We Finally Have a Website

We are excited to announce the launching of the Ogden Botanical Gardens website.  It will be a great resource for what is going on at the gardens, upcoming classes and what to do in your garden throughout the year. 

Go to ogdenbotanicalgardens.org and see our new site.  I will continue to add more posts to the blog and hope that you will enjoy another gardening resource produced by Utah State University Extension.
Hope that you are enjoying some gardening time-off and dreaming of new garden aspirations for next spring.

The End of Another Season

Thanks for another great year at the Ogden Botanical Gardens!  We had a lot of fun, got to plant some great flowers, and work with some awesome Master Gardeners.  Fall is definitely in the air and that means that we will be pulling out all our annual flowers on October 23rd from 9am-2pm.  This will be our final Master Gardener Clean Up Day of the year.  Please come and help us get all our flower beds ready for winter. We'll be pulling out the annual flowers, weeding and cleaning up all the beds at the gardens. 
The building will officially close on October 31st and will re-open on March 1, 2013.  If you have any questions please call Amy at 801-399-8201. 
Thanks again for another wonderful year at the Ogden Botanical Gardens!

Free Class: How to Take Better Pictures

Kathy's Retirement Party

I want to thank everyone who came out to Kathy's retirement party.  It was a blast!  It was so much fun to talk with everyone and was a great way to tell Kathy how much we love and will miss her. 

Kathy opening her retirement gift from everyone.  She loved her iPad!

Kathy was so happy to have an opportunity to talk to each person who came and to give them a hug.  We had great food, wonderful friends, and the best secretary in the world! 

Cute decor & yummy treats!

We love our Master Gardeners and are so grateful to spend some time with you and with Kathy! 

We also gave her an autographed picture of the gardens.

Good luck Kathy!  You will be greatly missed!

Kathy Bardwell's Retiring

After working for Weber County and Utah State University for 21 years, Kathy our favorite friend is retiring.  We will miss her dearly and really don't know what we are going to do without her!  She has been the "glue" that holds the Ogden Botanical Gardens and the Weber County Extension office together. 

 Jerry always says that when Kathy retires he only has 2 weeks before everyone finds out that he is a fraud.  It's true!  Kathy put up with our procrastinating ways, she remembered our appointments better than we did, and always made everyone feel appreciated and needed!  The list of her many talents can go on and on and on.....  Kathy, we will miss you and want you to know that it has been a pleasure to associate and work with you! 

Please join us for Kathy's Retirement Celebration on Thursday, August 30 at 6-7:30pm at the Ogden Botanical Gardens.

Bee Workshop Coming Up....

All About Bees

Bid on this...

During Art in the Garden we are having a silent auction fund-raiser auction.  One of the big ticket items that we have is a brand new patio set. 

It is a gorgeous chili/expresso color.  Both the chairs and couch recline and the couch can be made into a bed.   The chairs also have a fold out cup rest on the side. The set also includes a large ottomon & end table.  Don't you think this set would look great on your patio, deck, or in your garden?
If you are interested, please come to our Art in the Garden Gala.  You can bid on this great patio set and call it your own!
Hope to see you there!

We're excited to announce our Art in the Garden Gala coming up on Saturday, June 30th from 10am-5pm.  This is a free family event! There will be local artists displaying their art, local musicians playing beautiful music as you wander through our beautiful gardens, and fun activities for the kids.
2012 Art in Garden Poster
For more information about Art in the Garden please go here. 
This year we are offering 3 great workshops as well:
Noon-3pm Hypertufa Troughs--Learn how to mix and create your own hypertufa container to decorate.  All materials provided.  Participants take home their own trough.  Class size is limited to 10 people.  Cost:  $60 Public/ $48 Members of the Garden.  Register here.
2pm--Joy Bossi, well-known radio and television personality, will teach the art of cooking with herbs.  Cost: $15 Public/ $9 Members of the Garden.  Register here.
4pm--The Ogden Camera Club will teach techniques for taking better outdoor pictures.  Cost: $37 Public/$29 Members of the Garden. Register here.  This is also an opportunity to take part in our photo contest (all are welcome to submit a photo). The winner receives a 1-year membership to the gardens and other prizes.  We'll have information and rules later on our facebook page and on our website.  Stay tuned.
We have a great line-up of local artists and musicians.  I will post the line-up soon.  Hope to see everyone at Art in the Garden.

