The program handouts are now available. Listed below and on our 2020 Events Handouts page.
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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. Make an eye-catching garden more enjoyable by including fragrant plants. Incorporating aromatic flowers into the landscape adds an unforgettable dimension. Fragrant plants tend to bring up pleasant memories, and scented flowers also attract pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. Fragrance is produced by plants when their essential oils evaporate and the molecules enter the air. The most fragrant flowers are white and pastel. Create your own fragrant garden with these tips:
Fragrant Garden at the Spooner Agriculture Research Station in early June and mid-July. The specific plants in our fragrant garden are: Bordering the walkway is Sweet Alyssum (Rosie O’Day). Starting to cascade up and over on our arbor are both Moonflower and Sweet Pea. In the main part of the garden are Bee Balm, Carnation, Chocolate Flower, Heliotrope, Hyssop, Lupine, Marigold, Nicotiana, and Penstemon. Learn more at the upcoming Twilight Garden Tour on August 13 starting at 4:00pm. Submitted by Roseann Meixelsperger, Master Gardener Volunteer
The North Country Master Gardener Volunteer Association invites everyone to our annual Twilight Garden Tour on Tuesday August 13 starting at 4:00 p.m. and closing around 7:30 p.m. The event will be in the Spooner Agriculture Research Station Teaching and Display Gardens at 780 Orchard Lane, Spooner. The gardens are located 1 ½ miles east of Spooner on Highway 70 or ½ mile west of the Highway 70/53 interchange. All ages are invited to attend and there will be handicap parking near the gardens. We will have speakers from University of Wisconsin including Brian Hudelson (Director of the UW-Madison Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic), Brian Smith (UW-River Falls Professor of Horticulture), and P.J. Liesch (Director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab) speaking about plant diseases, insects, and vegetable gardening. There will also be displays and demonstrations including how to create a Monarch Waystation, getting your garden soil tested, wine tasting, and vegetable tastings. The Spooner Garden Club, Barron County Master Gardener Volunteers, Cooperative Weed Management, Friends of the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area, Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary, and our Kids in the Garden program will be among the organizations and programs represented.
This will be a prime opportunity to check out our pollinator garden, cover crop garden beds and other creative gardening using this years All-American Selections’ theme of Recycling, Reusing, Reimagining. Hayrides to the Seed to Kitchen Garden will also be scheduled throughout the evening. The event is free to the public. In the event of rain, we will move the displays and speakers close-by into the Spooner Agriculture Research Station, 1035 E Maple Street (Highway 70), Spooner. Please call the Station at 715-635-3506 for more information if needed. 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
To Pre-Register & for more information call the Spooner Agricultural Research Station @ 715-635-3506
Start Small with theme gardens We will begin small by creating a garden with a dinner salad in mind. We will plant salad greens, lettuce, arugula, spinach, and herbs and tall greens, kale, parsley and chives — all are kid-friendly and easy to grow. Kids like to see the result of their effort, so we will also be planting crops that grow quickly such as green beans that will grow up the mast of our pirate’s ship. We will plant colorful flowers in our rainbow garden.
We offer flexible scheduling, meeting on Monday afternoons from 4 pm to 5:30 pm, repeating the session on Tuesday morning from 9:30 am to 11 am. Odds are kids and parents alike will enjoy the time they spend together and learn a little something along the way. We hope you will join us! Our 2019 schedule is: **A parent or an adult is required to stay with children under 10 years of age.**
To Pre-Register & for more information call the Spooner Agricultural Research Station @ 715-635-3506
Heirloom tomatoes were the cornerstone of the group’s very first plant sale. Since then, NCMGVA has increased the number of heirloom choices and added a few of their favorite hybrid varieties. The tomato and pepper plants are started from seed and grown by volunteers specifically for the sale.
