Thursday, August 30, 2012


CHILDREN'S GARDENS

The 20th Anniversary of the National Children & Youth Garden Symposium was held this year at the University of Maryland. Visit the website if you are interested in children and gardening! I attended one of the first conferences with my daughter when it was held in Washington, D.C.! She is pictured above in the Little House on the Prairie Garden, one of many inspirational children's gardens that was on display at George Washington's River Farm, headquarters for the American Horticultural Society. Next year's meeting will be in Denver, Colorado July 11-13, 2013!

I also was introduced to one of my favorite books with ideas for engaging children in gardening at this meeting. It is entitled Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages by Sharon Lovejoy. We also built a sunflower house similar to the one pictured above when we returned home. Interestingly (but maybe not surprisingly) the little girl pictured above is now studying biology in college!


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Historic Drought

Many of the plants in the prairie retention strips at Bethel Highlands came from Prairie Nursery in Westfield, Wisconsin. Visit the Prairie Nursery blog to learn more about how the historic drought of 2012 is affecting Wisconsin prairie plantings!