Don't Worry, I'm a Professional

If you missed Jerry on Studio 5, here he is.  He talked about his favorite all-time plants during his "Pro's Go-To" segment.

Thanks for always educating about what flowers do well in our area.  We hope that everyone was able to come out to our plant sales and thanks for your continuing support!
Next--Art in the Garden coming up on June 30th!

Plant Sale, Workshops & Free Classes

Our plant sale is coming up!  We have 3 great days planned for all you plant enthusists.
Plant Sale 2012
Our "Members Only" sale is  scheduled for Wednesday, May 16th from 6:30-8pm.  It is one of the favorite perks for being a "Friend of the Gardens."  Not only do get 20%off all plants and you get to choose from the exclusive plants that night only.
On Thursday, May 17th the public sale will be at the Ogden Botanical Gardens from Noon-6pm.  There will be 2 Hanging Basket Workshops at Noon-1pm and 6-7pm.  We will also have two free classes about growing sweet potatoes and seed saving.  The sweet potato class will be taught at 4-5pm and seed saving at 5:30pm. 
Then on Saturday, May 19th the sale will be at the USU Botanical Center in Kaysville from 8am-2pm.  A hanging basket workshop is at 10-11am and the free sweet potato class is being taught at 1-2pm.
Hope to see you all there!

Looking for a great way to spend Mother's Day with the whole family?  Come to our first ever Baby Animals Days at the USU Botanical Center in Kaysville.  This fun event will be on Friday evening and all day Saturday. 
Come see some cute baby goats, ducks, chicks, llamas, and lambs.  There will be train rides,  a rock wall, and a putting green with prizes.  Go here for more information. Hope to see you and the family there! 
Buy your tickets online here or at the gate and remember to bring a non-perishable food item and receive $5 off the $25 family ticket price.
Baby Animal Days Poster (2)

How to Register for the Get Growing Classes

I apologize for any problems people have been experiencing with trying to register for our upcoming classes using my past blog posts.
Here is the updated and working links to the registration sites.  Thanks Kathy!

Get Growing Gardening Classes

New this year we are offering a great Saturday morning of classes on some of our most requested topics:

►       Raised Beds (for vegetables, herbs, berries and even fruit trees)

►       Composting

►       Planting & Selecting Trees & Shrubs

Each class is taught by an expert, and you will take home free vegetables for your garden.  Attached is the flyer with information about the classes and registering.  Cost for all three classes only:  $20/public, $14/member

To register Click Here or call 801-399-8201

● NOTE:  If you haven’t become a “Friend of the Gardens” for both the Ogden Botanical Gardens & USU Botanical, here is a link where you can read more and get an application.  Click Here   Over the growing season a membership pays for itself in discounts on all classes, discounts on plants at the “Members Only” Plant Sale (including plants grown only for members), discounts on merchandise, and special invitations to events planned just for members. 

What does membership do for the gardens?  It allows us to continue developing new areas in the gardens such as the outdoor classroom installed last year with funds from memberships.  We need you, and we do our best to make membership valuable to you.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call 801-399-8201.

April To-Do List

Okay, it's April and with all this warm weather that we've been having, we can get gardening sooner this year than last!
Here are some things that can do this month in the garden!

►        Remove weeds from the garden and ornamental beds early.

►        Start a new compost pile for use later in the season.  Come to our Get Growing Gardening Classes on April 14th.  We'll be teaching about composting, raised bed gardening, and how to select and plant trees and shrubs.  For more information go here and register here.

Get Growing Gardening Classes Big Flyer

►        Plant semi-cool crops such as cauliflower, carrots, beets, lettuce, potatoes and Swiss chard.

