Join us for our next event!

Spring Fever Mini-Symposium

Apr 17 2010 - 10:00am - 3:00pm
Location: 

Iowa Arboretum

Feed your spring fever by exploring how to design with perennial plants. We are pleased to welcome renowned garden designers Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden of Fort Collins, Colorado, to the Iowa Arboretum. Many of you first became acquainted with Lauren by reading her award winning book, The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty. Now Scott and Lauren have collaborated to produce Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens that Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit, the topic of their first presentation. Join us for an exciting day of presentations, plant talk with your friends, a delicious lunch, and book and plant sales! You will have an opportunity to purchase their book and have it personally autographed by the authors. We have also chosen 12 of Scott and Lauren’s favorite grasses and colorful perennials for you to purchase.
Visit http://www.iowaarboretum.org for more information.

The Latest news and information

  • Spring Plant Sale

    The 2010 Story County Master Gardener’s Association (SCMGA) Spring Plant Sale will be held on Saturday, May 8, 2010 (8AM – 3PM) at the Reiman Gardens maintenance building in Ames. Please note that there will not be a SCMGA plant sale in Nevada this year.

    A large selection of new plants, house plants, annuals, hanging baskets, container gardens, and perennial divisions – many from the gardens of Master Gardeners– will be for sale. Our thanks to Reiman Gardens for donating post-display plants when available as well! Local vendors selling garden art will also be there to join in the fun. Save the date and think spring!

    If you have any SCMGA plant sale questions, please contact Donja Esk (tdesk@mchsi.com ) or Carole Bunde –(cbunde@live.com) for additional information.

    (Proceeds from the plant sale support the Story County library book program, horticulture scholarships and grants, 4-H horticulture awards, community gardens and various community projects. The SCMGA (affiliated with the ISU Extension Service) returns over 2800 volunteer hours/yr within Story County).

  • February Newsletter and Special Event Flyers ready to download:

  • Volunteers needed: Beloit Learning Garden in Ames

    This project is just beginning, but we’ll need volunteers for a variety of tasks, both short- and longer-term. The Beloit Learning Garden is an outdoor classroom for at-risk youth from Lutheran Services in Iowa’s Beloit campus near 13th and Northwestern Avenue in Ames. We are using the garden to connect these youth with adults and to help them learn life skills. Some of garden produce will be used in the Beloit dining hall and some will be donated to the Bethesda Community Food Pantry (located next to Beloit). Future expansion will hopefully include fruit trees and bushes. Short-term volunteers needed for:
    • Site preparation
    • Fence installation
    • Build eight raised beds, composting area
    Longer-term volunteers needed to:
    • Meet regularly with Beloit youth (we’ll be using 4-H garden materials and working with Beloit staff)
    • Help Beloit youth plan the garden, start seeds, care for seedlings, transplant, etc.
    All volunteers working with youth must attend a training session where they’ll learn about children who live on the Beloit campus in order to make the experience more rewarding for adult volunteers and for the youth. Partners in this project include Story County Master Gardener Association, ISU Extension, the USDA and Bethesda Lutheran Church. We are building a list of volunteers for this unique project and we would love to have your name on it! Please contact our volunteer coordinator, Allison Severson, severson.allison@gmail.com, (515) 851-7820.

  • January Newsletter is available to download: