Useful headlines for MGVs. Feel free to post links to articles that may be of relevance to our association.

Our NEW Monthly Sneak Peak of the...

click here for the latest newsletter of D o o r C o u n t y Master Gardeners Association

Photos of various Door Co. MGA projects Door County Sustainability Fair - April 18 Gardeners warned to prevent Backaches Symptoms of Cocoa Mulch Poisoning in Pets

Recent Research from ARS

click here for the latest research about Catnip Compounds Curb Asian Lady Beetles

In studies at the ARS Biological Control of Pests Research Unit in Stoneville, 95 percent of adult male and female lady beetles altered their course upon encountering filter paper impregnated with the highest of three doses of the catnip compound nepetalactone. The researchers chose nepetalactone because it had previously been shown to repel some species of cockroaches, flies, termites and mosquitoes... offers a friendlier alternative to insecticide spraying and preserves the insects' usefulness as efficient predators of aphids, scale and other soft-bodied arthropods that damage plants.

Even More News for MGVs...

St. Croix County Master Gardener’s Association Beautification Grants
River Falls Journal/4-7-09

To beautify western Wisconsin communities this summer...

ARS scientists will collaborate with White House staff on installation of
USDA bees in the White House garden.
ARS/4-9-09

This July, USDA will be providing two types of parasite-resistant honey bees developed by USDA scientists to pollinate the plants in the new White House garden this summer. Both of these bees are rapidly gaining in popularity with bee keepers.

New Ornamental Peppers Heading to Market
ARS/3-16-09

Best used as bedding plants...

• Midnight Creeper has purple flowers and produces fruit that’s black when immature, but red when mature.
• Solar Eclipse is tall, bushy and prized for its striking black foliage, providing a novel foundation for garden designs.

Homegrown Food Up, Seed Supplies Down
Fox 5 News/ 3-22-09

• ...folks at garden centers say it's vegetables, not flowers, that customers are asking for.
• In fact, some big national seed dealers report that their supplies of veggie seeds are running low.
• At the [Milwaukee] Home and Garden Show, the University of Wisconsin Extension booth is filled with information on growing your own food.
• Info from Johnny's and Pinetree Seeds, located in Maine (from Kennebec Journal):
  • At Johnny's, 30 people work in the call center, which takes telephone orders, and that doesn't include the Internet, international and fax orders center, where 6-inch-high piles of orders sit on each desk. In the seed packing section of the factory, 15,000 units a day are filled, all by hand. And over in the shipping room, 3,700 packages were mailed out Tuesday. More than 200 workers are employed at the seed plant, which has been operating for 35 years. "We haven't even hit the peak," Matuzas said.
  • "It is just phenomenal," Dick Meyers, owner of Pinetree Seeds said Wednesday. "Our sales are up by 32 percent. It has been years since we've seen a double-digit increase." Meyers, who usually hires eight to 10 workers for the seasonal business, has hired 23 new people. "And it is all on the vegetable seed, not flower, side of the business," he said. "I talked to a friend of mine who owns a seed company in Wisconsin and he said his sales are up 30 percent. But he also owns a rose company and those sales are down by 30 percent."
  • Many first-time gardeners are seeking help from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. "We are certainly getting a lot more questions about what to grow and what varieties to grow," Gleason Gray, an extension educator at the Orono campus, said this week. "A larger than usual number of these are new gardeners. I've also been getting a lot more calls than usual to speak to different gardening groups."

Many Wisconsin farmers forced to find new careers
Journal Sentinel/3-15-09

• Increasingly, farmers are switching careers as the agricultural economy sinks to one of the worst levels since the Great Depression. Farm foreclosures are on the rise, forcing career changes even as off-farm jobs are scarce.
• Agriculture Department officials said they're meeting with the Department of Workforce Development, as early as this week, to discuss ways to fund Future Fields [a career-training program]. Of the 2,500 farmers who went through the program, 80% found off-farm employment and 90% of those hired stayed on the job six months or longer, according to Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development.

Garden Talk - Mike Maddox and Barb Larson

Here on Earth: Gary Nabhan, founder, Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT).

• heirloom fruits and heritage apples

Veronica Rueckert - Richard Louv journalist, author,

• “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder.”

All from WPR/3-20-09

Obamas to Plant Garden on White House Lawn -------------> Updated White House Garden NEWS
AP/3-19-09

Almost the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs. Obama said laughing. “Now Grandma, my mom, I don’t know.” Her mother, she said, would probably sit back and say: “Isn’t that lovely. You missed a spot.” (nytimes)

Many websites/publications are picking up this latest news...

