page links

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

August 25, 2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

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


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

August 18, 2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

August 18, 2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter    © Kim Willis

Hi Gardeners

Flowering tobacco- Only the Lonely.
I am not a fan of this hot and humid weather.  It has sped up the growth of my tropical pot plants though, and my brugmansia that I started from a tiny cutting this spring is actually getting ready to bloom as is the orange jasmine.  I have a beautiful yellow pond lily in bloom today also.  The garden is dripping with tomatoes, although my plants are succumbing fast to blight.  Our sweet corn is also ripening almost too quickly to keep up with.  August is the month of good eating from the garden.

The weather is making lots of news stories this week.  It seems the Old Farmer’s Almanac is coming out soon and it’s predicting a very cold and snowy winter.  Obviously they weren’t keeping up with the National Weathers Service’s predictions.  They came out this week with news of a “Godzilla” El Nino weather system developing.  That means a large patch of very warm Pacific water is moving toward us in simple terms.  Their prediction is that this will make a mild and wet winter for most of the U.S. and may even break the California/ western drought.  They aren’t predicting whether “wet” will mean more snow for the northern states or more rain.

For the last two years I have kept track of the weather and compared it to the weather predicted by both Farmer’s Almanacs, (there are two.)   Their predictions failed miserably and a recent scientific study of past weather records compared to both almanacs predictions found that  they were right less than 50% of the time, which would be the average if they just flipped a coin to choose their prediction.  The weather service warns that no long range weather forecasts can be extremely accurate, but they are pretty confident it will be a mild fall and early winter anyway.  I’ll hope for that.

August gardening Tips
August is a good time to stake stock of what’s growing in your Michigan garden and get things back in control.  In Michigan August is generally our warmest month, but it also means shortening daylight which pushes plants to maturity.  It’s the time of maximum home garden harvest, with ripening tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, sweet corn, beans, cucumbers and squash.   It’s also a time when many hanging baskets and container plants begin to look a little worn out and annuals get leggy and bloom less.

Ligularia blooming in August
When you look around the perennial garden in August you often can’t believe that you put all those plants in the same area, with mature plants fighting for space.   Shrubs may have grown beyond their bounds and weeds may have snuck in during the hot days and grown tremendously.  Even though it’s hot take time to weed out the perennials. Bearded iris can be divided or planted in August.  Mark other areas where you may want to divide or move perennial plants and do the actual dividing and moving in the cooler days of September.

Unless you want to save seeds deadhead perennials that have a long bloom season.  That means removing flowers as they fade and not letting them go to seed.  Also remove dried flower stalks on plants like daylilies and hosta to make the garden look nicer.  Cut down yellowing foliage on things like daylilies and bleeding heart. 

Stop fertilizing perennials and roses now.  Do water if things stay dry more than a week.   Wait until September to fertilize lawns, trees and shrubs.

While it may seem like the season is almost over, annuals and container plants may have up to 90 days left to bloom, depending on when our first frost hits.  A little care will keep them blooming as long as possible. Fertilize hanging baskets, containers and annual plants once a week.  If you used a slow release plant food when you planted, August is generally the month its strength fades.  The easiest way to fertilize now is to use a water soluble fertilizer.

If annuals are really straggly and have stopped blooming, cut them back to about 3 inches from the ground.  This may cause them to put out new growth and flowers in a couple of weeks to give a nice show in the fall. You can also trim back hanging baskets that have dried out and gotten straggly to about 3 inches from the soil surface.  They may or may not have time to put on a good show in the fall but with good watering and fertilizing many will return in a spectacular manner.

Think about replacing spent annuals with mums and other fall plants that will be coming on the market in mid to late August.   Also get out the bulb catalogs and order your spring blooming bulbs now for the best selection.  Shopping for bulbs is a fun way to spend a hot afternoon.  The bulbs will arrive later in fall for planting.

Start thinking about where the houseplants and all of the tropical plants you want to over winter will go back inside.  Re-pot them now if needed and treat with insecticides if plants need it.  It’s a good time to shop for pots on clearance and other garden supplies may also be marked down.

In the vegetable garden

Go out in the evening if you have to, but keep that produce harvested.  Remove all plants that have finished producing or are severely diseased.  You may want to start a fall garden, lettuce, spinach, beets, turnips, kale, and onion sets for “green onions” are some things that appreciate cooler weather and tolerate light frost.  If we have a mild fall as predicted you may have a long, bountiful harvest.

More people equal more trees

Typically when one thinks of people building homes, subdivisions and even cities you think of disappearing trees, shrubs, and native grasslands.  However new studies, including one done in Texas recently, find that people moving into an area usually means an increase in trees, shrubs, and other species of plants, which benefits wildlife.  Increasing farmland however, results in a loss of trees and plant diversity.

