August 25,
2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter © Kim
Willis
Hi Gardeners
Is it
fall? I like cooler weather but not
gloomy weather. We got another inch of
rain Sunday through Monday. Looks like
more might be on the way. But the
weather is going to warm up again this weekend so don’t worry.
The goldenrod
and asters are blooming in the fields and in gardens. My hardy hibiscus has yet to bloom but my
Chinese hibiscus are putting on a great show, and I have a gorgeous new double
Rose of Sharon in bloom that is a sort of plum-rose color. I had a yellow water lily bloom in my small
water feature. It opens so fast you can
almost see it opening, opens in mid- morning and closes in the evening. I am still waiting for my brugmansia to
bloom- although the buds are getting huge.
It has numerous buds for such a short plant- about 2 feet tall.
Despite all
the rain our pond is low again, I think it’s because we didn’t get much snow
last winter. I was down there for a look
last night and was excited to see the shallow water was sprouting a new type of
plant, water plantain. Alisma subcordatum is a native plant
that must have arrived with birds. It’s
not related to the plantain in the lawn although it has large, broad leaves. It has tiny white flowers in clusters held
above the water on long stems. It grows
in shallow, still water- that’s my pond all right. Native Americans thought this plant could
cure rattlesnake bites and rabies. I haven’t gotten any pictures yet but when I
do I will share.
 |
| Double rose of sharon |
We have been
eating tomatoes and sweet corn almost every day. I am giving tomatoes away and feeding them to
the chickens. I have some damage from sun scald which results from early blight
defoliating the plants. The sweet corn
is just about done however, which is a shame.
Our cabbage and carrots are making great coleslaw. My melon plants are now growing quite vigorously
and have lots of softball sized melons.
I hope they have time to ripen. I
actually got a couple of cucumbers from the garden. I thought they had all succumbed to downy
mildew but when I weeded (yep- I was negligent) I found a producing plant.
If you quit
feeding the birds this summer it’s time to start again. The birds need to fuel up for winter and fall
migration. Baby birds are quite
vulnerable this time of year as mom and dad desert them and feeding helps them
survive. Keep those hummingbird feeders
going too.
Let’s appreciate all bees, wasps and
hornets
I am all for
saving the honeybee and pollinators of all types. But what many people don’t realize is that
honeybees are not native to the Americas.
They were brought here by early Europeans and escaped and went
wild. And while they are great
pollinators they do compete with our native bees. And native plants are best adapted to
pollination by native bees, although some plants seem to have evolved over time
to make good use of honeybees. And since
many non-native crops that are adapted to honeybee pollination have also been
planted in the Americas – such as apples and almonds, honeybees are needed
here. But don’t forget native bees, such
as the bumblebee, have also adapted to pollinating foreign plants that were
introduced here.
Wasps and
hornets aren’t quite the same family as bees, but since they look similar and
have the same ability to sting, people often lump them together. Some wasps and hornets do pollinate plants
but others are predators of other insects that harm plants, or they consume
dead plants and animals. As a whole all
bees, wasps and hornets should be considered as beneficial creatures and we
should be rooting for the survival of all of them, not just honeybees.
While many
people do all they can to protect honeybees, they often go out of their way to
kill wasps, hornets and native bees. It’s
understandable when people don’t want them in their homes and they worry about
getting stung, especially if they are allergic to bee or wasp stings but that
doesn’t justify the all-out war many people wage against these poor critters,
especially in late summer. Fear is no
reason to kill things that aren’t hurting you and fear isn’t justified unless
you are allergic to bee or wasp stings.
One sting won’t kill most people and it hurts less than getting a tattoo
or your nose pierced.
While many bee
or wasp stings could potentially kill you the reports of people being swarmed
and killed by bees or wasps are exaggerated.
It’s unlikely to happen here in the US unless you go and stomp on a
yellow jacket nest a few times.
While some
bees, wasps and hornets are aggressive when you disturb their homes most leave
you alone if you leave them alone. And
you shouldn’t disturb their homes if they aren’t in your home or in a place
where you frequently need to go. You may
need to use poisons or mechanical means to get bees ( including honeybees) out
of the home but you shouldn’t be spraying poisons on wasp nests way out in the
yard, setting out yellow jacket traps in the yard or knocking down wasp nests
that are under eaves high above the ground.
If the bee,
hornet or wasp home is 10 feet away from where you need to pass by or you can
detour around it then let it be. These
animals are far more beneficial to you alive than dead.
