Materials from when we go above and beyond, at a talk or
workshop
If you miss us in person here's a way you can glean
information from our outlines, lists and other presentation
materials.
The more we share with other gardeners the more we learn.
In addition, we sometimes find time to go beyond a day's topic, or
discuss related materials that are too bulky and/or specialized to
copy for an entire group.
You can download these
materials* we have offered at various talks.
8 Months of Color
Armchair Gardener: Winter
design
In the Wake of Emerald Ash Borer: Ash
Replaceent Trees
The Art of Fall Garden Clean up
Before-Afters: Landscape and Garden Ideas
Beyond Bloom
Children's Gardens
Clipping Conifers
Columbo on Conifers
Containers and potted gardens: Canned
Goods
Continuous Color
Cut Flowers from Your Garden (From
Garden to Vase)
Designing Collectors' Entry
Gardens
Difficult Sites, Challenging
Gardens
Designing for all 5 Senses (Design Five
Senses)
Dividing Perennials
Earthwise Soil Preparation: Digging a
great garden
Edible Landscapes (Veg, fruit, herbs)
Edible Landscapes is sponsored
by:
Fine Pruning the Landscape
.
Gardening for Wildlife (Includes hummingbirds &
butterflies plants list)
See also our article Increase your feathery
color.)
Great Combinations, Favorite
Plants
Hot Weather Gardening Tips
Hummingbirds and Butterflies: Garden for
Hummingbirds & Butterflies
Can't Judge a
Plant by its Cover
Landscape Ideas: Before-Afters
Low Maintenance Landscapes (See
also Save Time, Money...)
Native Plants for the Great Lakes
Never Stop Growing (See Simplify)
Perennial Combinations
Planning to Avoid Vegetable
Pests,
Practical Mixed Border
Propagation Workshop
Pruning trees and shrubs (Fine Pruning
the Landscape)
Ready for Spring; Getting the Garden
Ready for Spring
Renovation: Improving the older garden
or landscape
Save Time, Money and Be Healthy in
the Garden
Shade
Gardening: Shade Gardening Lists
Sharpen your Pruners
Simplify gardening to save time, save
money and defy age
Soil preparation
Trees and Shrubs for
Small Spaces, list includes zone 4 exceptions
Vegetable Garden Basics, a Workshop
Visualizing Changes: The Gardener's Crystal Ball
Weaving a Wattle Fence: The Tollgate Twist
What the Groundhog Won't Tell
Wildflowers in Your
Garden
Woodland Wildflowers Native to
the Great Lakes; preferred sites & sources
*Please
note that these downloads are outlines, lists, charts and diagrams,
some with and some without illustrations. They are not all the
hundreds of images you saw at our presentation, not the
"slide show." We're sorry we can't share those. They are massive
files sans words -- impossible to upload and download, and you
would still need us for the narrative! However, we are
working to remedy that: Look into and support our Webinar project.
There you can help us decide which of those presentations to post
first as we build a webinar library of such presentations.
8 Months of
Color
Outline from the talk February 13, 2013 in Big Rapids,
Michigan
download the pdf
Armchair Gardener:
Design in winter
Outline from the talk February 5, 2013 in South Lyon, Michigan
download the pdf
Those who were at this talk know the flow and the fun in
this kind of design:
(The) Art of Fall
Garden Clean Up
Outline from our presentation to the Washtenaw County, Michigan
Master Gardeners' meeting September 18, 2012, and at the Indiana
Master Gardeners State Conference October 6, 2012.
download the pdf
In the Wake of Emerald Ash Borer:
Ash tree replacements
A non-native insect, emerald ash borer (EAB), is killing
billions of ash trees (Fraxinus species) throughout
eastern North America and there is little we can do to stop it.
Here is a list of trees suitable for replacing an ash at streetside
or in your yard. It was compiled from the choices offered by city
foresters in our area, at the epicenter of the emerald ash borer
plague.
On our list we have included detailed descriptions of the trees.