• Michelle Obama hosted a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn
• The 1,100 square foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach, and, yes, arugula.
• There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper

The country’s one million community gardens, she said, can also play an important role for urban dwellers who have no backyards.

• Want to know more about past White House Gardens?
• Video: Kitchen Gardeners Int'l founder Roger Doiron interviewed about the White House Garden/Eat the View Campaign and its goals. (great graphics!!!)
  • The Governors of Maine, North Carolina and New York are already eating from gardens planted at their official residences (from Eat the View website)
• Is it Time to Grow a Victory Garden? from extension.org:
  • For more information on the history of Victory Gardens, check out this University of Nevada Cooperative Extension slide show

44 cases of tree-killing bug found Map
Journal Sentinel/3-11-09

• State officials have identified 44 different infestations of emerald ash borer in and around the Village of Newburg, and they said Wednesday that the tree-killing insect is certain to spread.
• So far, several hundred trees are known to be infected in a 7 1/2 -square-mile area of Ozaukee and Washington counties.
• Wisconsin has an estimated 725 million ash trees, including 5 million in cities and villages.

Vineyard Maintenance Workshop Scheduled for April 2
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 03/10/2009

• Sponsored by the Wisconsin Grape Growers Association, Wollersheim Winery, University of Wisconsin-Extension and Agricultural Research Stations.
• For more information or to download the registration form, visit the Wisconsin Grape Growers Association Website http://www.wigrapes.org/news/events/2009-SpringVineyardSchool.pdf

Garden Talk with Bob Tomesh
WPR/Mar-06-09




Video: Must Have Garden Gizmos by Joe Lamp'l of Garden Smart
WLS-ABCChicago/Mar-6-09



Northcentral Wisconsin Land Stewardship Conference scheduled for April 4
UWEX - Price County

• Noel Cutright, Scott Craven, Bob Tomesh and others will will address issues that will interest both new and veteran landowners.
• The program includes 25 breakout sessions coveringtopics on woods, water, wildlife habitat, and general land ownership issues.
• The conference will run from 8 am to 3:30 pm and includes a catered meal and morning and afternoon refreshments.
• Participants will receive handout packets with background information relating to the conference sessions, and will also be able to view exhibits from private and public organizations that work with landowners and visit with their representatives.
• Rib Lake High School, 1200 North Street, Rib Lake, Wisconsin

Sow the Seeds Announces Grants to Support Local Food Systems in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa
www.commondreams.org Mar-3-09

• Begun in 2006, the Sow the Seeds initiative fosters sustainable food systems in the Upper Midwest. Sow the Seeds was initiated by The Wedge Community Co-op and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy to educate and engage members of the public while supporting local, sustainable food production.
• More information about Sow the Seeds is available at www.sowtheseedsfund.org

Garden programs blossoming
Journal-Sentinel/Feb-20-2009

• The University of Wisconsin Extension office in Waukesha is seeking a $16,500 grant from Roundy's to finance a program that would provide pots, soil and starter plants to 400 families who are clients of the Waukesha County Food Pantry.
• The Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum is opening a traveling exhibit today on early farm life in the Upper Midwest. The exhibit, "Growing Season, An American Farm Family at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century," includes talks and demonstrations on gardening and food preparation.
• A panel discussion on converting church properties into garden plots for parishioners and neighbors will convene today at a conference of Presbyterian churches that begins at 10:30 a.m. at Carroll University in Waukesha.
• Ann Wied of the UW Extension said the food pantry program stems from last year's endeavor to have central city residents grow vegetables in pots, a trend for people with patios and small yards.

Growing for Local Markets Workshop Series Scheduled for March
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 03/02/2009

• Area farmers and those interested in growing fresh market vegetables and produce are encouraged to participate.
• Tuesdays, March 10, 17, 24, 31 from 6:30-9 p.m. at University of Wisconsin-Barron County.
• Full workshop series is $75 per person which includes a binder of resources. For more information, call 715-635-3506 or 715-234-8176 ext. 5502.
  
  

Gypsy Moth Spraying Meetings Set
The Capital Times/Mar-2-2009

For specific sites on where gypsy moths will be sprayed, go online to www.gypsymoth.wi.gov or call the toll-free gypsy moth hotline at 1-800-642-6684.