Why you don’t have to eat your weeds
I belong to
some groups on the internet that identify plants and discuss them. It seems that with every ID someone has to
mention that you can eat the plant, or part of it. It’s like we are all starving and looking for
sustenance wherever we can get it. Now
it’s nice to know that you could eat a plant if you were starving but a great
many plants that are technically edible actually taste terrible. You wouldn’t want to eat them unless you were
starving, especially if there were more pleasant tasting plants around. So if someone tells you should eat that weed
rather than pull it and compost it- ask why.
Don’t let
people guilt you into making salads or soups and other concoctions out of
absolutely nasty tasting wild plants just because they are edible or as they
will tell you with earnest eyes- super nutritious. Of course tastes differ, but there are
reasons why some plants are cultivated and widely eaten and others remain-
well- weeds. And just because its
“wild” doesn’t mean it’s better for you either.
There are plenty of cultivated, good tasting plants that you can get
your carbs, fiber, vitamins and antioxidants from. And if you are gathering those nutritious
wild plants from along the road they may actually be worse for you than plants
grown in the garden.
Yes the
indigenous people of our area ate many different plants than what we eat now-
although we do eat some plants that they introduced us to quite regularly. Did
you know that the Native Americans of the woodlands, here in Michigan, never
ate mushrooms of any type? They
considered all mushrooms “bad”. Their
children used the large flat mushrooms like shelf fungi to draw on with a
stick. Natives of the area did eat some lichens
found on white pine. They cooked these in
fat and they were said to look and taste like scrambled eggs.
 |
| Lambquarters can be eaten but there are better tasting plants. |
Some plants
that we have lost over time, or seldom eat anymore, actually were pleasant
tasting and good for us. But indigenous people
often ate certain plants only in times of scarcity or when they felt there was
a medicinal reason to eat them. They ate
those plants because there was nothing else to eat, not because they were yummy
or super nutritious. Almost every plant
that was native to an area had a use to Native Americans and they classified
plants broadly by their use, but many of those uses were not food. Some were for spiritual/magic use, some
medicinal, some for fiber or dyes, some for building and so on.
And there’s
another reason indigenous people were able to eat those food plants and digest
them well enough to get the nutrition they needed from them. They developed gut bacteria specifically
designed to digest plants from their area that were regularly consumed. Groups of people who live in specific areas
have different gut bacteria than people who live in other areas. The gut
bacteria develop over time and generations to digest foods efficiently that the
people in that group eat regularly.
These gut bacteria are actually passed to children during childbirth.
(Another good reason to have a natural childbirth if you can.)
So when
people from another area eat foods they aren’t used to, their gut bacteria may
struggle to digest them properly and this can cause problems. A good example would be the starch inulin,
which is found in things like Jerusalem artichokes or the proteins found in
milk. If your body doesn’t have gut
bacteria designed to digest inulin or milk proteins you’ll have
gastrointestinal problems like gas and diarrhea if you consume very much of
them. You probably won’t get the maximum
nutrition from those foods and could even compromise your health if those
products had to be a large part of your diet. But in
places where people consume a lot of milk or Jerusalem artichokes their gut
bacteria will quite efficiently process them.
But it’s free!
There is some
magic to some people about getting something for free-and no work involved just
stroll around the woods and pick dinner.
Some of us would rather stroll out to a garden though- even if there is
more work involved. That doesn’t mean
that some wild gathered foods aren’t worth the time to gather them. Wild berries, maple syrup, and some
mushrooms, for example can be quite delicious.
But most of us don’t have time to go hunter gathering every time we are
hungry and many people don’t have ready access to a wild, public area to do
so. And if everyone did go out gathering
their food everyday – what would that do to certain populations of wild plants?
There’s
nothing wrong in trying some wild plant foods if you are absolutely sure that
you have identified them correctly. Its
alarming when people ask someone else to identify a plant and then
mention- “It tastes sort of lemony-
acidic.” Don’t taste things until you
are sure of its identity and know it’s harmless. There are many plants out there that are not your
friends. But if you do know what it is
and that it’s safe and you actually like the taste, then wild gathering may be
fine for you.
You don’t
need to look at every plant growing in your yard, or the fields and woods next to
it as a source of food or medicine.
Plants may have many benefits, such as controlling soil erosion,
filtering water, providing food for pollinators or feeding animals that we like
to eat. The Native people of this area
thought most plants useful, but ate less than 10% of them. Even non-native plants can be beneficial to an
environment, despite what some people think.