For more about emerald ash borer, search those words here on our
site and visit the U.S. Forestry Service EAB information
page where you can learn about EAB status in your area, and the
latest on its control.
download the ash tree replacement list in pdf
Beyond
Bloom
Handout from Steven's February 20, 2014 talk at Ray Wiegand's
Nursery. Flowers are wonderful but the best gardens employ color
from other quarters, too, and gain depth from a base in plant form
and texture. Steven shared ideas to help you look at your garden,
evaluate its building blocks, then improve it by way of both quick
fixes and fundamental change.
download the pdf
Children's Gardens
Outline from a workshop for designers. Gardens are great places
for children to learn about life or while away the summer. We can
help them to learn and enjoy. At this workshop designers focus on
various garden aspects and elements to tune them especially for
children. Includes plants particularly suited to this use.
download the pdf
Right: Lambs ears, a child favorite. More about planting for
kids in What's
Coming Up#33.
Clipping Conifers: Pruning evergreens,
especially dwarf forms
Here's the outline and how-to notes from Janet's July
12, 2012 talk at the American Conifer Society's Conifer
College.
At the talk, Janet also recommended you look at: Dwarfs Cut to
Size, Prune a Globe Spruce, Reduce a
Spruce, Steven Prunes Falsecypress,
What's Coming Up 160 for needle
retention by species and other articles. Now you can revisit
the photos and see the ideas that interested you during the
presentation, all spelled out. They are all accessible by searching the keywords
listed on the outline's page 3.
Columbo on Conifers: Or,
Why'd it die?
Here's the outline and diagnostic steps from Steven's
July 12, 2012 talk at the American Conifer Society's Conifer
College. Now you can revisit the photos and see the ideas that
interested you during the presentation, all spelled out. They are
all accessible by searching the keywords listed on the outline's
page 2.
In his presentation, Steven also recommended you look
at:
What's Coming Up 28 regarding girdling trunks, What's
Coming Up 52 for dissection of a hemlock failure, and
problem diagnosis tools such as in Growing
Concerns 520 and What's
Coming Up 160. He showed you the use of other of our
GardenAtoZ articles, too. They are all instantly accessible by searching a
keyword.
Containers and
Potted Gardens (Canned Goods)
About choosing the pots, the planting mix and the plants to grow
in a container garden for your patio, balcony or as moveable
elements all around the garden. With tips for tending the
above-ground garden. As presented March 16, 2013 in Taylor, MI.
download the pdf
Continuous Color
in the Landscape
Perspective, plants, designs and maintenance techniques for the
color seeker. Outline from the talks in Cleveland, Chicago, Grand
Haven, MI, and Taylor Growing Great Gardens. With lists of late
summer perennials and woody plants to improve that hard-to-color
season.
download the pdf outline and plant lists
download the workshop
chart
Cut Flowers from
Your Garden (From Garden to Vase)
You can cut and arrange flowers and foliage from your garden
that will last longer and be more unique than any florist's work.
This two page outline and notes with line drawings tells how to
cut, treat and arrange your garden's bounty for the longest life
and best look. As presented at Ray Wiegand's Garden Center in
Macomb, Michigan on April 13, 2013.
Download the pdf
Designing for all 5 Senses
(Design Five Senses)
At our "extra-sensory" presentations and workshops we help you
close your eyes and learn more about using every one of your senses
as you design orsimply enjoy a garden. Come to experience and take
away ideas for techniques, plants, features and opportunities
toward more and better smell, sound, touch and taste in a garden.
download the pdf outline from our
presentation
download the pdf outline and worksheets
from our workshop
download the Fun Extras articles, fast
facts, plants listed/described and charted
Designing the Collector's Entry
Gardens
When you must have it all, it pays to learn from collection
curators and to pay special attention to designing your entry
areas. Outline of Janet's presentation at the Toledo Botanical
Garden to the Black Swamp Hosta & Daylily Society.
download the pdf
Difficult Sites,
Challenging Gardens
Ideas for designing, planting and tending places in the yard
that are difficult: Under trees, in dry soil, in overly wet soil,
where it's very windy, exposed to salt, where soil is hard packed
or where temperatures change rapidly and to extreme, such as
against walls. Download is a 24 page package with outlined
ideas and plants in charts by site conditions.
download the pdf
Dividing
Perennials
How to make more of your perennials through division.
Notes include timing, plant lists, step-by-step directions, most
frequently asked questions and additional references. As presented
at Ray Wiegand's Garden Center in Macomb, Michigan on April 14,
2013.
Download the pdf.