►        Start an asparagus bed in a trench composed of the existing soil mixed with organic matter and an all-purpose fertilizer.

►        Aerate the lawn to promote air and water movement, decrease thatch, increase fertilizer penetration and prepare to apply pre-emergent.

Core aeration before you apply a pre-emgerent herbicide.

 ►        Apply a pre-emergent to turfgrass the first of April, and again the first of June, to control crabgrass and spurge.

►        Wait to cut back foliage of spring blooming bulbs such as daffodils and tulips until the leaves turn yellow or die back.

 ►        Prune shrubs that bloom after June 1^st.

►        Get some new strawberry plants for the berry patch.

Get Growing Class Flyer

If you saw Jerry on Studio 5 a few weeks ago, he mentioned our Get Growing Classes that we'll be having on April 14th.  Here is the flyer with more information about each of the classes.  We have put together a great set of classes with some awesome instructors.  Hope that you want to come and learn from the experts about composting, raised bed gardening, and selecting and planting trees and shrubs.  The workshops are $20 for the public or $14 for Members of the Gardens.  Each participant will go home with some veggie starts for their own gardens.  You can register here.
Get Growing Gardening Classes Big Flyer

How to Prune Fruit Trees, Grapes & Raspberries Power Point

Here is Jerry's fruit pruning power point from Saturday's pruning classes.  It covers fruit trees, grapes, and raspberries.  Thanks for sharing Jerry!
Pruning All Fruits

Ogden Standard Examiner Newspaper Article About our New Addition

Here is the new addition to the Ogden Botanical Gardens.  Thanks Dennis for all your hard work and donated time to the gardens.  We truly have the best Master Gardeners in the world!

Carved bears court wedding proposals at MTC Park

By JaNae Francis

Standard-Examiner staff

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 9:38pm

OGDEN — An addition to the MTC Park in Ogden is a cute attraction as well as a monument to the volunteers who serve there each week.
A carved female and a male bear, facing each other with a bench between them, are adorned with the words “Love Hill” encased in a heart and the instructions “propose here.” Both bears have the wide eyes of those contemplating marriage.
“I thought because they are posing for pictures all the time and weddings, something romantic would fit in,” said Dennis Miller, who carved the bears and made the bench between them, then built steps up the hill to the creation.
“I didn’t want people to have to walk up the hill in the mud,” Miller said.
Miller is known for his creations throughout several Riverdale parks, which he completed when he worked for that city. But now he’s retired and spreading the love he has for carving in a place where his heart is.
“My wife and I have each put in 850 hours of volunteer work apiece,” he said. “We are master gardeners.”
Miller and his wife, Ardie, conduct plant diagnostic sessions Wednesday nights through the spring and summer months.
Miller said this work of art came to him as he studied the trees he used to create them.
“I was thinking of it all the time,” he said. “I would wake up in the middle of the night.”
Miller said whenever he makes a carved work of art, he looks at the trees or pieces of wood and they seem to speak to him, telling him what they should become.
This creation was made from two Siberian elm trees that park organizers wanted to remove.
“They really are junk trees,” Miller said. “They grow wild all over the hills, (but) they are not native to the area.”
He said when park officials decided to get rid of the two trees, he agreed to carve them.
“I’d been promising Jerry Goodspeed, when I retired I would carve something,” he said, noting that he retired in December 2010. “Last year, we decided on the trees with Jerry.”
Goodspeed is the director of the Ogden Botanical Gardens located in the park and is a Utah State University Extension horticulturalist.
Goodspeed is excited about the creation because it adds to the park and honors volunteers.
“It’s very nice to have a representative of all the volunteers,” Goodspeed said. “The (Millers) have volunteered all of this and done it on their own time.”
And Goodspeed said the carving adds a great deal to the park.
“Part of the idea of the gardens is to beautify and also create interest,” Goodspeed said.
Miller said he started his hobby out of a desire to save money.
“My wife loves bears,” Miller said, explaining how he started on his chain-saw carving hobby. “Carved bears are quite pricey.”
Miller said he took up the carving hobby in 2004 when his wife, who wanted some of the pricey masterpieces herself, bought him a how-to video and a chain saw.
MTC Park is on the east side of Monroe Boulevard at about 1800 South. The new bears are west of the easternmost bowery in the park.