That only makes sense when you think about it.   Most new homes and subdivisions in our area for example, go up on old farmland.  And one of the first things people do when they build on old cropland is to plant trees.  And while some new owners of those 2 acre plots do an excessive amount of mowing, many also let large areas of their property revert back to more natural conditions.  Some actually take care to bring in native species.   Researchers found that when people move into an area tree cover generally rises.  The diversity of plant species also rises, some plants are not native of course, but many are quite helpful to wildlife from pollinators to deer.

When farms are expanded or when commercial use of property expands, there is a loss of trees and plant diversity.  Farmers work tirelessly to keep trees and shrubby plants from encroaching on any land suitable for crops and they spray to prevent “weeds” from taking hold too.  Even if farmers are enrolled in conservation programs, and allow windbreaks and buffer strips by wetlands, there is a net loss of trees, shrubs and plant diversity when agriculture use invades an area.

Of course there are areas where wooded property is cleared for homes, wetlands filled in and native prairies destroyed where people move into an area.  There are places where population density increases to a point where nature suffers.  But it seems that overall having people move into an area may actually increase diversity of plant species and allow more diversity in wildlife that share the habitat.


Rutgers tomatoes will soon be back- new and improved

When I was young I often helped my grandfather pick seeds for starting because he couldn’t read English.  One of the seeds or later transplants he always wanted me to find was Rutgers tomatoes.  He grew Early Girl tomatoes, but Rutgers was his choice for canning and late summer eating tomatoes.  The Rutgers tomato was developed by the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station back in the 1930’s and soon became one of the top tomatoes for canning companies as well as home gardeners.  It seemed to have the perfect combination of sweet and tangy taste and was firm and meaty for canning.

Over the years however the Rutgers tomato faded from commercial fields because it didn’t handle well in transportation, and other more disease resistant tomatoes came on the scene.  It stopped being grown by homeowners mainly because newer hybrids claimed attention.  The strain seemed to have lost vigor and disease resistance and since it wasn’t patented many alternative strains of Rutgers tomatoes muddied the genetics. The variety was almost lost.  However Rutgers Ag station found that the Campbell soup company had retained seeds from the early pure strains of Rutgers tomatoes and they set to work to revive the famous tomato and make it better.

This spring (2016) Rutgers will release seeds to home gardeners of its new improved strain of the famous tomato.  It’s said to have the great taste of the original Rutgers tomato, early and more uniform ripening, better disease resistance, and handles better in transportation.  Look for it in seed catalogs this spring.  It really hasn’t been named as yet, it may be named with “Rutgers” in it but I’m sure the description will indicate its parentage.

Sweet Grass

Sweet Grass, (Hierochloe odorata) was very important to Native Americans of the northern prairies and upper Midwest and New England.   But sweet grass also occurs in the northern Europe and Eurasia, there are some closely related species of the grass in various countries. From earliest recorded history sweet grass has figured prominently in sacred ceremonies of humans around the world and was also used as a medicinal herb.   Many anthropologists have suggested that the grass was deliberately bought into North America by migrating populations of humans.  We know that the plant was cared for and cultivated by many Native American people.

Sweet grass- notice prostrate form.  Credit: en.wikipedia.org
When archeologists are searching for the locations of ancient Native American settlements they often look for large patches of sweet grass.  Sweet grass is very long lived, it can survive for centuries, and it doesn’t occur in nature in large patches, rather it is interwoven with other grasses and low weeds in small clumps.  Since Europeans also knew and used the herb sweet grass, the presence of large patches of the grass could also indicate early European settlements.

Occasionally the plant is found in the wild where it might have grown naturally but because the plants are largely sterile and produce few seeds many plants found in uncultivated areas were at some point planted by humans.  That makes for some interesting thinking should you find a “wild” patch of the grass.  Sweet grass is often found on the shores of rivers and lakes, popular places for settlements, and along old trails used by Native Americans to move from one area to another.

Sweet grass gets its common English name from the smell of the dried grass leaves.  When dry the leaves have a pleasant, vanilla like odor.  The odor is caused by coumarin, which along with other chemical compounds in sweet grass also give it its medicinal qualities.  In Europe it was also called holy or sacred grass.  Native Americans had many common names in various language’s for sweet grass, often translated as “the hair of Mother Earth”.  We'nuskwûn and Wekusko  were words used  to name sweet grass in tribes frequenting Michigan and Ontario.  Sweet Grass is one of four sacred herbs to Native Americans, sweet grass, sage, tobacco and cedar.

