September 2023 Meeting: Native Bees of Wisconsin with Susan Carpenter

 On September 6th, Uplands Garden Club hosted Susan Carpenter, Native Plant Garden Curator and gardener at UW Arboretum, for a talk on Native Bees of Wisconsin. 

Susan Identifies characteristics of the Rusty-Patched Bee, an endangered Wisconsin native.

Matt Waltor, lucky winner of the door prize, shows off the hypertufa planter made and planted with hardy succulents by club member Connie Tibits. 

September Program: Native Bees of Wisconsin with Susan Carpenter

 

Uplands Garden Club May 2023 Speaker - Lisa Johnson

 

April 2023 Meeting: Jada Hooks - "New Perennials and Underused Annuals"

 

At our April meeting, Jada Hooks from Jada's Garden & Greenhouse, talked on "New Perennials and Underused Annuals", and had us rethinking some of our landscaping this year. 

We loved her ideas of plants with interesting foliage so when things aren't blooming you still have an eye-catching garden. She had a great list of perennials, annuals, and shrubs to use in Wisconsin. She also gave tips and tricks on how to make the plants grow to their true potential. 

Visit Jada's Garden and Greenhouse at 10849 Village Circle, Blue Mounds.

Jada Hooks of Jada's Garden hosted by Uplands Garden Club

April 5, 2023, 7pm

Law Enforcement Center 

109 E Leffler, Dodgeville

This presentation is free & all interested are welcome

Jada owns and operates Jada's Garden and Greenhouse, a full service retail garden center located in Blue Mounds. The garden center specializes in annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, veggies, herbs and garden decor and pottery. We also do private gardening including consulting and design, garden maintenance, spring and fall cleanup and seasonal annual containers for over 150 clients.

Jada will be introducing some new varieties along with some varieties that may be unknown to you.

 

March 2023 meeting: Jennifer Filipiak , Exec Dir of the Driftless Area Land Conservancy

 

Jennifer Filipiak, Executive Director of the Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC), spoke with us about the work the DALC works on in the driftless area. They have three focus areas which are land protection, land care, and land connection. 8000 acres have been protected with their help so far. This is done through conservation easements and their Ambassador lands. 

Easements allow the landowners to keep the land in private ownership, but protects the land from being developed in the future. Ambassador lands are lands DALC own and are open to the public to enjoy. Check out their Ambassador lands, all of them are within an hour drive! Land care and protection are done with work parties on their Ambassador lands and educational programs. 

 To find out more, visit their website at https://www.driftlessconservancy.org/.

Jennifer Filipiak to speak at Uplands Garden Club

 

February 2023 Meeting: Curt Meine on "Aldo Leopold's Connections to the Driftless Area"

Curt Meine with UGC program chair Nancy Frost

Curt Meine was the speaker at the Garden Club's February meeting.

Curt is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer who lives near Spring Green. Curt is a Senior Fellow withthe Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo. 

In his talk, Curt explored renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold’s connections to the Driftless Area, and the lessons his experience holds for conservation in our time. He emphasized that we have it within ourselves to be mindful stewards of the land and that we do not own it in the sense that others will become stewards in turn. Curt outlined 10 lessons learned from Leopold's life. Perhaps we can think of examples of lessons learned and see how they can be applied to what and how we choose to engage in the garden club.

Curt Meine to speak at the Uplands February Meeting

 Join us for our February meeting:

November 2022 Meeting: Dr. Steve Carpenter, "Resilient Thinking in the Driftless Area"

Our first inside, in person, garden club meeting since March 2021 took place on November 2 at the Iowa County Law Enforcement Center in Dodgeville. Dr. Steve Carpenter's topic was "Resilient Thinking in the Driftless Area."

Dr. Steve Carpenter, is a professor of limnology at UW-Madison. Limnology is the science of the biological, chemical, physical and geological characteristics of inland water. Dr. Carpenter also has a Masters Degree in Botany and PHD in Oceanography.

Dr. Carpenter holds the Driftless Area near and dear to his heart as he and his wife, Dr. Susan Carpenter, have a Grant County property where they are implementing the principles of resilience and working to improve the ability of their property to recover from some difficult conditions.

A standing-room only group was captivated by his talk and graphics taking us back in time as we learned more about the history of our area, its present status and hope for an adapting future. We also learned how we can make sustainable changes to promote a resilient environment.

March 2020 Meeting: A Costa Rica Trip

During the winter of 2019, Ryan and Sarah Fox were able to take a 28 day vacation to Costa Rica with their three children, Ella, Nolen and Lily. They generously welcomed all to attend the Uplands Garden Club March meeting to see what they saw.

Topics touched upon included:
Native (Flora and Fauna)
Birds Butterflies
Marine life
Invasive species
Agriculture
Waterfalls
Adventures

Ryan and Sarah live in Mineral Point, with their three children and Copper the Golden Doodle. Dr. Sarah Fox is a Family Physician with Upland Hills Health in Dodgeville. Ryan is the owner operator of Fox Exterior Design LLC.

