Making Plans

Mother Nature was playing an April Fools joke on Saturday morning.  

When I got up to get ready to leave for a Garden Expo, 

the view out the living room window was not very nice.

The drive to the WITC campus was one of the worst drives I have had all winter, go figure.

Once I arrived safely at the expo I met up with a couple of friends from my Bridge group and the rest of the day was a delight.

I didn't really know what to expect from this day.

A Garden Expo with several speakers and some vendors was about all I knew.

Little did I know that the Master Gardeners and the Barron County Extension Office would put on such an interesting, professionals and well orchestrated day for me to enjoy.

All of the speakers were really interesting and I learned so much.

By far the most valuable to me was the talk on growing plants in zones 3 & 4.

Mr. Heger really knew his material and had good photos to show 

and growing tips to numerous to count.

I was immediately thinking about my yard and what to plant next.  I learned which plants needed to be moved, and that I have a few plants that are not likely to ever thrive in my yard.

This speaker was also interested in textures and foliage colors.

I appreciated his comments pointing out the use of flowering plants as well as plants with interesting leaf shapes and colors.

Before long, I started writing some notes to myself about changes I want to make in my yard.

I have decided to mow less of the grass again this year.  

Each year I have let more and more of my property go natural, this year, I'm going to let the area around my little pine forest be un-mowed.

Based on what I learned at the expo, I might add some plants to the area to amp up the interest level, but the mowing will stop & then I'll see what wild flowers might come along.

The speaker who covered vegetable planting in containers gave me some creative and practical tips to improve what I have been doing each year with my tomatoes and other vegetables in pots.

I wasn't overly interested in the strawberry & blueberry lecture, but I did learn why some strawberry plants that I have at the back of the garage have failure to thrive.  I'll be giving them a new home this spring and planting something better suited for that space in their place.

The lunch was great and many door prizes were given away.  

One major raffle prize raised money to fund this event and I bought several tickets.

As usual, I went home with only the prizes I purchased.

The vendors had interesting and useful items, 

I bought a small jar of fertilizer tablets for my flower pots, it's my prize.

I'm putting next year's event on my calendar, I won't miss it,

 and I'll hope to get a few more friends to come along, 

It was a fun day dreaming of summer gardens.

The sun came out while we were learning and the snow is nearly gone again,

I'm excited to work on the plans I started.