June 2016 Meeting: Garden Design - Scott Moore

The June meeting of the Uplands Garden Club featured a presentation on garden design by Scott Moore of Sandstone Nursery in Mineral Point followed by a tour of Shake Rag Alley’s gardens including the Lind Pavilion landscaping designed by Scott and Shake Rag Alley garden projects funded by Uplands Garden Club grants.

Shake Rag Alley's Lind Pavilion

The meeting took place at Shake Rag Alley's newly renovated Lind Pavilion at five point corners, the old Quonset Hut that previously housed an auto parts shop. Now updated, the building serves as classroom space and is available to rent for meetings and other functions.

Scott talked about design considerations in planning the large sweeping garden area in front of the building, which is in its infancy having just been planted in the fall of 2015. Over 300 grasses and perennials were planted in drifts mimicking a natural prairie setting.

Sharon Stauffer then led a tour of five garden beds on the Shake Rag Alley main campus which from 2007 through 2015 have been redesigned and replanted utilizing Uplands Garden Club grant funding - the Coach House Front Gardens, the Ellery House Side Garden, the Log Cabin Circle Garden, the Potters House Walkway Garden, and the Ellery Patio Hill Garden.

Ellery House Side Garden

Coach House Front Garden

May 2016 Meeting: Our Place in the Cosmos - John Wunderlin

John Wunderlin, who has been an active amateur astronomer for more than a decade, spoke on "Our Place in the Cosmos" at the Uplands Garden Club May meeting.

His talk included commentary on our planet's place in the universe, celestial objects, constellations, and featured "astro-photos" of the sky over Mineral Point that he made himself.

John ended his presentation with a delightful French horn performance set to an astrophotography slideshow. This was only the second performance of the piece entitled Universal Sketches written by Nick Fife. The premier was his master’s degree final at UW/Madison.

John moved to Madison from Mineral Point to study French Horn performance because it was on his Bucket List. Now that he’s graduating, he will give lessons, and look for a position in the musical field. (Of course, while maintaining All-Pro Software, his software development business.)
He is currently Principal Horn in the Beloit/Janesville Symphony Orchestra. His lovely French Horn was handmade in Europe.

For a special treat John very graciously set up a telescope outside the Stonefield Apartments for viewing of the night sky after our meeting. And luckily, Mother Nature cooperated with a perfect clear night for star gazing! About 15 people took advantage of the viewing and were able to see 4 different celestial bodies, including Jupiter and 4 moons.

John has given his popular astronomy presentations at schools, parks, churches, and for civic organizations throughout the area.  Until recently, he lived in Mineral Point, where he built a home observatory and imaged hundreds of celestial objects; several of them have won imaging contests on CloudyNights.

In 2006, John and David Oesper founded the Iowa County Astronomers Club, which now boasts more than 100 members on their email list and which meets monthly to discuss astronomical news and to observe the night sky. In addition to Iowa County Astronomers, John is also a member of Wyalusing StarSplitters and the Madison Astronomical Society.  John operates an All Sky camera as part of the Sandia National Laboratories SkySentinel program, which collects meteor data for scientists to help understand and categorize meteor showers.   He estimates that more than 10,000 people have looked through his telescopes at public events.  John also runs a small business selling astrophotography equipment on his website, spike-a.com.

Thank you John for a very special program at our May meeting!

April 2016 Meeting: Slow Flowers - Carol Larsen of Sunborn Flower Farm

The April Uplands Garden Club program was Slow Flowers, presented by Carol Larsen of Suborn Flower Farm outside of Mt Horeb. 

Carol Larsen has been a cut flower grower since 1975 selling at the Dane County Farmers Market and doing weddings and events. In 2003 Carol founded Fair Field Flowers, a cut flower partnership of local growers in order to sell their flowers in Southern Wisconsin. Recently Carol’s son, Hans along with his wife, Lisa, have joined Sunborn. With this infusion of young energy Sunborn is growing into more weddings and wholesale flowers than ever before.

Since the mid 1950’s commercial flower growing in the US has declined unmercifully. Off shore flowers are shipped to the US creating a huge carbon footprint. Upwards or 85% and as high as 98% of the most common fresh cut flowers are imported, mostly from South America: roses, carnations, chrysanthemums. Domestic fresh flower production focuses on less common "specialty" flowers. Top five are lilies, tulips, gerberas, gladioli, Dutch iris. 

