Each Little World

A perfect evening

Tuesday afternoon the three of us whose gardens were open last night for touring by members of the Madison Area Master Gardeners and the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society spent more than three hours wandering though each other's gardens before the big day. Lots of fun and many questions and exclamations!

Last night the first visitors were coming up our driveway moments before 4 p.m. and the last departed around 8:30 p.m. Mark and I were on our feet the entire time talking, laughing, answering questions and generally having a wonderful time. We saw many gardeners whose gardens we've toured over the years as well as neighbors and old friends. Matt Wieneke, who did our driveway/wall, also came by with his family and answered questions and explained how that big project all came together.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful remarks and compliments. And special thanks to our two great local gardening organizations who made it all happen. 

At Rita's garden Tuesday afternoon

Blogger meet-up in Madison

Mark and I did not attend the most recent garden blogger meet-up in Seattle. We'd taken a trip to Seattle and points north and south of that city a number of years ago to see Asian gardens. Though we hadn't visited private gardens on that trip, we decided that the timing just wasn't right for us to head west this year. But, as it happens, Seattle came to us last week — in the person of Daniel Mount (below, with Joan Severa in her Madison garden).

Daniel Mount — garden designer, writer and blogger — stayed with us on a flying visit to Madison Monday and Tuesday. He was here to scout out local gardens for a 2012 tour of this area by Pacific Northwest gardeners. As the "Seattle Fling" blogger gathering suggests, usually gardeners are flocking to see those temperate northwest gardens rather than the other way round. (Those of you who were at the Seattle meet-up may remember seeing Daniel at the Epping and Lane gardens and Bellevue Botanic). 

Daniel is a Wisconsin native with family still residing here and he knows what we have to offer: Chicago public gardens like the CBG and the Lurie and Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the UW-Madison Arboretum here. Our Arboretum is home to the world's oldest restored prairie as well as an outstanding collections of trees and shrubs. Many of them were introduced by Emeritus Horticulture prof Ed Hasselkus, and are now consumer favorites like Whitespire birches, Columbus strain redbuds, and Northern Glow maple. Among the many highlights at Olbrich is the Thai Pavilion, or sala, a common structure in Thailand typically used as a shelter from rain and heat. Olbrich's structure is gorgeously ornate with teak, ceramic tile and gold leaf and is one of only four in the world located outside Thailand.

Late summer in the Midwest offers scenes and plants that differ widely from those in the Pacific Northwest and Daniel wanted to refresh his memory of what our region looks like at this season. So Mark and I chauffeured him to eight private gardens — the first two on Monday evening. It was a long day considering he'd spent the morning with Jeff Epping, Director of Horticulture at Olbrich, and the afternoon with Ed Hasselkus at the Arb. 

We were off to an early start Tuesday with six gardens on the agenda. I had to be the tough task master since we only had an hour per garden — and that included travel time. The gardens ranged from Middleton to Oregon with the majority in Madison. With the assistance of Jane LaFlash of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society, I lined up gardens of all sizes and types for Daniel to visit. We saw landscapes with sun and shade, ponds and prairies, chickens and bees, native plants and the latest exotic introductions.

Despite our recent high temperatures and lack of rainfall, all the gardens were looking lush and lovely. Daniel got a chance to meet the gardeners who briefed him on their highlights. Staying on schedule was not easy as all these gardens had so much to offer in both design and plants. A number of them have been open to visitors as part of Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society tours of member gardens or Olbrich's annual Home Garden Tour. 

Jane LaFlash (above right with Daniel and me) has a garden tucked behind her house on a busy thoroughfare that is so secluded it's hard to realize it's smack dab in the city. We spent lots of time looking at her Japanese maples. Jane has had great success with them compared to most of us with sad stories about our attempts to grow them. 

At the garden of Tom and Rosemary Kleinheinz, we saw a plant that Tony Avent was touting at his recent appearance at the Wisconsin Master Gardeners state conference held in Madison. Tony put "Syneilesis aconitifolia (with feathery leaves above) on his list of "100 Favorite Perennials for Wisconsin Gardeners" — and I had just planted one.

The picture above gives you a sense of what it's like to see a bunch of gardens in quick succession. Mark snapped the photo while I am on the far left taking notes, and Daniel is bemused, befuddled and trying to take notes and keep it all straight as Jane LaFlash and Tom and Rosemary Kleinheinz make sure he doesn't miss anything. A long, confusing, exhausting, memorable day!

Tony Avent and the Master Gardeners in town this coming weekend

“The only thing that two gardeners ever agree on is what the third gardener does wrong.”

— Tony Avent —

  

 

Next weekend is your chance to see (and hear) garden guru Tony Avent. If you are not familiar with Avent, he's the resident genius behind Plant Delights Nursery and the Juniper Level Botanic Garden in North Carolina. Avent's passion for gardening goes back to childhood when — as an eight year old — he convinced his parents to build him a greenhouse. Today he's an intrepid plant hunter, plant breeder and one of a shrinking group of independent mail order nursery owners. A number of my favorite plants came from PDN, so I am very much looking forward to his presentations as part of 2011 Wisconsin Master Gardener Assocation Annual State Conference here in town. Though Avent lives and gardens in a hotter climate than ours, he offers plenty of gems perfect for our Wisconsin gardens.