Earthwise Soil
Preparation: Digging a great garden
How to go easy on the environment and your back as you get
the soil ready to go in a garden.
Download the outline of the talk, a 4- page
illustrated pdf.
Jump to the page of links to
relevant soil preparation articles.
Edible Landscapes: Veg,
Fruit, Herbs
Outline and planning chart for those interested in integrating
edible plants throughout a landscape; from presentations made in
various locations including Taylor, Michigan.
download the pdf
Linda P.'s Sponsorship brings you
this Edible Landscape material:
Gardening for
Wildlife, Garden for Hummingbirds & Butterflies
This material is the basic formula for attracting wildlife and
an exploration of the variable details for songbirds, specific
birds including hummingbirds, butterflies, dragonflies, amphibians,
etc. With six pages of plant lists including a butterfly larval
host plant chart (caterpillar plants). Plant lists include basic
growing information and specific animals/birds attracted.
download the pdf of class notes plus plant lists
download only the plant lists
Great Combinations, Favorite
Plants
Outline from the presentations given in Michigan at the
Bloomfield Township Public Library, the Rochester Hills Public
Library, the Walled Lake Area Gardeners' community night, and the
Huron County Master Gardeners Spring into Gardening
conference. Trees, shrubs, groundcovers and perennials in
combinations based on what's already there and thriving. With a
combination list for five different sites: Sunny, part shady,
shady, droughty and soggy sites.
download the pdf
Hot Weather
Gardening Tips
Outline from the presentation given at the Guelph Enabling
Garden in Guelph, Ontario on July 19, 2012. A beautiful, healthy
garden can be a cool, refreshing sight during the dog days of
summer. This session will help you understand how to plan and
maintain your garden so that it will not only survive but thrive in
the heat and humidity of July and August. At this presentation we
also suggested interested gardeners look at
leaky jugs,
Self watering pot,
Stakes from sticks,
Attention to deadheads and
Garden face lift.
download the pdf
Landscape Ideas: 50 Great
Before-Afters
A list of ideas that span more than 20 years of work in
landscape design, for application in all aspects of landscape and
garden design and care. Helpful for those doing almost everything
from beautifying a tiny courtyard to designing an entire landscape,
dealing with the basics of design as well as maintenance tricks for
older gardens. Provided to audiences in various cities including
East Tawas and Walled Lake, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois and
Madison, Wisconsin in conjunction with a presentation of
before-after images from areas Janet & Steven have designed,
planted, renovated or captured for "how to" books and articles.
download the pdf
Low Maintenance
Landscapes
Outline of design features, tools and techniques that save you
time and/or money in the yard, as presented in various cities in
2011.
download the pdf
Native Plants for the
Great Lakes
Outline and plant lists from our symposium at Chicago Botanic
Gardens.
Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants download
the pdf
Herbaceous plants by habitat download the pdf
Perennial Combinations
(Great Perennial Combinations)
Plant lists to supplement the workshop Persuading Perennials
to Delight Us for All Four Seasons presented in Norwalk, Ohio
on March 17, 2012.
download the pdf
Planning
to Avoid Vegetable Pests
Resource list from the talk Rev the Veg Part 1:
Learning from Last Year,
at the Beverly Hills Community Gardeners' meeting in Beverly
Hills, Michigan, February 9, 2012
download the pdf
The Practical
Mixed Border, Maintaining the Mixed Border
Outline from the talks given January 10, 2012 in Dexter,
Michigan and February 21, 2012 in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. (For
additional plant lists, see Perennial Combinations.)
download the pdf
Propagation
Workshop
Outline from the workshop February 4, 2012 in Detroit,
Michigan. Covers how to make more of just about every kind
of plant by seed, cutting, or division, with notes about grafting
and micropropagation (tissue culture).
download the pdf
Pruning trees
and shrubs (Fine Pruning the Landscape)
Illustrated outline from our Webinars and talks in various
cities. Basics of pruning and the how to of pruning for each of the
four main reasons: to restrict a plant's size, to improve shape,
the encourage more vigorous growth and the remove dead or diseased
wood. With notes about flowering, and examples of plants pruned for
each reason.
download the
pdf
Ready for Spring
(Getting the Garden Ready for Spring)
Outline from the March 1, 2013 Webinar. Covers:
• pruning in late winter/early spring
• cutting back, raking and fertilizing gardens
• edging, weeding and trouble-shooting
• dividing perennials
• changing perennial gardens and planting cool season perennials
and annuals.
