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We sure had great weather for the Fort Dodge/Algona tour. What a way for us to spend the summer -- touring great gardens. I sure wish summer lasted longer!! For those of you that missed the tour, you missed some great gardens. However, I was impressed by how many of us did devote a Saturday and made the trip. We had people from all three chapters there as well as the Story County Master Gardeners. What a fun group!!
In keeping with our need of touring gardens for the summer -- we have one more meeting where we can tour. Don Jensen has invited us to tour his garden. Don's garden was on the Central Iowa Tour of Water Gardens this summer and was one that has night lighting. Well, I made the trip to his garden that night and really enjoyed visiting with Don and touring his garden until way past 11:00. It is very obvious that he has put a lot of effort into his garden this past year. What is really interesting is the passion that Don has for water gardening. He really is "infected" with the ponding bug.
His garden is also large enough that we could have a program along with touring his garden. So... let's do a program on Winterizing Water Gardens. It would be a good idea to have discussion on what works for everybody. I will lead the discussion with some insight on plants that over winter well and ones that might not survive our winters. Of course, we will also discuss ways that will insure the survival of our fish.
In years past we have this program in October and by then some the techniques to over winter plants should have been done in September. So doing this program earlier will be more timely. This will be a good program to bring your friends that have never been to one of our meetings. This information is vital to the proper winter care of ponds here in the Midwest.
To get to Don's place, head east on Hwy 30 and go two miles past I35. Turn south on R70 or 580th Ave. (Brekke's is on the northwest corner -- this is also the road to Cambridge). Go 1 1/8 mile south, Don's place is on the east side of the road.
The tour will start at 6:30PM on Monday September 13. Bring your lawn chairs. I know Don will have a fire going in his fire pit so you may bring your wieners and marshmallows.
Hope to see everybody there.
The Big Toad, Jamie