Where Tony Avent lives (above and below) / GARDEN RANT PHOTOS

The Madison Area Master Gardeners Association is the host for the conference which is scheduled from Friday August 5 to Sunday August 7 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Madison's east side near East Towne mall (4402 East Washington Avenue, map). Avent's doing two different presentations:  “Plant Exploration to Plant Exploitation, How Plants Make Their Way From the Wild to Market” on Friday and "My Favorite 100 Perennials I wouldn’t Garden Without in Wisconsin" on Saturday. The conference is open to non-Master Gardeners. 

Friday August 5: There will be an optional bus tour of Madison's horticultural gems, and an evening reception and talk by featured speaker, Tony Avent.

Saturday August 6: At the Crowne Plaza Hotel Conference site, there will be two keynote speakers, 3 breakout sessions with 10 speakers, along with socializing with other Master Gardener Volunteers, a silent auction, and vendors.

Sunday August 7: Many local Master Gardeners will open their gardens for tours.

A number of local nurseries will also have special discounts available to conference participants during the conference dates of August 5-7, 2011. 

Here are the complete details and registration info as well. 

Local notes

MADISON HERB SOCIETY

The Madison Herb Society is holding its 28th Annual Herb Fair Saturday, Nov. 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. Admission is free and the event includes talks, demonstrations, a chance to ask herb-related questions and to stock your herbal pantry. Dill is the group's "Herb of the Year" and they've produced a Dill Cookbook to celebrate its many uses. More detailed information is available here.

UW-MADISON ARBORETUM

On November 1, the UW-Madison Arboretum launched an interactive map that helps you plan visits, learn more about the Arb's ecology and history, and, ultimately, to contribute and share your own thoughts and images about the Arboretum with the larger community. For first time users of the map there is also a nice little audio visual tutorial to get you started.

MADISON AREA MASTER GARDENERS

The sixteenth edition of the MAMG Wisconsin Garden Journal focuses on a hot garden topic: ornamental and edible gardens. For the last few years I've been using this annual journal as my engagement calendar, garden advisor and as a place to make garden notations and reminders. It's full of helpful information and tips, all of it geared to our growing zones and graced with beautiful photos by local gardeners. The 2011 version is in stores now and also available by mail;  more details, including a list of local retailers selling the Journal, can be found here. 

Put it on your calendar now: The Madison Area Master Gardeners Association will host the 2011 State Master Gardeners Conference in Madison from Friday, Aug. 5 through Sunday, Aug. 7 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The theme is "Celebrating our Past, Cultivating our Future," in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Madison organization.

 

OLBRICH BOTANICAL GARDENS

Olbrich is offering a gorgeous array of greeting cards for sale. There are 27 different and equally stunning images, snapped by staff and local photographers in all seasons and in a variety of locations both indoors and outside in the gardens. The cards come in boxes of 24, can be personalized or plain, and you can order a box of the same image on all cards or mixed groupings. Details can be found here.

Editor's note: I received a free copy of the MAMG Journal as a gift as part of a recent fall-gardening panel sponsored by the group. 

Wisconsin Garden Journal

It's been a "Think Globally, Act Locally" kind of week in this little world. So, if you'll allow me one last mostly local post, I have a prize for one of you. I have an unexpected giveaway because the co-editor of the 2010 Wisconsin Garden Journal just sent me a review copy — and I've already started writing in the one I bought a few weeks ago!

The 190-page WGJ is an annual publication of the Madison Area Master Gardeners Association (MAMGA). Though I'm a member of the group, I don't do anything with the calendar other than use it. This is the fifteenth edition and, as always, it's as beautiful as it is useful. Essentially it's a weekly engagement calendar designed specifically for gardeners. So each month begins with a list of tasks — broken down week by week — along with space for weekly notes. Each day also has a space to record the high and low temps.

In addition to wonderful color photos marking the beginning of each month, the WGJ is filled with a multitude of illustrations by local artist/gardeners and short, informative pieces related to the 2010 theme: The Natural Garden. The WGJ would make a great gift for almost any gardener on your list. But for those who are trying to go native, it would be perfect. 

That's because it contains three original and highly informative articles: Kate Heiber-Cobbs explains the hot buzzword "permaculture" or how to garden ecologically and sustainably; UW Arboretum naturalist Molly Fifield Murray gives you specifics on how to actually use native plants in your own garden, while UW Landscape Architecture prof Evelyn Howell looks at garden design using native ferns. The WGJ also contains a section of "yellow pages" which has hardiness charts, tables of recommended Wisconsin native plants, along with bloom time charts and design grids to name a few items that will help you get started hands-on gardening. 

I've always used mine more as a straightforward engagement calendar while I enjoyed all the extras. Because I already have the 2010 calendar in hand as I'm doing fall clean-up, I'm beginning to make notes about what to do next Spring based on my observations now. And since I will see the notes at the right time — rather than discovering them on a scrap of paper weeks after I needed that info — I'm hoping the calendar will give me a head start in the garden next Spring. Order the WGJ online or purchase it locally at garden centers, book and gift shops, including Orange Tree Imports where I work.

