When visiting my sister Milly in northern Wisconsin, I always tour her garden because she has a shiny green thumb and everything grows for her. She has a lot of plants that I am not really familiar with and she makes growing them look easy. I usually come home with a few new plants and […]
Garden Notes
Gardening Class Update
Master Gardener classes have been going very well. Our group has about 75 people and they come with a lot of practical gardening knowledge. Most of us love growing things and we just want to know more. It is a great way to meet others with similar interests and share tips while we learn from […]
Growing Knock Out Roses
As a beginning gardener, I did not have much luck with roses. Mine struggled along and had a few blooms each summer, but they always had lot of aphids and got black spot pretty much every year. My roses were like a sickly child. Of course you love them, but they just don’t thrive, even […]
Master Gardener Training
I have been accepted into the UW-Extension Master Gardener Program and will be starting classes shortly at the Boerner Botanical Gardens located in Milwaukee. It is a volunteer program that trains interested adults in university research-based horticultural concepts and practices so they can assist the UW-Extension in providing educational programs to the public on yard […]
Growing Cucumbers in Compost
Every year I plant cucumbers in the vegetable garden and usually I get some early cucumbers. Then cucumber beetles find our garden, infect the cucumber vines with a mosaic virus and our plants all wilt. If we escape the mosaic virus, our vines usually get powdery mildew and stop producing. It is all very discouraging! […]
Low Maintenance Gardens
This July my daughter Rochelle and I visited Bayfield, Wisconsin during a very hot spell of weather. It was at least 95 degrees and the only relief was a slight breeze from Lake Superior. We walked around and did a bit of shopping while enjoying the lake view with children playing on the beach and […]