Carol told us about how the recent Buy Local movement that has captured the public’s imagination now extends to fresh flowers. The Slow Flower movement is catching on. Once again locally grown fresh flowers are blooming with the public’s penchant for fresh local and sustainable American products. 

March 2016 Meeting: Straw Bale Gardening - Jayne Wisler and Mary Mayo

Jayne Wisler and Mayo Mayo demonstrate straw bale gardening

For our March meeting Uplands Garden Club members and Iowa County Master Gardeners Jayne Wisler and Mary Mayo presented an Introduction to Straw Bale Gardening.

After attending Joel Karsten’s presentation at the Garden Expo last year, they became intrigued by the planting technique, bought his book, Straw Bale Gardens (available through Amazon.com), and decided to give it a try last summer. 

The bales and supplies 

Both Mary and Jayne took photos throughout the summer documenting the progress of their bale gardens. It was very helpful to see how they set up their bales and how the bale gardens developed throughout the season. 

Jennifer Sharp, a fellow garden club member and Master Gardener, also documented her experiences with straw bale gardening and assisted Mary and Jayne with the slide presentation. 

Peppers growing in a straw bale

Straw bale gardening is growing in popularity as it combines two current trends-vegetable gardening and raised beds. We learned the basics of straw bale gardening including bale placement, fertilizer choices, securing the bales, conditioning the bales and planting methods and tips. Mary and Jayne also provided wonderful handouts that covered the basics along with the schedule for conditioning the bales. 

The bales positioned in Mary's garden

February 2016 Meeting: Sherry Shaft - Roses for Wisconsin

February means Valentine’s Day and what flower says Valentine’s Day more than roses? 

At our February meeting Sherry Shaft from the Madison Rose Society presented a program on growing roses in Wisconsin.

Sherry has been growing roses for over 30 years and grows around 300 rose bushes in her garden in Sun Prairie. She is a Consulting Rosarian as well as a Certified Horticulture judge and an Arrangement judge for the American RoseSociety. Sherry judges several rose shows each year in several states, including the Wisconsin State Fair, and has judged rose growers trials of new roses in France, Scotland and California. She also exhibits at many shows each year.

Sherry is currently serving as Secretary of the Madison Rose Society, and has served as President and Vice President.  She is also the Chairperson of the North Central District Arrangement judges. She is a Master Gardener, and spends many hours volunteering at Olbrich Botanical Gardens and at rose related activities. 

Sherry went through the various types of roses from grandifloras to miniatures and hybrid teas, showing us lovely examples in each category that are easy care and hardy enough to do well in Wisconsin. 

She also covered care and maintenance of roses, including organic disease and pest control, making the care of roses far less intimidating than many of us had thought. 

Sherry then shared some drop-dead gorgeous images of gardens in France from her recent trip. Wow, we all want to go!

After Sherry's presentation, Terry Wood from the Grant County Master Gardeners spoke to us about the upcoming Driftless Gardeners' Gathering they are are co-sponsoring with the Horticulture Club at UW-Platteville.

This new one-day event will take place on April 2, 2016 at UW-Platteville and will feature three workshops plus a keynote address by Lee Somerville, author of Vintage Wisconsin Gardens: A History of Home Gardening.

December 2015 Meeting - Annual Christmas Party

Our December meeting is always reserved for the annual Christmas Party. The club provides the meat course and members bring side dishes or desserts.

This year the table decorations were especially lovely and everyone had great fun with the party poppers that were found at each place setting.

As always, scrumptious food and delightful company.

November 2015 Meeting: Storytelling with Jane Stenson

Our November Uplands Garden Club meeting went beyond a good time by challenging us to think critically and holistically about our world. Uplands Garden Club Member, Jane Stenson, accepted our request to perform an evening of storytelling rich with images from nature.



Jane first delighted us with a traditional folk tale about a young woman stolen by a witch. Then, having grown up in the woods of Connecticut, Jane drew upon her experiences in the natural world to bring us two stories based on real life incidents from her youth.

Jane is a storyteller, author, educator and professional development workshop presenter. She holds a B.A. in history, English and secondary education and has earned a M.ED. in child development. Jane uses storytelling to promote literacy, social studies, math and science skills in the preschool, elementary and middle school populations. She has taught on all levels, co-authored three books on the relationship between storytelling and education and worked on incorporating storytelling into the Common Core Standards.

Jane conducts professional workshops on how to tell a story and learning through storytelling. She accepts many invitations from schools and has delighted countless children and their teachers with her storytelling.

Thank you to Jane for a most enjoyable Garden Club program!