MAMGA is a non-profit organization and the profits from the calendar fund community garden grants in the Dane County area and other non-profit activities. The calendar is geared to those who garden in the Midwest in Zones 3, 4 and 5. If you fit that category and need a great garden tool/journal/calendar, leave me a comment and I will do a random number drawing next Friday, November 13th. 

Garden tourists

The garden touring season kicked off this week with visits to three private gardens in nearby towns. All were quite different from each other in size and topography but shade was the predominant condition in the group. 

The photos here are from the third — and smallest — garden of the evening. But it was a plant-a-holic's dream with a vast assortment of unusual plants, the latest varieties, and quirky colors all tightly packed into the front, sides and rear gardens of a 110-year-old Victorian house — that was also open for a peek.

This garden contained lots of artwork, including large sculptures and a beautiful iron entrance archway. The garden included the sunny front curb (with roses and society garlic) and a narrow strip between the driveway to this house and the neighbor's drive (filled with shrubs including a number of 'Tiger Eye' sumacs). No turf remains on the property.

The home and garden are the work of Dylan Hart and Ed Lyon. Lyon is the director of the Allen Centennial Garden on the UW-Madison campus and has done stints at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison and Rotary Garden in Janesville, WI. He is a consumate plantsman as his design and plantings at ACG show. 

So it was not surprising to see dramatic containers (above) with plants that had us clammoring for names and info — which Ed sometimes could not remember on the spur of the moment. (I believe this is Acanthus mollis 'Tasmanian Angel').

If some dramatic plants had pride of place in containers, other equally important specimens were barely visible — hidden behind more robust neighbors.

This garden is barely two years old but contained some real treasures like the tree peonies pictured here. The lavender one above is 'Yagumo' while the pink one below is 'Yoshingawa."

We've had a long, cool spring but the temperature was perfect for our garden visit. The day was sunny and quite warm — topping out at 84 degrees. It was pleasant enough to linger outdoors as the fading light popped the flower colors!

This clematis — Guernsey Cream — drew lots of praise and questions from visitors. Ed took a lot of good-natured ribbing from the other gardeners who wondered if he'd been out in the garden with a blow-dryer to get such an explosion of blooms. My Guernsey Cream opened the same morning as Ed's, so I could attest to it being a natural effect.

I am not keen on too many garden ornaments but I do have a soft spot for frogs. And Ed and Dylan had two perfect examples on display.

If Ed Lyon is a creative and intelligent plantsman, the same must be said of many of the folks visiting his garden — as they are members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society and the local Master Gardeners association. But what's really noteworthy is that these groups know how to behave in a garden. They find the owner and ask lots of questions — that's Ed gesturing (below) in the black and white shirt in the center of the front porch.

And they know how to stay on the paths. Luckily there were more than enough routes through the garden to accommodate the crowd. (That's me in the hat on the sidewalk leading to the front door, taking notes while Mark takes the photos).

Shopping and shoveling

My Christmas shopping may just have gotten a whole lot easier. When it's shopping vs. snow, I learned long ago that snow always comes out on top — and all around you. You can't live in this climate without starting your shopping early or having a Plan B. I did the former and now it looks like I may have to do the later as well.

A whopper of a storm has just started with snow currently falling at the rate of two inches an hour and winds that are expected be gusting up to 30 miles an hour while I'm tucked up in my bed. The snow should taper off sometime Friday morning. But with 8-10 inches predicted, it's going to take a session with the snow blower as well as some serious shoveling to even get our driveway passable. More snow is predicted for Saturday night into Sunday morning and Monday night into Tuesday night.

The good news is the weather should be clear for Christmas Eve and Christmas day gatherings. The better news is that my husband and I both planned to be home today and Saturday so we can ignore the weather until we're ready to hit the driveway with all the energy we've got. 

The best news is that I only have a few presents left to buy and the same gift will work for most of those still on my list: the 14th annual Madison Area Master Gardeners 2009 Wisconsin Garden Journal.

The theme of this year’s calendar/datebook/garden journal is gardening for the senses. The MAMG Journal includes information on how to create gardens that appeal to all five senses but it offers much more: monthly gardening tips, beautiful images, space to record weather information, seed and plant inventories. I've written articles for past issues and my husband has contributed photos because we appreciate the mix of aesthetics and practicality. 

In addition to being a beautiful and useful gift, it’s locally produced as well as aimed at local gardeners. But since it covers USDA Zones 3-5, it works for almost anyone who's gardening in the upper Midwest in those zones — like you, perhaps? What's nice about this gift is that since it's a weekly engagement calendar, it works for almost anyone — even if they're not really that into gardening. But for someone who's trying to learn or wants more information, it's an especially valuable gift.

It’s available in a huge number of bookstores and garden centers from Madison to Spring Green to Kenosha to Hudson, so you should be able to find it without a long drive. Or you can order it directly from the MAMG.