You shouldn’t
feel guilty if you don’t want to eat the dandelions from the yard or not use
the purslane you pulled in a salad. If
you don’t eat the flowers you grow, you just want them to be pleasing to the
eye, that’s fine. It’s not necessary to eat plants to appreciate them and if
you don’t appreciate certain plants because they are competing for space and
nutrients with plants you do like to eat or enjoy for their beauty its fine to
add them to the compost pile. A plants worth should not be judged on whether it’s
edible or medicinal.
Barberry- be brave and grow it
Barberries
are excellent landscape plants, used in hedges, foundation plantings and as
groundcovers. There are a number of foliage colors in yellows, burgundies and
purples. Some varieties have excellent winter berry color as well as stunning
fall color. The thorny stems make them
excellent to plant as barriers to foot traffic or around houses to dissuade
invaders from hiding there. The plants
are easy to grow and care for and extremely winter hardy as well as resistant
to deer browsing.
 |
| Barberry in fall |
Barberry
berries are loved by birds and larger plants are used for nesting and
cover. Some people use a planting of low barberries
in front of other plants to keep deer and rabbits away. The thick thorny branches are quite a deterrent. They were grown as hedges to keep farm
animals confined in earlier times, but a fence might be safer now. They can be used around chicken pens and
houses to keep out some predators- or at least make it hard for them. And if you don’t want kids to play in a
certain area line it with barberry.
But among
Midwestern and Eastern American gardeners there is some confusion about whether
they are allowed to plant barberries. In the early 1900’s a program to
eradicate barberries began in the Midwest and northern plains states because
barberries can be a host for wheat stem rust, a serious wheat disease, that was
causing huge crop losses. At that time the woods and fields were filled with
common barberry, Berberis vulgaris, which
was brought here from Europe by early settlers and escaped into the wild. Even as early as the 1700’s European barberry
was associated with disease problems in wheat, barley and oats in Europe and
Russia but that didn’t stop people from bringing it to the new country. There are also at least two native species of
Barberry that are also hosts for wheat rust.
These were also eradicated.
Millions of
barberry plants were uprooted and destroyed with patriotic fervor and a
quarantine was imposed on importing or growing any varieties of barberry that
could be infected with the wheat rust fungus. In states with cold winters the
wheat rust fungus overwintered on barberry plants. In spring the fungus oozed sweet nectar which
attracted insects which then carried the fungus spores to wheat and certain
other grain crops like barley and oats. ( Spores can also be carried by wind.) The
eradication program was eliminated in 1975 by the federal government although
some state continued programs longer. Recently there has been talk of a new
program to eradicate wild barberry, since wild colonies of common barberry are burgeoning
again and new strains of wheat stem rust are being found.
However if
gardeners get their barberry plants from a reputable nursery they don’t have to
worry that they will be infecting wheat fields with a serious disease or that
the “garden police” will arrive to uproot their plants. Every type or cultivar of barberry that is
sold in the US has to go through a process of testing and registering that can
take two years or more to make sure that that variety cannot get the wheat rust
fungus. Each cultivar is given a
registration number that makes it legal to sell or grow it. Most of these garden safe barberries come
from Japanese Barberry Berberis
thunbergii although a few species and hybrids of species from China and
other places are occasionally seen.
Growing barberry
You will want
to start with a plant from a good nursery of course, to make sure you are
getting a legal variety. Barberry can be
started from seed but the seedlings will be highly variable. There’s also a possibility that seed grown
plants may be hybrids with common barberry or another cultivar that carries
wheat rust as barberry plants interbreed easily. Never dig up plants from wild areas, even
horticulture varieties can be aggressive spreaders but you won’t know if these
carry wheat rust.
 |
| Keep the green pruned out of red foliage barberry or it will revert to green |
Barberry will
grow in full sun and partial shade. They
are not fussy about soil conditions.
They transplant well and are quite winter hardy. They like fertile, well drained but moist
soil but can tolerate sandy dry soil and moderate drought. Most varieties are deciduous, dropping their
leaves in the fall, leaving a show of berries beloved by birds. A few varieties that are less winter hardy and
grown in more southern areas have semi-evergreen or evergreen foliage.
Barberries
have small rounded leaves that come in several interesting colors of
chartreuse, lemon, gold, rose, pink, red, orange and purple. Even green forms may have scarlet or orange
fall foliage. In spring they have small yellow
flowers hidden under the leaves, which will turn into small elongated red
berries in the fall and persist into winter or until the birds find them.