Jerry on Studio 5: Planting Veggies Now & Upcoming Class

Our favorite horticulturist was on Studio 5 last week.  If you missed him, here he is in all his plant glory!  Good job Jerry!  He mentions our upcoming mini workshops:
Gardening Mini Classes: Raised Beds, Planting Trees and Shrubs, Growing Perennials & Composting
Learn how to build and use a successful raised bed for vegetables, raspberries, strawberries and even fruit trees. Includes selecting and planting ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials, and composting methods.
When:  April 14th 9am - 12pm
Where: Ogden Botanical Gardens
Cost: $14 Members, $20 Public
To register click here

9am Compost Class
Get the most out of your growing space by learning the basics of composting. Compost is a rich soil amendment that will benefit your garden plants and the environment. Instructor:  Bob Saunders, Weber County Master Gardener.

10am Raised Beds Class
Learn how to build and plant a successful raised bed for vegetables, flowers, berries, grapes and even fruit trees.  Instructor:  Karen Bastow, Weber County Master Gardener.

11am Planting Trees and Shrubs
Learn how to select and properly plant the right trees and shrubs for your landscape.  Instructor: Monte Stewart, Ogden City Urban Forester

March To-Do List

• Clean up the yard on days when the weather is nice.
•  Start warm-season plants indoors for transplanting in May.

• Work organic material into annual beds as soon as they are dry enough to be worked.

• Plant hardy vegetables (peas, onions, radishes, spinach, broccoli, turnips, rhubarb).

 

• Plant bare-root plants (strawberries, raspberries, fruit trees, roses).  Go here for more information.

• Purchase an herbicide to prevent crabgrass and spurge to apply the first of April.

• Consider applying a lawn pre-emergent earlier to areas next to sidewalks and driveways where it warms and breaks dormancy sooner.

• Attend pruning classes for roses, fruit trees, trees and shrubs at the Ogden Botanical Gardens, or USU Botanical Center in Kaysville.   Dates, times, locations are available here.

 

• Prune fruit trees, raspberries, grapes and ornamentals that need it.  Learn how to at our free pruning classes.

• Apply dormant oil to all fruit trees as soon as the buds swell and the first tip of color appears.  Include an insecticide with the oil, if desired.

• Prune roses after the buds break and there is 1 to 2 inches of growth.  Learn how to at our free rose pruning demonstration here.

• Clean up perennials by removing last years’ dead material, and transplant or divide those that are overgrown.  Learn how to at our free Pruning 101 class.

• Plant pansies and primrose for color in the garden, if you didn’t plant them last fall. 
• Browse through our new 2012 Event & Class calendar.  Choose a fun gardening class to take this year!

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Free Pruning Classes: Pruning 101 & More

 Here is a list of the upcoming classes we'll have during March.  Please come out and learn how from the professionals how to properly prune your trees & shrubs.

Saturday, March 17^th           Fruit Pruning Demonstration

112 S. 3000 W., West Point

9 – 11am 

USU Extension experts show you the art and science of proper pruning practices so you’ll be ready to prune with confidence. The focus will be on apples, peaches, grapes and raspberries. This outdoor event is one of our most popular workshops. Dress for the occasion and come ready to learn. Cost: Free

Saturday, March 24^th           Fruit Pruning Demonstration

USUBC  9 – 11 am

Prune with confidence after learning the art and science of proper pruning practices. The focus will be on apples, peaches, grapes and raspberries. This outdoor event is one of the most popular workshops.  Dress for the occasion and come ready to learn. Cost: Free

           

Saturday, March 31^st           Basic Pruning 101: Waking Up the Landscape

OBG  9 – noon

Our garden staff and Master Gardeners demonstrate proper pruning practices to care for fruit trees, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs and roses. Instruction includes how to clean up perennials and ornamental grasses for spring.  Pruning tools will be available to purchase. Cost: Free

