Gourd garden at the Arboretum

Our gardeners were rained out last Saturday but some were able to come together last evening to get a good start on the gourd garden. Weeds were pulled and dirt was dug and hauled and dumped then raked in to prepare for planting. Newspapers were put down on top of the soil, dirt was piled on top to secure the papers in place. Our Master Gardener Debbie showed the gardeners how to unpot the seedlings, to cut a hole through the newspaper to dig a hole for planting. About 30 gourd plants were put in the ground!

Gourd seedlings were given a new home along side some of our daylilies and sunflowers were planted along the back fence. We still have some work to do and more daylilies to plant, but the gardeners took on a big chunk of work and got it done.

Photos will follow.

Thanks to all who could help with this garden!

New Gardens for 2011!

We installed our garden beds and made rain barrels at the CWC fairgrounds on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Thanks Trident Seafoods for the barrels, Simonson Lumber for the extra lumber and Dan's Sod and Moonlight Nursery for donating the delivery fee for our fresh black dirt supply.

A huge "Thank You!" goes out to the parents who pitched in to guide and assist our members as they put together the first phase of the 2011 gardens.

Members received Great Green Gardener caps - although we were short a few and will need to order more.

Our next meeting will be on May 21st at the Arb to install our gourd garden!

April meeting moved into May!

Our April meeting will be held on May 7 at the fairgrounds. We will start to put in our garden beds and get them ready to warm up for planting at the end of May.

On May 14 we will have a fundraiser plant and seed sale at Northland Arb from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

On May 23, we will plant our gourd garden at the arb!

Gardening season is coming - I promise!

Our March Meeting

We had two guest helpers at our meeting. Thank you to Nancy Schroeder, 4-H volunteer and Shooting Sports/Wildlife Management PDC leader and organic farmer, who demonstrated color and design in the garden. Another thank you goes to Deb Hoffmann, Crow Wing County Master Gardener, who reviewed member garden layouts in preparation for installing our raised beds at the CWC fairgrounds next month.

We had two other activities, making seed pots out of newspaper and making seed tape out of water and flour glue on paper towels.

Next month, it's off to the fairgrounds!

We want to thank all the wonderful parents who are so helpful and learning side by side with our members!

Next Meeting, March 15, 6-8 p.m.

Activities:

Reviewing the garden grid - youth were sent home with a 3 x 6 foot (scaled) grid to plan their garden. Each child will have a review of the garden plan with a Master Gardener and/or Maggie.

Making newspaper seed pots and starting seeds - Learn how to read seed packets, how to plant the seeds and care for them.

Making seed tape - Understanding seed spacing information from seed packets and make seed tape.

Garden design - color and height: This will be led by our guest demonstrator, Nancy Schroeder. Youth will plan a garden by height (their height) and color (construction paper). We will take pictures of their final designs. Gardeners will gain understanding of the relationships between height and space and color design in the garden.

Our February 2011 Meeting

We had our first meeting of the season last night. There were 15 new gardeners - many of them new to the 4-H program. We had a guest demonstrator, Christine Kennedy of All Things Herbal in Pequot Lakes. Her family business began from a 4-H project so we asked Christine if she would come and show us how to make soap. We used melted glycerin for the base and added essential oils, our own dried herbs and food coloring. Thank you Christine!

We talked about fundraising opportunities for the club. Some suggestions were to participate in local spring plant sales at the Garden Expo and the Brainerd Garden Club sale at the Northland Arboretum in May. Another suggestion was to create our own garden vegetable cookbook to sell at the county fair! Gardeners were sent home with a square foot grid to use in planning their gardens for our next meeting in March. We will make newspaper seed pots and seed tape to get the growing season started.

Let the monthly meetings begin again!

Join us at the Land Services building at 5 p.m. on February 8th. We will be talking about some exciting fundraising opportunities for our group, electing officers, reviewing our goals for the year and we'll make some glycerine/herbal soap as our activity. Our activity will begin at 6 p.m. for those families who cannot arrive by 5 p.m.


A new site for interesting garden information: http://www.tinkersgardens.com/?doc=Vegetables
You will notice there is a tab for "Daylilies." Take a look and be prepared to talk about daylilies.


Maggie