Green
foliaged barberry is occasionally sold for hedges but most ornamental
barberries will have some sort of interesting foliage color for the
landscape. Some varieties have lots of
red berries for fall color but some are sterile or nearly sterile and don’t
produce many berries. Barberries with colored
foliage have some tendency to revert to green foliage and when green sprigs
appear they should be pruned out.
Since most
barberries have small thorns on the stems you’ll want to take care where you
plant them. There are a few varieties
that are thornless or nearly so but they are hard to find. There are also several forms and sizes among
barberries so chose what’s good for your space and needs. They range from
compact groundcovers 18 inches or so in height to those varieties that are tall
and narrow for hedges. Many varieties
have arching stems in a loose bush form.
Barberries take pruning well and can be shaped if needed to fit their
space.
Prune barberries
after flowering. If you have overgrown,
messy shrubs they can be taken down in a hard prune to 18 inches or so from the
ground and will re-grow. Most barberries
look best however if allowed to develop a natural arching form. Fertilize after a deep pruning and it’s also
helpful to lightly fertilize barberry in early spring, especially in poor
soils.
Barberries
have a few minor insect and disease problems that generally don’t seriously
harm the plant. Anthracnose causes dark
spots on the leaves with a yellow margin.
Sometimes barberries get powdery mildew in wet, cool conditions, which
seldom kill the plant. Barberry
caterpillars are small dark worms that tie the leaf tips together with a fine
web. Barberries also get scale and
sometimes aphids. These can be
controlled with insecticides.
Some
gardeners think of barberry as a non-native invasive plant and its true birds
will spread the berries and plants will pop up in unexpected places. If this worries you locate varieties which
produce few berries or are sterile.
Japanese barberry can invade woods and fields and when it’s seen should
probably be removed. However most modern
varieties do not naturalize as easily as European barberry (B. vulgaris) or spread as quickly as
native varieties, Allegheny barberry B.
canadensis and Colorado barberry B.
fendleri, which are actually getting harder to find since the great eradication
event. In many states it’s not legal to
grow the natives or Common European barberry in gardens.
Varieties of Barberry
Northern
gardeners ( Zone 7 and lower) will want to stick to approved registered
varieties of Japanese barberry Berberis thunbergii and possibly a few
hybrids. Here are some good garden
varieties: B. atropurpurea, an older purple leaved variety from
which many newer cultivars have been developed such as ‘Crimson Pygmy', red foliage, 2’ compact, and ‘Rose Glow’, rosy pink foliage spotted with purple, purple fall
color, 6’ tall.
‘Aurea’
is a golden yellow foliage barberry which has little fruit. 'Kobold'
looks much like boxwood, with green foliage and a tight 2’ mound of foliage
that doesn’t need pruning. ‘Dart's Red
Lady' actually has purple foliage that turns red in fall, 5’ high. 'Lime
Glow' is a medium sized chartreuse foliaged barberry. 'Orange Rocket' has orange
summer foliage, red orange in fall, 'Helmond
Pillar' has green foliage, and a narrow columnar shape 2’ wide and 5’ high.
Culinary and medicinal
use of barberry
The reason
Common or European barberry was brought to America was because the berries were
used for jams and jellies as a bonus to their being excellent hedge plants,
often used to pen animals. A yellow dye
is made from the bark. Barberries also
had many medicinal uses.
The berries
have a tart, acidic flavor and needed sugar in quantity when making jam or
jelly. They were actually grown in rows
for this purpose in medieval Europe but are seldom used for this today. They
were used like lemon zest for flavoring some dishes also. Mid-eastern cultures used the berries to
flavor rice and candies and Iran still grows barberries for this use, although
an epidemic of wheat rust disease in the Mid-East may change that.
Barberries
contain the chemical Berberine, which inhibits bacterial growth and stimulates
the immune system. Berberine also increases certain liver functions according
to modern research. Leaves, berries,
bark and roots of barberry have been used in various folk remedies in Europe
and the Mid-East and Asia. Native
Americans used their barberries less often for medicinal use but the berries
were eaten as food, usually cooked with meat dishes or added to fat.
In Europe
barberries seemed to be one of those all-purpose remedies, used for ailments from
skin conditions, to stomach upset and diarrhea, for respiratory diseases, to
induce abortion, and of course for liver and gall bladder problems.
Modern
research has shown some effects on liver function and in the treatment of
polycystic ovarian disease and diabetes.
Here’s a link to a study review –
which found that barberry extract worked as well as
metformin for polycystic ovarian disease treatment and lowered blood
glucose. Modern medicine is also
studying berberine for use as a bladder infection remedy, skin disease and even
cancer cures.