Description of sweet grass
Sweet grass is a very hardy perennial and can be grown even in Zone 1.  It is a clumping grass with deep rhizomatous roots.  Sweet grass gets only 8-10 inches tall, then the blades elongate over the ground to up to 48 inches long.  This forms clumps averaging about 4 feet wide in good conditions. The blades are tough, deep green, hairless, about a ¼ inch wide and as they grow they turn over, exposing the underside. This is shiny, one of the leading characteristics of the plant. The blades are always flat and never V shaped.  The blade at the base and just under the soil is white and hairless.  The lower part of some sweet grass blades may become reddish or purplish in soils deficient in minerals. 

The fresh sweet grass blades will not smell like vanilla, the scent develops during drying.  But another identifying characteristic is that blades laid in the sun to dry will quickly curl up, whereas most other types of grass blades will remain flat.

Sweet Grass does put up small flowering spikes in spring, typical of many grasses, with flowers in small clumps of 3 arranged along a short spike.  However the flowers rarely produce seeds and when they do the seeds have a low fertility rate.  The plant reproduces itself primarily by spreading rhizomes.  This leads many biologists to believe the plant was selected and spread by humans because natural reproductive means would have been low.  The selection for long blades, which are favored for braids, may have selected inadvertently for low seed producing plants.

Cultivation of sweet grass
If grass grows in your area you can grow sweet grass. Do start with a plant, companies sell seeds for sweet grass but the germination rate is very low and it takes a long time for a seed grown plant to become a nice plant, where a small division will take off and grow quickly in the right conditions.  There are named cultivars now, but it’s not necessary to spend extra for them if you aren’t going into commercial production of braids.

Choose the location for your plant carefully and label it!  Many young sweet grass plants are “weeded” right out of the garden.  Give it room to spread.  Keep the weeds and especially other grasses pulled out around it to eliminate competition for resources and so that you know where the sweet grass plant is located.  Once it has formed a large mature clump it is harder to mistake it for something else.  Sweet grass has a very long life span, it may live longer than you.

Sweet grass likes moist but very well drained soil.  Sandy loam is excellent.  It seldom does well in heavy clay soil.  Water logged soil will quickly kill the plants. It doesn’t do well in drought and if you want good plants you’ll need to water it in dry spells.  Full sun produces the best blades although it will grow in partial shade.  Sweet grass can be grown in large containers. 

Fertilize your sweet grass with a high nitrogen fertilizer in early spring and again in mid-summer after harvesting blades and once again in early fall at the rates recommended for lawn grass for abundant growth.  Lawn fertilizer without weed or insect controls will do as will blood meal or other organic nitrogen sources.  Manure probably shouldn’t be used; it tends to introduce seeds of weeds and other grasses.

Sweet grass goes dormant in the winter.  Leave the dried leaves until spring and then cut them back.  That’s the only mulch the plant needs to survive, the use of other mulches may kill the plant.

You can propagate the plant in early spring by separating or dividing it.

Harvesting sweet grass
The first harvest of sweet grass can be done in late June-early July and if re-growth is rapid you may get a second harvest in August from cultivated plants.  Harvest must be done before frost as frost weakens the smell and probably any medicinal value of the plant.  You do want some good regrowth to protect the rhizomes before winter hits.

Cutting the blades off about an inch or so from the base is the kindest way to harvest.  When you pull a blade off it may tug up and loosen some of the root system.  It also creates a ragged edge which is harder for the plant to heal.  Early morning just after the dew has dried is the best time to harvest.  You can leave some long blades on the plant but you can also cut every blade and it will re-grow. 

Lay your leaf blades out in a sunny spot on newspaper to dry.   After the first day in the sun move the grass to a warm dry shady spot for another 1-2 days.  Modern herbalists also recommend storing the drying grass wrapped in cloth in the freezer overnight, and then bringing it out again to continue drying in the open air the next day.  This helps preserve the smell and chemical qualities.  Store dried grass in plastic bags or glass containers in the refrigerator or freezer, or in a cool dark place.

If you want to make some herbal medications, insect repellant or oil scents you need to harvest fresh leaves and use steam distillation to produce oil.  Some herbal teas call for fresh leaves also and are simply brewed as other teas.  A few leaves can be harvested at any time.

Use of sweet grass ceremonially, ornamentally
Sweet grass was used in rituals, as an offering and to induce a “spiritual” atmosphere.  It was smoked in pipes, or burnt as smudges (incense), or thrown into fires by Native Americans.  In Europe it was also burnt as incense, and was strewn on the floors and thresholds of holy places.  It was considered to ward off evil, bring luck and signify thankfulness to the creator.