Lily with her Coati

The Foxes moved to Mineral Point in the summer of 2009, and immediately felt they were home. Since moving to the area The Foxes have been active members in the community. In 2012 Sarah wrote a cookbook “Super Snacks for Super Kids”. With a portion of the proceeds Ryan was able to build the School Garden at Mineral Point Elementary.

Ryan has been employed in the construction industry in one way or another for the last 30 years. He finished the Master Gardener Program in 2011, and soon after began doing small projects centered around gardens and blending them with natural landscapes. He started Fox Exterior Design in 2014 with the goal of making gardens and exterior structures which enhance and beautify what you already enjoy doing.

February 2020 Meeting: Explore Color in Your Garden

At our February meeting we had fun learning and exploring the power of color in the garden with a presentation and hands on activity led by Uplands Garden Club member, Roxanne Reynolds-Lair.

Topics covered included:

-Which colors are “warm” and which are “cool”

-What feelings and emotions are triggered when you combine colors

-Which color combinations create harmony and which create contrast

-What colors look best with your house and other permanent features

-How do you keep the color interest alive in different seasons

Roxanne is a Wisconsin native, born in Dodgeville. She spent several years in Los  Angeles as Chief Information Officer at FIDM/the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, a college of 7500 students focused on careers in Fashion, Interior and Graphic design. Roxanne and her team won several awards for their innovative implementation and use of technology.

Throughout her career, Roxanne had a passion for color which she used in her fashion and interior design choices. Now retired and once again back in Dodgeville, she continues to play with color. 

Roxanne recently joined the ranks of Wisconsin Master Gardeners, focusing on landscape design and creation of her bungalow garden in the Arts and Crafts style. In 2019, she created a display for the Iowa County Master Gardener booth on key points of landscape design incorporating the color wheel.

Before the presentation began we all selected a color palette of three colored squares of felt, then we used these colors to create our garden color "story board."

Thanks to Roxanne for a fun and informative program!

October 2019 Meeting: How Plants Communicate with Simon Gilroy

The speaker at our October meeting was Simon Gilroy, a professor in the Department of Botany at the UW-Madison since 2007. Professor Gilroy is currently preparing for a NASA space flight botany experiment that takes place in December, 2019. 

He grew up in the United Kingdom, where “everyone is a gardener” and his research focuses on how plants sense the world around them and then how they use that information to survive and thrive. What happens when an insect chews on a leaf or we pick a flower? How much does the plant “know” about what is going on? Plants don’t have a brain but can they count? Dr. Gilroy’s research group uses time lapse imaging to follow how the whole plant responds to these kinds of events married with imaging techniques that allow us to see the action of the very molecules that make the plant work. 

He currently pursues these projects in settings that range from his laboratory at UW-Madison to experiments for NASA on the International Space Station. The title of his October 2 talk was “When I talk to my plants are they listening? How plants sense the world around them”.

The meeting was open to the public and held at the Stonefleid Apartments in Dodgeville on October 2. Professor Gilroy’s talk was sponsored by the Iowa County Master Gardeners Association.

September 2019 Meeting: Bird Studies

Our September 2019 program, titled Bird Studies, was an introduction to bird watching and feeding, and how to develop a bird friendly yard, presented by Chuck Horn. 

Chuck earned a degree in Resource Management from UW-Stevens Point and worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for forty years. After retirement he came back as a part time administrator in the boating safety program and Learn to Hunt and Learn to Fish Outdoor Education programs. Chuck has assisted in or coordinated Audubon Christmas Bird Counts for about 20 years and is currently the coordinator/compiler for the Fennimore Bird Count Circle.

Chuck and his wife, Diane Reuter, who assisted with the presentation, share many outdoor

interests and adventures together including, birding, wildflower identification, hunting, fishing, hiking and camping.

As with all of the Uplands Garden Club speaker presentations, this program was free and open to the public - people of all ages were encouraged to attend.

April 2019 meeting: Stock Tank Gardening

Ashley Pfister is a member of the Uplands Garden Club and took the Master Gardening course at Olbrich Botanical Gardens starting in 2002. She and her husband Alex live on their farmette in the hills outside of Hollandale and have been growing their own organic vegetables for 14 years. 

For the first 11 years the beds were constructed out of wood, with no bottoms, placed on the ground.  Eventually weeds, continually rotting boards and their increasing age, inspired them to think of a better system. After researching what alternatives were on the market, in the spring of 2016 they replaced all the old wooden beds with eleven galvanized steel stock tanks. This spring they’ll be adding 4 more! 

At our April meeting, Ashley presented their story, with before and after pictures as well as pictures of other types of gardening ideas using stock tanks.  They’re not just for veggies - an inspiration for anyone who’s got an old farm stock tank they’d like to repurpose into something decorative, or anyone looking for an easier way to grow those fantastic tasting vegetables.  

