Garden U event scheduled for New Richmond

Talk about it

The St. Croix Valley Master Gardeners organization is hosting Garden U on Saturday, March 17, at Ready Randy’s Conference Center, 1490 131st St., New Richmond.

Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and the $30 fee includes lunch and speaker handouts. Pre-registration can be done by mailing a check payable to SCVMGA to Carolyn Barrette at 1358 County Road V, St. Joseph, WI, 54082. Questions can be directed to 715-549-6438 or stcroixvlymga@pressenter.com.

The annual daylong seminar will feature three speakers, all experts in their field. Lunch, door prizes, vendors, and a great opportunity to meet avid gardeners in the St. Croix Valley are included in the day.

The morning session kicks off with Susan Mahr, from University of Wisconsin-Madison. This year she will talk about “Getting More Out of Your Garden with Edible Ornamentals.” Mahr will discuss how food plants can be attractive and can be used in a more ornamental setting rather than the traditional rows in the veggie garden.

“Insects and Diseases in the Yard and Garden” is sure to be a hot topic with Katharine D. Widin, Ph.D. from Plant Health Associates, Inc., Stillwater, Minn. and regular columnist for Northern Gardener. Her talk will include information on identification and best management practices for major insect and disease problems encountered in yards and gardens in our area. New problems such as Japanese beetles, emerald ash borer, gypsy moth and bur oak blight will also be covered.

The afternoon speaker is Jim Calkins, from the University of Minnesota. His talk is entitled “Avoiding Mistakes that Even the Professionals Make: Landscape Spaces & Planting Bed Design.” His presentation will highlight the primary spaces found in residential landscapes and how they are designed and integrated to create unified, successful landscapes and focus on how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes made by professionals and novices alike.

Tags: rural scene, communities, outdoors, gardening