Garden Talk - Neil Diboll, Prairie Nursery
WPR/Feb-13-2009




Rotary Gardens workshop to cover community gardens
Janesville Gazette/Feb-6-2009

• RPMGA Community Gardens page and report, locations

Grab some ideas from Victory/War and Urban Gardens websites:

• Farms Take Root in Detroit's Foreclosures, NPR (listen/photos) - Wayne County, Mich. — home to Detroit — has been hit especially hard by the mortgage crisis. The county has inherited thousands of unwanted properties, leaving plot after plot of vacant land. So a nonprofit group pitched an idea: Take that unused land, and grow food for the needy. Under the 20-plot pilot program, volunteers will tend the garden, and the city of Detroit will pitch in water. Turns out that urban farms do attract people, says Gail Carr, one of Detroit's city managers. She has houses boarded up nearly every day and sees what a dramatic difference the gardens have on communities. ...plans to plant hundreds of gardens in at least a dozen other struggling cities this season
• Tending 'Defiant Gardens' During Wartime, Ketzel Levine, NPR (listen/photos) - Kenneth Helphand's fascination with what he now calls "defiant gardens" began with this undated World War I photograph of soldiers in the French trenches flanked by their planting beds. Notice the use of twigs as ornamental borders delineating each soldier's plot....Stationed outside Tikrit, Iraq, Army Sgts. Justin Wanzek (left) and Carl Quam Jr. (featured in our story) borrowed Iraqi irrigation and planting techniques and grew bumper crops of food: corn, cauliflower, cucumbers and peas. Their battalion ate particularly well, but that was only part of Quam's motivation. Gardening was a way to connect to his home in North Dakota: "It helped me cope with missing them."
  
• London's "Allotments" for the people, NPR (listen/photos) - The allotments started to flourish with Britain's "Dig for Victory" movement of World War II, an effort to feed the starving population of London during the war. They are exploding today with the organic gardening and "good food" movements, and efforts to food self-sufficiency sweeping the country.
• Africa's Keyhole Gardens with plans and video - Unique Raised Beds construction: They have many different forms, and are epecially useful in areas where good soil is scarce, often supplementing diets with nutritious vegetables.
  • Lesotho gardens relieve food crisis, BBC new
• SF's Victory Gardens 2008+ "Starter Kit" The program is a two year pilot project that supports the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into food production areas. It has the mission to create and support a citywide network of urban farmers by (1) growing, distributing and supporting starter kits for home gardeners, (2) educating through lessons, exhibitions and web sites and (3) starting and maintaining a city seed bank. Supported by the local government!
  • Organic Garden Takes Over San Francisco’s City Hall Lawn, WSJ Lots of Photos
• Community Gardens revitalize urban landscape - Although over 160 community gardens were closed in Montreal last spring due to soil contamination, the push to green a concrete city through gardening remains strong.
  • McGill University's Gardens' slide show Great use of recycled containers in less than ideal settings
• Philadelphia's Orchard Project Orchards are planted in formerly vacant lots, community gardens, schoolyards, and other spaces, almost exclusively in low-wealth neighborhoods where people lack access to fresh fruit. - ...Philly would become instead the "next failed city." Smart Money says something different. There are billions of dollars to be made by becoming the first American metropolis to grow most of its own food.
• Website for ReviveVictoryGarden.org - Brochure Poster Flyer

Other links for Community Gardens:

• American Community Garden Association
• Community Action Coalition for SC Wisconsin
  • Organizer's Handbook, handouts for users
• City of Madison's Community Garden website
• Community Garden Grant Query on Google
• Chicago's Openlands.org
• Calif Extension's Community Garden Start-up Guide
• Community Gardens and Urban Farms - Lots of links here, too.
• UW Madison's Student Housing Community Garden easy to use WebSite for its users
• NC Ext's How to build a 12' by 14' greenhouse for approx. $100

Wisc Public TV Garden Expo: Seminar and Demonstration Schedules

• See the Video about Recession Gardens from WKOW-TV with their article about the Garden Expo <NEW
  • You might see yourself on TV!
• Exhibitor List ... what was the name of that place?
• Lost and Found...did it happen to you?

Wisconsin State Herbarium tries to 'counteract bio-illiteracy'
The Capital Times/ Jan-30-2009

• UW-Madison has the third largest collection of any public university in the country, behind the universities of California and Michigan.

Garden Talk - Ed Lyon
WPR Jan-30-2009

"Bug Talk" - Phil Pellitteri
WPR Jan-28-2009


Great Plants for Great Plains for 2009
Univ of Nebraska/2009 and Previous Year Winners

• The GreatPlants program is a joint effort of the Nebraska Nursery & Landscape Association and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum that selects and promotes exceptional plants – reliably hardy, easy to care for, and ornamentally worthwhile – for Plants of the Year and for GreatPlants Releases and Introductions. Might be helpful to know what these are this year, once the public starts asking us about them after learning about them in magazines, etc. Take note of the USDA Hardiness Zones before recommending these for our area.

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