In general sweet grass is dried and woven into braids for ceremonial use.  Native Americans wove the braids into their hair braids, made bracelets and armbands or carried braids or bundles of sweet grass in medicine pouches.  This served several purposes, it was an ornament- much the way we use crosses and rosaries, and it imparted a pleasant scent about the wearer.  When needed as a prayer or offering a piece of the braid could be burnt.

Native people thought sweet grass repelled insects.  We now know that sweet grass oil does repel mosquitoes as well as DEET according to some studies, although it’s not known if the dried grass has the same effect. (Read a recently released study here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150817085426.htm )  

Baskets woven with sweet grass.  Credit: Flickr.com
Smudges were burnt in homes to purify them and the smoke was waved over people in ceremonies of purification.  It is said that breathing the smoke induces feelings of calmness and peace, although scientific proof of that hasn’t been pursued.

Sweet grass was also stuffed into “pillows” and laid among bedding for its scent and insect repelling properties.  But one of the most common ornamental uses was to weave it into baskets or use sweet grass braids as decorative edging on clothing and little wooden boxes or bowls.  Only very small baskets were totally woven from sweet grass, the braids were usually woven into baskets made of willow or other materials to scent them or to make them sacred or spiritually pleasing.  Sweet grass was also soaked in water and used to wash the hair to impart a pleasant scent, (and maybe get rid of bugs.)

Sweet grass braids are still in much demand today for ritual use and for weaving and it can be a profitable herbal crop.  Growers cultivate long lengths of blade, comb blades to separate them and follow other techniques to increase value.

Medicinal uses of sweet grass
Sweet grass has many herbal uses but isn’t recommended much anymore because we now know that use of plants containing coumarin may cause cancer.  Sweet grass tea is used for coughs and sore throats and a cooled tea is used to soothe raw or chapped skin. 

Sweet grass concoctions were used to treat venereal diseases and uterine/ vaginal infections.  A tea was given to help expel afterbirths, which leads to a caution against pregnant women using the grass as it may cause contractions.  In Europe vodka was flavored with sweet grass.

Sweet grass is a great plant for ornamental and spiritual use but use caution ingesting it.

Cannas- Bold and Beautiful

Dwarf canna.
If you crave bold accents and lush tropical foliage in your Michigan garden then cannas are the plants for you.  These bold beauties have made a big come back and canna rhizomes of choice varieties regularly sell out in stores and catalogs.  Cannas are easy to grow, relatively inexpensive, and dramatic additions to tired old flowerbeds.  With a huge selection of flower and leaf colors, there is sure to be a canna that will add pizzazz to your garden.

Tall cannas are accent plants in garden borders, the center of island beds or back of other beds. There are cannas for large spaces and tiny cannas just right for containers.  While the flowers of some varieties of cannas are the show, in others it’s the huge, tropical appearing foliage.  The foliage is often more dramatic than the flowers.  Some new varieties have wonderful foliage and beautiful flowers.

Tall cannas can also be used as a screen, or flowering hedge.   Smaller cannas can be used anywhere in beds to give late summer color, for foliage color and texture, and are excellent for containers.  Cannas can also be used as accent plants in water or bog gardens.  Some varieties grow well standing in water.

Canna culture
Cannas will grow almost anywhere, in Michigan they are a summer flowering plant whose rhizomes can be easily lifted and stored in the winter.  Occasionally in a sheltered spot cannas will even over winter in the ground.  And cannas are indeed tropical plants, flourishing in heat and humidity.

Canna leaves are usually large and broad, with a heavy rib down the center.  They can be various shades of green, burgundy and red often with splashes of white or yellow or stripes of color following the leaf veins.   Depending on variety, cannas grow from 16 inches to 10 foot in height.   The rhizomes increase horizontally underground, throwing up new shoots until the plant becomes a huge clump.

The flowers of cannas come near the end of summer, on long stalks at the top of the plant.  They are often described as orchid like- or gladiolus like.  They can be large and striking in modern varieties but may be smaller and less glamorous in some older cannas.  Canna flowers come in all colors and color combinations except blue, purple or true white.  Canna seed is a hard, round, black ball which gives cannas the common name of Indian Shot.

Cannas are usually purchased as bare rhizomes in Michigan, or as potted plants.  Look for rhizomes that are large and firm with two or more buds on them.  Start rhizomes indoors about 6 weeks before your last frost in pots of good, rich potting soil.  The pots should be in a warm, sunny area and kept well - watered.   The rhizomes may also be planted directly in the ground after the last frost when the ground is warm, but they may be slow to start growth and late to bloom.  