Before using
barberry in home remedies be aware that many prescription medications interact
with it. Do not use if you are taking
diabetes medications, antibiotics, blood pressure medications, blood thinners, Celebrex,
diuretics, antihistamines- or just about any prescription meds. Pregnant women should not use barberry
medications because it can cause miscarriage and/or jaundice and liver problems
in infants.
Don’t be
afraid to grow barberries in the garden.
They are colorful, low care, hardy shrubs and registered varieties won’t
upset the farmers in your area.
Tomato and Bacon Jam- Got lots of
tomatoes and want to try something different?
 |
| Tomato and bacon jam |
A close
scrutiny of the recipe reveals one thing- it’s basically a ketchup recipe with
maybe a tad more sugar added and some bacon pieces thrown in. Tomato jam isn’t bad though, and you may want
to give it a try. One of the best ways to use this tomato jam is to slather it
on some home fried potatoes. It’s also
good on crackers, meatloaf and grilled cheese sandwiches.
If do any
canning and preserving you’ll know that this recipe is quite adaptable- you
don’t need to follow it exactly. You
can make it less sweet- use a little more vinegar and a 1/4 cup less sugar, you
can add finely chopped green or hot peppers, you can vary the spices to suit
your taste. Taste the product as you go
and realize that as it cooks down the flavors will intensify. Sugar is part of what makes the thick, jam
like texture, so don’t use sugar substitutes.
Here’s a tip
on cooking. You can use a saucepan and
slowly simmer this recipe until it cooks down. You’ll need to hover around the
kitchen and stir occasionally, especially near the end when it’s getting thick,
to keep it from scorching. But you can
also put the recipe in a microwave safe bowl- uncovered- and cook it. You won’t have to watch it quite as closely
although it will take almost as long to cook.
It helps to open the microwave door every half hour to let steam out and
wipe off moisture inside with a paper towel.
The time will
vary depending on a lot of things; expect at least an hour of cooking
time. It’s done when you have reduced it
to about half; in the recipe below that would be about 2 cups of jam. It will thicken as it cools too. So here’s the recipe for tomato jam.
12 oz pkg. of bacon, cooked until
crisp, drained and crumbled
4 cups of very ripe, finely chopped
tomatoes
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 cup of sugar
2½ tablespoons vinegar
1½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic power (optional)
Put everything
except the bacon in a pan and cook until reduced to about half the volume and
the jam looks thick and shiny. This
will take from 1-2 hours. Stir in the bacon pieces. Let the jam cool then
divide into small portions. Freeze what
you don’t think you will eat within two days.
Refrigerate any jam that isn’t put in the freezer until used. Jam in the freezer will keep for 2 months.
This makes
about 2 cups of tomato and bacon jam.
What canning method to use for fruits
and vegetables
It’s that
time of year again in Michigan when fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant at
farm markets and in the garden. It’s
great to be able to eat fresh and local now, but what about deep in a Michigan
winter? You can eat local if you can or
freeze some of that abundant produce now.
Many people
in Michigan are taking up canning for the first time and are a little unsure
about what method to use when canning.
There are two major canning methods, water bath and pressure canning. The old method of filling jars with hot food
and just putting a lid on them and letting them seal as they cool is not
recommended anymore. Food canned in this
manner is much more likely to spoil and cause food poisoning.
Water bath
canning uses a large pot with a lid. A
rack sits inside to hold jars and keep them from bumping each other as the
water boils. The water bath canner sits
on one of your stoves burners for heating.
Several sizes are available to hold 4 or more pint or quart sized jars.
Water bath canners are fairly inexpensive and the pot can be used for cooking
large batches of soup or chili.
These Michigan products
can be canned using a water bath canner; tomatoes with added lemon juice or
citric acid, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, cranberries,
blackberries, cherries, apples, peaches, apricots, pears, plums, grapes,
rhubarb, pickles, jams and jellies.
A pressure
canner is also a large pot but it has a lid that seals and holds in pressure
from steam. Under pressure food can be
heated to higher than the boiling point and that kills harmful bacteria present
in low acid foods. There is a gauge at the top or weights to adjust the
pressure. It too uses your stove to
provide the heat. They also have racks
to hold jars. Many pressure canners can
be used to cook meals too.
Food that is
canned in a water bath canner could be canned in a pressure canner. However the pressure canner is necessary to
safely can meats, vegetables and some mixes of things like relishes or sauces
with meat. These Michigan products need to be canned
in a pressure canner; green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, peppers,
corn, beans, spinach, squash, pumpkin, onions and mushrooms.
