garden Checklist
0 Comments

Pollinator Friendly Gardening

7/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​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.  
 

0 Comments

Midsummer’s Day 2018

6/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture


​According to the British newspaper, The Sun, “Nowadays the term midsummer generally refers to both Christian, Pagan and other celebrations taking place on dates close to the solstice between June 19-24.”  The day(s) is not much celebrated here.  But it is a good time to check our gardens and see what might be happening.  

Read More
0 Comments

Pinch & Prune Basics

6/21/2018

0 Comments

 
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. ​

Read More
0 Comments

Perfectly Peony and Significant Others

6/6/2018

0 Comments

 
​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”.

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Subscribe to this blog and receive new posts in your email!!
    Use the link below and follow the instructions. You will be asked to verify your subscription. If you do not receive the verification email, look for it in your spam folder.
    Subscribe to North Country MGV - Blog by Email


    Learn more about what's going on by checking out these local blogs and Facebook sites: 

    *Spooner Ag Station Facebook 
    ​* The River Flowing Blog
    ​
    *  GardenTrueNorth Blog

    (These blogs are not associated
    ​ with the UW-Extension except for the Spooner Ag Station Facebook page.)


    Coming Events
    Go to our home page
    ​

    Archives

    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018

    Categories

    All
    All American Selections
    Annuals
    Bouquet Tips
    Event Announcement
    Fruits
    Growing Tips
    Miscellaneous
    Perennials
    Pollinator Plants
    Projects
    Public Gardens
    Recipe
    Trees And Shrubs
    Vegetables

    RSS Feed

Location

Visit the Teaching & Display Gardens

The Teaching and Display Gardens  are a joint effort between the Spooner Agriculture Research Station, operated by the University of Wisconsin - Madison College of Agriculture and Life Science, the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension and area UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteers.  

Open to the public for self-guided tours during day light hours seven days a week mid-May through mid-September. 

Contact Us

  • Home
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Registration
    • Press Releases
    • Plant Sale
    • Kids in the Garden
    • Master Gardeners Present....
    • Twilight Garden Tour >
      • 2020 Virtual Twilight Garden Tour
    • 2020 Handouts
    • 2019 Event Handouts
    • 2018 Handouts
    • 2017 Handouts & Slides
    • 2016 Handouts & Slides
  • Teaching Gardens
  • Members
    • Meetings
    • Member Handbook
    • Presentation Resources for Members
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Continuing Education
  • About/Contacts
    • Speakers Available
    • Annual Impact Reports
  • Helpful Links
  • Training
  • Blog
    • Videos