Cannas may survive zone 5 winters in a protected area, although they are so slow to start growing in the spring that they seldom have time to bloom before fall.    It is better to dig up the rhizomes, store them over winter and start them early. 

Cannas give a lot to the garden but they are greedy guests needing lots of sun, lots of moisture, lots of heat, lots of fertilizer and organic matter.  Rich, moist soil in full sunlight is ideal for cannas.  Cannas will even do well in pots sitting in water if there is some soil above the water line.  Fertilize cannas once a month with a fertilizer formulated for flowers and water frequently for spectacular results.

In Michigan, when a frost has killed the canna foliage, carefully dig up the rhizomes.  You will probably find a few more than you planted.  Shake off the dirt and allow the rhizomes to dry in the sun a few days.  Don’t allow them to get frosted or frozen while drying.  Then store the rhizomes in a cool, but frost-free place in sand, peat or vermiculite.   Before planting you can divide large rhizomes as long as each piece has at least one bud, preferably two, to a section.  You can trade or give away the excess if you have more than you care to plant.

Some varieties
There are so many wonderful cannas on the market now that you will be tempted to become a collector.  Small canna varieties include, ‘Dwarf Wyoming’- gold flowers and dark maroon veined foliage, ‘Pink Surprise’- hot pink flowers edged with yellow, green foliage, ‘Bankok’- bright yellow flowers and green foliage striped with white, and ‘Lucifer’-one of the smallest, scarlet red flowers touched with gold and green foliage. 

Canna Auguste Ferrier. Credit: en.wikipedia.org
Large canna plants include; ‘Australia’- almost black foliage and hot red flowers, ‘Tropical Sunrise‘- a blend of peach, pink and yellow flowers with green foliage, ‘Cleopatra’- an always changing mosaic of red and yellow flowers and green leaves marked with purple in various patterns, ‘Constitution’ has narrower leaves than other cannas in an odd gray- purple shade and pastel pink flowers, “Ermine’ has very pale, almost white flowers. green leaves, ‘Tropicana’- leaves boldly striped in yellow and red on a purple background and screaming orange flowers, ‘Stuttgart’- lovely green foliage variegated with white, peach colored flowers, and the classic ‘King Humbert’- golden yellow flowers with red spots and green leaves. 

Some extreme cannas grown for their foliage are ‘Musafolia’- up to 10 foot high with huge broad leaves that are green edged with red, and ‘Intrique’- a canna with unusual narrow, gray green leaves that grows up to 7 foot tall.

Canna’ s for water
Cannas have become popular water garden plants.  Most types of cannas can be grown in a pond if the surface of the pot (in Michigan you’ll want them in pots) is slightly above the water line.  But there are aquatic canna species and hybrids of ground and water species that will flourish in water.  These cannas can be placed with the soil surface-6-8 inches below the water level.  Canna glauca is one of the common water species of canna.  It has large blue green foliage. Some of the best water canna’s are the Longwood cultivars, which are hybrids.  These include ‘Endeavor’ (red flowers), ‘Erubus’ (salmon pink flowers), ‘Ra’ (yellow flowers),‘Tanny’ (orange flowers), ‘Aloha’ (a dwarf orange flowered) and ‘Pele’ .  These cultivars have a long bloom time, are from 2-6 feet high, and often make nice clumps in water.

Water cannas normally don’t survive mid-west winters.  It’s best to pull the pot out of the water before frost, let it drain, and set the pot indoors.  Let the pot dry out.  When the foliage browns trim it off and store the pot in a cool, dark above freezing location. Keep the pot barely moist through winter.  Around April 1, bring the pot out of its storage spot into a brightly lit location and submerge the pot in a bucket of water to half way up the pot.  As the canna sprouts and grows you can increase the water level.  Put it outside after all danger of frost has passed.

I have heard of people overwintering cannas in large water features inside.  I may try that this year. ( Although my water feature will probably be an aquarium).  It’s said with enough warmth and light they will continue to bloom sporadically and the foliage remains lush.


Canna and the swastika
Conard and Jones, an early nursery, offered a canna book describing 105 varieties.  In 1914 they introduced their ‘Swastika’ line of canna’s, exceptionally wonderful cannas.   The pink flowered ‘Mrs. Alfred F. Conard’  was considered one of the top swastika  cannas and 10 roots sold for $2.50.  Advertisements for the nursery prominently featured the swastika symbol, which at that time signified good luck, and bragged that their cannas were grown at the Whitehouse.  Over 20,000 cannas were planted on the Whitehouse grounds.

Hey- watch out for severe weather tonight and tomorrow
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