Pruning Demo Flyer 2012

2012 Class & Event Schedule

2012 Class Schedule & Events Front Page
Calendar of Events Back Page

Landscape Design Class

We will be teaching a Landscape Design Class in April.  If you are interested please call Kathy at 801-399-8201 or register here.  Class size is limited.
Landscape Design Flyer (2)

Question of the Week: Planting Bare Root Fruit Trees

"Costco is selling bare root fruit trees now and they are dirt cheap.  Is now the time to plant them and if so, how?"  I've been asked this question many times in the past few days and I'm sure many more people might be thinking the same thing.  The answer is yes, but there are some things to look for before buying a new peach, plum, apple or apricot tree:
Tips:  When to plant bare root trees?

• Can you dig a hole in your soil deep enough for a tree?  If you answered yes then now is the time to plant a bare root fruit tree.
• Or is your soil buried under 2 feet of snow?  Is the soil frozen? Or too soggy?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then now it is not time to plant.  You can however purchase the tree and plant it in a container and keep it in a sunny garage until your soil is not buried under snow, frozen or soggy.

Tips:  What to look for when purchasing bare root trees?

• Make sure the buds are tight, plump, and healthy--Not open, dry, or shriveled! 
• Examine the bark and make sure there are no injuries or deep scratches.
• If possible, look at the root system to see if it is well balanced and  undamaged.
•  Evenly spaced branching is another consideration. 

Tips:  How to plant bare root trees?

A side view of how to plant a bare-root tree before all of the soil has been placed back into the hole. Photo courtsey of Utah Pests News

1. Cut off damaged roots
2. Soak roots in 5 gallon bucket of water 3-6 hrs. before planting.
3. Dig the hole as deep as root ball and twice as wide.
4.  Support root ball with mound of soil.
5. Place tree in hole making sure root flare is at ground level.
6. Fill in soil around roots, tamp soil lightly, and water in to settle soil around roots.
7. Stake carefully, if needed for the first year.

Have more questions?  You can find more information about buying and planting bare root fruits here, here and here.

Standard Examiner Home & Garden Show this Weekend

Who's going to attend the Home & Garden Show this weekend at the Weber County Fairgrounds?  I am.  Susie is going to be there as well.  I hope that see many of you there too!  Not only can you watch the shammy guy clean up a mess, you can renew your newspaper subscription, and listen to Susie and I talk about growing some great veggies this upcoming year.

Thanks to all those who will be helping us at the Master Gardener booth by answering questions and sharing with the public our great program at the Ogden Botanical Gardens.  Our Master Gardeners truly are the best!  See you at the Home & Garden Show this weekend.
Kathy has lined up some really great speakers and they will be talking about some other fun gardening topics.  Here is the lineup:

STANDARD-EXAMINER

Home & Garden Show

GARDEN SPEAKER SCHEDULE

Friday, March 2, 2012

4:00 p.m.  Who Hid the Veggies?  Edible Landscaping

Pat Westaway, Weber County USU Ext.Master Gardener

5:00 p.m.  Creating Beautiful Containers for a Colorful Landscape

Kim Hunter, Country View Nursery Owner

6:00 p.m.  Perennial Choices for Color, Foliage & Interest Barney Barnett, Willard Bay Gardens Owner

7:00 pm  25 Great Deciduous Trees for the Wasatch Front

Katie Wagner, USU Extension Horticulturist, Salt Lake Co.

                                                                                                                                                           

Saturday, March 3, 2012

2:00 p.m.  Waterwise Isn’t Just Desert and Rocks

David Rice, Conservation Program Coordinator, Weber Basin Water Conservancy District

3:00 p.m.  Gardening with Kids

Adrienne Plicka, Weber County USU Ext. Master Gardener

4:00 p.m.   Successful Tree Planting in Northern Utah

Kim Hunter, Country View Nursery Owner

5:00 p.m.  Tips & Tricks for Growing Great Veggies Dorinda Jones & Susie Jones,Weber County USU Extension Ogden Botanical Gardens