This webinar will be available as a download movie. Watch for it
here or
let us know to alert you about Webinars as they become
available for purchase.
download the pdf
Renovation:
Improving the older garden or landscape
Outline from the presentation made March 5, 2012 in Northville,
Michigan. A process for taking a renovation a step at a time and
blending the new with the old. Includes an additional 8-page chart
of trees, shrubs, vines and perennials suitable for renovation
because they grow well under one or more of the limiting conditions
often present in an older landscape, such as lack of sunlight and
dry soil.
download the pdf
Save Time, Money and
Be Healthy as you Garden
Suggestions for saving time and money through changes in
materials, equipment, maintenance and design. Includes facts about
the physical benefits of gardening, common irritating plants to
avoid, ways to prevent repetitive motion problems of the hand and
arm, and an interesting look at noise connected to gardening. From
the presentation made February 28, 2012 in Howell, Michigan.
download the pdf
Sharpen Your
Hand Pruners
Two versions:
A two page illustrated pdf file. Includes 3 important images.
download the two-page pdf
Or a 154-page pdf of a PowerPoint show. This show was running on
our computer for you to see as we demonstrated this essential skill
at tool cleaning parties* in Macomb, Monroe and Taylor, Michigan
and at Winter Day in the Garden in Robinson Illinois,
January 28, 2012. The Powerpoint version of this presentation was
too large to include here, at least with our current webmastery.
This pdf version is manageable but to make it that way the photos
are not quite as sharp as they could be. We will keep working on
what other options there are to share whole slide shows with
you!
download the pdf of 154 pages
*Tool cleaning parties are explained in What's Up
29
tool cleaning parties article, and you can watch for them in
our Where
We're Appearing section)
Simplify gardening to
save time, save money and defy age
Our thoughts on saving time and money applied to those who find
themselves up in years but down in physical ability. Outline
from our talk, with lists of specific recommendations.
With a complete set of interviews with our 15-gardener
panel of experts, representing 900 years of gardening
experience.
This material will be fun and useful if you wonder, "Am I the
only one struggling to keep up with my own garden?" You'll not only
gain insight into what's common and what's in store, but how some
very good and very inventive individuals have kept on growing into
their 8th decade.
Right: Burdette Chapman, 89, says "This wheelbarrow just
runs itself... and it helps that the compost pile is downhill from
the garden!"
Vegetable Garden
Basics: A Planning Workshop
A three-part workshop presented by Janet Macunovich and Margaret Thele
in February 2014 in Beverly Hills, Michigan.
Materials are downloadable here as pdf files, in three
parts.
A) Outline as distributed on paper at the
presentation, including worksheets for planning the type, amounts
and placement of various crops in your vegetable garden.
B) The images presented on screen at Part One of
the workshop,which include the step-by-step instructions for using
the planning worksheets.
C) The outline for Harvesting, by Margaret
Thele
Visualizing Changes
to the landscape
Outline from our talk and workshop, as presented in various
places. Help for the biggest obstacle most gardeners face when
designing or renovating a landscape -- imagining the new look.
download the pdf
Weaving a
Wattle Fence: The Tollgate Twist
Directions from our April, 2011 workshop for volunteers at
Michigan State University's Tollgate Farm.
download the pdf
What the Groundhog
Won't Tell
Outline from a talk we've been presenting and building for 15
years. We've loaded it with lots of fun garden folklore yet are
still in search of an answer to the questions "Why February 2?" and
"Why a groundhog?" Presented March 19, 2012 in Pontiac, MI.
download the pdf
Wildflowers in Your Garden
Notes from our presentation of tips
for selecting and growing wildflowers in your garden. Includes an
extensive list of Great Lakes native wildflowers coded by preferred
site, bloom season and color.
download the
pdf
Right: False indigo, Baptisia australis, native to
and thus "wild" throughout the eastern U.S. except the Dakotas and
Minnesota.
Woodland Wildflowers Native to the
Great Lakes
An excerpt from our Natural Gardener and the Wooded Lot
workshop. A list of woodland natives by preferred site, and nursery
sources.
download the
pdf