August 18,
2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter © Kim
Willis
Hi Gardeners
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
)
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| 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
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| 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
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