Though hundreds of the plants will be at the sale, they tend to sell out quickly and gardeners are advised to go early for the best selection. The sale begins at 8 a.m. at the Spooner Ag Research Station on Hwy 70 east of Spooner and runs until the plants are sold out. The proceeds go toward supporting the Teaching and Display Garden that is open to the public on Orchard Lane, just east of the Ag Research Station; for garden-related grants; for promoting horticulture outreach and education in Sawyer, Washburn, and Burnett counties; and other horticultural projects. “According to Kevin Schoessow, Area UW-Extension Agriculture Development Educator and advisor to NCMGVA, Master Gardener volunteers come together from many backgrounds.” They find common ground in their appreciation for growing plants, whether edible or ornamental. They are trained volunteers who assist the University of Wisconsin-Extension staff by helping people in the community better understand horticulture and the environment, and they donate thousands of hours’ worth of their time each year toward that end. Additions to the Pollinator Six Pack ~ Continue to Feed the Bees ~ Why Have a Pollinator Garden? Butterflies, bees and other insects are attracted to flowers in search of nectar. They brush up against the anthers of a flower, get pollen grains on their body and carry the pollen from flower to flower. A Pollinator Garden is a garden predominately with flowers that provide nectar or pollen for a range of pollinating insects. A pollinator garden can be any size. You might only have a balcony or a small yard, but you can still plant a pollinator friendly flowers there. Ox Eye Sunflower and Purple Coneflower will be new additions to our Pollinator Six Pack. Annual Plant Sale sponsored by North Country Master Gardener Volunteers, Saturday, May 18, 8:00 -11:00am (or until plants last) at the Station Building, 1035 E. Maple Street (Hwy 70). For sale: Heirloom Tomatoes, Peppers, Natives, Herbs, and Cannas AuthorCarla TePaske ~ NCMGV by: Katie Childs, UW-Extension Master Gardener Volunteer The sap is running and the bees are buzzing...A big cheer for Spring as many of us have suffered from snow and cold fatigue. However, I have some good news to share about the beehives on Golden Pond. Let me bring you up to speed with a bit of a review… Last November I ‘blogged’ about “Project Honey,” an experimental operation whereby in May, a beekeeper installed a couple of hives near my Gardens on Golden Pond. The colonies not only survived, but thrived near an oasis of perennial beds, along with vegetable and fruit gardens, in an extreme woodsy environment. Over Labor Day, it was time to harvest the honey from the hives; the process taking several hours, resulted in an abundance of liquid gold! With the temperature dipping in the fall, the hives were prepped for winter readiness. Along with a honey reserve and protein packs to supplement their winter nourishment, each hive was bound securely with an insulated Mylar type wrap, foam insulation and duct tape. With the temperature falling to beyond minus 30 degrees at times, this method proved to be sufficient to help maintain the hive temperature during the exceedingly harsh winter months. Along with the outer protection, the bees had to do their part as well. Let me explain - the worker bees form a “cluster” surrounding the queen to keep her warm and safe. With thousands of bees shivering and vibrating their wing muscles they can maintain the cluster temperature as follows: the optimal core temp in winter time is 95 degrees; 81 degrees is the average observed in the inside, while 48 degrees is the average temperature for a cluster exterior shell. Who knew, in the winter the workers insulate - in the summer they are a cooling agent. While the calendar says its spring, our garden scapes and woods may be still covered with snow. However, with the melting well underway, we will soon be checking for daffodils, crocus and tulips popping up. On March 22 the temperature rose to 50 degrees and much to my surprise, I heard a buzzing in a very sunny protected spot a short distance from the hives. I soon had a confirmation that a honey bee was out and about. On the 23rd - again a warm and calm day - dozens of ‘scout’ bees were seeking pollen and nectar, albeit a bit early. Had they been successful, they would return to the hive and ‘dance’ on the honeycomb. The beekeeper came by to examine the hives and I am happy to report he was pleased at the colonies survival rate and overall hive condition. We are optimistically looking forward to another season of ‘cohabiting’ with honey bees at Gardens on Golden Pond! HONEY BEE FUN FACTS
FEED THE BEES PLEASE!
Photo Credit: Carla TePaske California is experiencing a fabulous Spring! California received rain, wonderful rain to make everything grow. With that the painted ladies enjoyed a fantastic early season. Do you remember Wisconsin's Autumn of 2017? We also had painted ladies visit our gardens as they took a break during the migration. Continue to read on about the current butterfly news happening in California and some Wisconsin butterfly history. Substantial rainfall in the deserts near the Mexican border, where the North American painted ladies lay their eggs, is the reason for the unusually large swarms. The rain caused plants to thrive, giving the painted lady caterpillars plenty of food to fuel their transformation, said Arthur M. Shapiro, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. Source ~ The New York Times ~ click here to read more An unusually wet winter in Southern California has given way to a super bloom of wildflowers and an explosion of Painted Lady butterflies. The black and orange insects usually keep a low profile as they make their annual migration from the deserts of western Mexico to their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest. But this year, they're hard to miss. Scientists say that extra plant growth has allowed their population to boom into the millions. Source ~ WBUR ~ Click here to read more September of 2017 Wisconsin was blessed with a similar event. Our mild spring weather allowed for an early northward migration. In 2017 Painted Ladies were spotted in Iowa as early as March 10th, which is earlier than normal. With such an early arrival, the butterflies were able to have two generations instead of just one. For us Wisconsinites, the abundance of butterflies would not be visible to us, because they typically migrate at an elevation several thousand feet in the air to take advantage of favorable wind currents. Using the wind they can travel up to 100 miles a day, and reach speeds of nearly 30 miles per hour. September of 2017, Wisconsin had strong southern weather flow that brought the Painted Ladies down. It is not efficient for a tiny butterfly to try and fly against the wind, so they took a break and were busy refueling on Autumn flowers such as goldenrod, asters, zinnia and sunflowers. It truly was a magical September for Wisconsin and I am sure that is how California folks are feeling this Spring! AuthorCarla TePaske, NCMGV |
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