All meat
products need to be pressure canned.
Most mixes of vegetables need to be pressure canned. Some tomato based sauces can be water bath
canned; some need to be pressure canned.
Follow the recipe directions as to proportions and processing time
exactly and don’t substitute ingredients unless the recipe gives suggestions.
Canning is
not something to experiment with until you are very experienced. Find a modern canning book like Knacks Canning, Pickling and Preserving
and follow the recipes exactly. Each
recipe will tell you the time to process - or boil - foods in a water bath
canner or what pressure and time to process in a pressure canner. You count the processing time when the water
begins to boil under a water bath canner and when the correct pressure is
reached in a pressure canner.
Knowing the
altitude that you live in is important in canning. You adjust the time and the pressure involved
in processing canned food depending on altitude. Except for a few areas in Upper Michigan,
most of Michigan is less than 1,000 feet in altitude, (elevation). There are a few spots in Lower Michigan that
are between 1000 and 1,500 feet. You can
check the elevation of where you live by going to the national weather site http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/ and clicking on the map as close to your home
as possible. When the forecast for that
area comes up there will be a box on the right side that lists your latitude
and longitude and elevation.
Canning
supplies are now available in most major stores. You can often pick up used canners at garage
sales and resale stores. Make sure all
the directions are included, especially with pressure canners, as there are
several ways pressure canners can be adjusted and you must know how to do this.
Canning
really isn’t hard and it allows you to preserve some of Michigan’s finest foods
at their peak of nutrition and taste.
Just pick up a good canning book and some basic supplies and get started
in preserving your own food for local eating all year round.
Looking for birdhouse gourds
The Lapeer
Horticulture society is looking for birdhouse type gourds for a project. If you have some or know where some can be
purchased please let me know at kimwillis151@gmail.com
It’s a good night for soup or a nice
pot roast. Stay warm.
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
Events, classes and other offerings
Please let me know if there is any event or class that
you would like to share with other gardeners.
These events are primarily in Michigan but if you are a reader from
outside of Michigan and want to post an event I’ll be glad to do it.
Do you have plants or
seeds you would like to swap or share?
Post them here by emailing me.
An
interesting Plant Id page you can join on Facebook
Here’s a
seed/plant sharing group you can join on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/875574275841637/
Here’s a facebook page link for
gardeners in the Lapeer area
Here’s a
link to classes being offered at Campbell’s Greenhouse, 4077 Burnside Road,
North Branch. Now open.
Here’s a
link to classes and events at Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor
Here’s a
link to programs being offered at English Gardens, several locations in
Michigan.
Here’s a
link to classes at Telly’s Greenhouse in Troy and Shelby Twsp. MI, and now
combined with Goldner Walsh in Pontiac MI.
Here’s a
link to classes and events at Bordines, Rochester Hills, Grand Blanc, Clarkston
and Brighton locations
Here’s a
link to events at the Leslie Science and Nature Center, 1831 Traver Road Ann
Arbor, Michigan | Phone 734-997-1553 |
http://www.lesliesnc.org/
Here’s a link to events at Hidden Lake Gardens, 6214
Monroe Rd, Tipton, MI
Here’s a
link to all the nature programs being offered at Seven Ponds Nature center in
Dryden, Michigan. http://www.sevenponds.org/education/progs/springprograms/
Here’s a
link to events and classes at Fredrick Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids Mi
http://www.meijergardens.org/learn/ (888) 957-1580, (616) 957-1580
Exhibitors/demonstrators
wanted
Seven Ponds
Nature Center ( Dryden Mi.) Heritage Harvest Days, scheduled for September 19
and 20 is looking for additional artists and crafters who can demonstrate,
display, and sell their work, especially that related to nature. All exhibitors receive free admission to the
event, as well as free lunch on one day of the festival. Please contact the
center at 810-796-3200 if you would like to set up a booth or exhibit this
year.
Newsletter
information
If you would
like to pass along a notice about an educational event or a volunteer
opportunity please send me an email before Tuesday of each week and I will
print it. Also if you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to
me. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly notes.
You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any
individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine but I do
reserve the right to publish what I want.
I write this
because I love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across
in my research each week. It keeps me engaged with local people and
horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If at any time you
don’t wish to receive these emails just let me know. If you know anyone who
would like to receive these emails have them send their email address to
me. KimWillis151@gmail.com