Ashley also showed how to easily grow the best onion crop ever from seed!  For all onion lovers frustrated with using the limited onion variety starts offered in stores, or onion crops that produce small onions that don’t store well, this easy and fun method will solve all of that.      

March 2019 Meeting: Woody Evergreens for the Perennial Garden

Steve Lesch owns Landscape Designs, a landscape design company and nursery near McFarland WI. He provides spring nursery tours in which he introduces visitors to the new or unusual, with special emphasis on trees and shrubs that are suitable for our area. His website has a wide variety of How To guides as well as a nursery inventory.

Steve has designed some impressive private gardens, is a worldwide traveler and was one of the original organizers of the Garden Expo. 

Steve is an entertaining speaker who shared his wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of conifers. 

This was a great program for anyone interested in adding year around interest to their landscape.

An extra treat at the meeting was a "silent auction" for a wonderful cold frame that was hand made and donated by club member Everett Lindsey. Thank you to Everett!

February 2019 Meeting: Greater Sandhill Cranes with Stan Temple

What Have We Done to Deserve All These Cranes?

For the first Uplands Garden Club meeting of 2019, Stan Temple, Professor Emeritus in Conservation, UW-Madison, once again accepted an invitation to speak to our group, this time on the ever-growing numbers of Greater Sandhill Cranes. His presentation gave a fascinating history of how these birds have staged a comeback after coming close to extinction  Stan reviewed their remarkable recovery, described their migratory behavior and discussed some recent controversies such as crane hunting.

Stan had presented at a previous garden club meeting on Phenology and the Passenger Pigeon. As Senior Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Stan and the topic of Sand Hill Cranes came highly recommended by Garden Club members Bill and Jayne Wisler who had the pleasure of participating in an event last Fall in which Stan spoke on cranes at the Aldo Leopold Foundation site in Baraboo Wisconsin. He guided the group on a trail walk and explored the Shack. An inspiring speaker, perhaps some of us will want to learn more and partake in this event at the Aldo Leopold Foundation next fall.

November 2018 Meeting: Megan Cain - How to Extend the Gardening Season

Megan Cain, The Creative Vegetable Gardener, is a garden educator, writer and speaker. She developed one of the first youth gardening programs in Madison, has designed and installed gardens in many homeowners’ yards, managed a 1/4 acre youth farm, worked on CSA farms, created a series of gardening classes that often have waiting lists, and tends to a large home garden.  Megan says: “I know what works and what doesn’t…and I love to share it”.












At our November meeting Megan shared her insights on:

"Harvesting Fresh Veggies in the Snow: How to Extend the Gardening Season".



If you want to continue harvesting from your garden through the first frost and serve produce from your yard for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, August is the month to take action! Megan explained the best planting dates for fall vegetables, which varieties are best for cold weather, how to use simple season extension techniques like row cover, cold frames, and low tunnels, and how you can harvest from your garden all year round, even in Wisconsin!

And...for anyone who missed out on the club's 1st Bulb Sale, there were extra bulbs available for purchase!

October 2018 Meeting: Planting Design With Perennials - Ben Futa, Director of Allen Centennial Garden

Ben Futa is Director of the Allen Centennial Garden at UW Madison. He is passionate about connecting people to plants, and one other, through public gardens. With a background in landscape architecture and sustainability studies from Purdue University and Indiana University South Bend, Ben has directed the operations of the Allen Centennial Garden and its programs for the last 3 years.


Ben's talk at the October, 2018 Uplands Garden Club meeting focused on Planting Design with Perennials. Ben made recommendations for well-behaved perennials for our gardens and shared tips such as taking photos of our gardens in full season to help with those puzzling spring planting decisions (brilliant!) and invaluable resources like the Plant Calculator on the Midwest Groundcovers website.

 During the snack break members perused donated gardening books brought in for the taking by generous garden club members.

May 2018 Meeting: Succulents with Jada Hooks

Succulents are all the rage in the plant work right now. At our May meeting we got to pot up our own succulents under the tutelage of Jada Hooks of Jada's Garden and Greenhouse in Mount Horeb.

We brought our own small containers and Jada brought a selection of succulent plants to choose from. Each member purchased two 2-inch plants with additional plants available for an additional charge. Jada also supplied soil, pea gravel and moss to finish off our creations.

Members went home with lovely arrangements in a variety of containers from hypertufa to tea cups and more. What fun!

Jada Hooks has a degree in horticulture from UW-Madison and has worked with plants her entire life. She grew up on a dairy and pig farm near Plain, gardening with her mother as a child. Jada's Garden started about 15 years ago as a personal gardening and seasonal container business.  Her retail greenhouse and garden center opened in 2017 in Blue Mounds and is a full service greenhouse.  Visit Jada's Garden and Greenhouse website for more information including the 2018 class schedule and listing of special events.  www.jadasgarden.com