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21 Tollgate Volunteer General Meeting 7:00 2 Pond Path Mulching 9:00
9
16 Grass Cut Back
23 Maple Syrup Tapping 10:00 23 Mulch Nursery Paths 9:00
30 12 Mile Garden / Pond Clean Up 9:00
5 TGAC Meeting 7:00 2 TGAC Meeting 7:00
21 Tollgate Volunteer General Meeting 7:00 18 Tollgate Volunteer General Meeting 7:00
27 New Volunteer Orientation 9:00
Special Event — Maplefest NO WORKDAY
9:00
Volume 25 Issue 2 February 2019
The Tollgate Farm News
MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteer General Meeting in the Conference Center
Thursday, February 21, 7:00 PM
Drought Tolerant Plants
Watering restrictions or pesky irrigation systems setting you up for failure or frustration? Time to spend less time watering and more time enjoying your garden. Along with introducing a variety of drought tolerant plants, Sue Grubba will provide guidelines and tips for getting your garden through drought conditions. As a bonus, you’ll learn how to choose these plants at the nursery, even if you don’t have a list with you.
Professional gardener and owner of Creative Scapes since 1991, http://www.mycreativescapes.com/, Sue Grubba specializ-es in landscape design, garden maintenance, and night lighting. She is the President of the Association of Professional Gardeners (APG), http://www.associationofprofessionalgardeners.org/. APG’s Saturday, March 9, Spring Kick-off educational event is open to members and non-members.
Sue has a BS from CMU, a certificate in Landscape Technology from OCC, and certificates in Gardening Fine Arts and Landscape and Garden Design from the Michigan School of Gardening. A landscape designer since 1985, she has taught at Schoolcraft College, Growing with Master Gar-deners, Tollgate, the Chicago Botanic Gardens and Morton Arboretum. She assisted in the develop-ment of the curriculum and worked as a senior instructor at the Michigan School of Gardening. Sue became an Advanced Master Gardener and has taught MG candidates and MG volunteers in several counties.
Tollgate’s East Xeriscape Garden
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Greetings All,
WELL, WE DID IT AGAIN. The signs are all around us. The maple syrup season has begun, the Toll-gate quilters are hard at work on their 2019 offering, the sun arrives earlier in the morning and departs a bit later every evening, migrators have started returning to the woods and fields looking for new homes, and garden planning has begun in earnest. The winter of 18/19 is still with us, but the signs of impending spring abound. Looks like we have all made it through another winter. Well done us!
Still waiting on lambs. There are many ewes that I am sure are just as ready to have lambs on the ground as the rest of us. They are due anytime. Keep your eyes on the fields!
Maple Syrup: Ready or not, here it comes! Our big maple tapping day is right around the corner. It is nearly time to start making that luscious brown gold. On February 23 at 10:00 all interested sappers are invited to head to the
woods with drill and tap in hand. The maple crew has been busy setting up the evaporator, repair-ing lines, splitting wood, and in all ways getting ready for the season. A special word of thanks is due to Wayne Watson and Richard Dumbleton. They have spearheaded the effort to replace all of the lines in the Tollgate tubing system. After ten years of continuous use and repeated attacks from an industrious pack of squirrels, the lines are showing their age. Also noteworthy is the work of Kurt Westermann, Don Millington and
John Woodrich. Their work has brought many improvements to the sugar shack. You will no-doubt gaze in wonder at the new floor for the sugar house and the new protective enclosure for the Reverse Osmosis machine. Tollgate is truly blessed by the dedication and talents of its many volunteers!
If you are not on the maple email list and are interested in being a part of syruping activities, all you need do is contact John MacInnis or myself and we will get you connected. Work during the season is very weather depend-ent, so we use emails to let peo-ple know what’s going on. Although most of our sap is gathered via the tubing system, there are still a few trees serviced by picturesque buck-ets. Buckets are installed by visitors on one of the many field trips and tours that are hosted throughout the season.
I know that it is hard to think of spring and gardens when there is still cold weather and snow all about. Nevertheless, spring Activity Days are less than a month away. A sure sign of spring is the return of the Tollgate Garden Volunteers to the farm. Our first Activity Day is Saturday, March 2nd, just around the corner! We have almost made it through another Michigan Winter. Spring will be here soon!
See you soon around the farm.
Roy
Roy Prentice
FROM THE TOLLGATE
FARM MANAGER
GREETINGS
2018 Maple Syrup Tapping
Maple Syrup Tubing System Replaced
Wayne Watson, John McInnis (on left), Richard Dumbleton,
Fred Young (on right)
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"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”
Oscar Wilde
Greetings this snowy, cold February! I hope all members are keeping warm and healthy and looking forward to our monthly meetings. Please check this issue for general up-dated information and the maple syrup season opener with tree tapping this month. Our upcoming activities in March will be dictated by Mother Nature but please check out the planned dates. If it is necessary to cancel Roy will send a notification to the members via email.
Some new member info: We are glad you are with us! Please feel free to contact any of the TGAC members with any questions on our usual opportunities, activities and meeting sched-ules. This is a wonderful place full of educational and socializing opportunities with personal satisfaction as reward for volunteering. I would love to discuss our team approach and direct new members to areas of most interest on the site. Feel free to email me your questions at [email protected]. Our membership holds a large amount of collective knowledge and expe-rience and is willing to guide you to a great experience with the Tollgate Garden Volunteers. See the Activity calendar posted on the website for the 2 orientation dates this season. https://www.canr.msu.edu/tollgate/uploads/files/Tollgate_Calendar_2019%20final.pdf
Contact information for all members is updated yearly via the membership renewal form. Please submit ASAP so you don’t miss any important message contacts. If you wish to be as-signed to a particular garden or activity of interest please indicate so on your renewal form. Also, if you change your contact information during the season please notify Cindy Bolter-stein, Membership Chairperson at [email protected].
Area Garden Leaders/Teams:
All garden areas are looking for members to join their teams. All volunteer members are invited to participate in some interesting areas available that would benefit from the attention of one or more committed members as Area Garden Leader/Team members. Smaller areas within the constructed wetland, children’s and demon-stration gardens are manageable in size and can pro-vide learning opportunities under the guidance of ex-perienced team leaders.
For those Leaders/Teams who have not yet submitted budgets/plans, we would like to have your plans no later than April 1st to incorporate into budget allocations and activity plans. Once plant sale proceeds are known additional budget dollars may become available. It doesn’t hurt to ask for your dream list. Thanks for your continued support and participation.
Please check the Activity Calendar 2019 for upcoming activities!
Stay warm, plan for spring!
Renee Cottrell, President [email protected]
LEARN GROW
MAKE FRIENDS ENJOY
Notes from the President Renee Cottrell
2019 Garden Team Meeting
Page 4
Continued on Page 5
The nursery team met at Tollgate North on Wednes-day February 13th for our first propagation session of the year. Gardening in February, with snow and frigid temperatures outside is always fun, and we certainly had a snowy day for our first session this year! As is our custom, we started the evening off with a simple meal to celebrate the start of the 2019 gardening season for the Tollgate Nursery Team.
After dinner and conversation, we all headed down to Deb Kearney’s basement greenhouse - with our gar-dening gloves and reading glasses! Our focus this year is again on seed propagation – a cost effective way to introduce new plants into the nursery. Most seeds require 30 days (or more) of cold treatment before planting. Deb had started this cold treatment for several varieties by scattering the seeds in a layer of moist soil in small aluminum trays with a clear plastic lid to see what’s inside and hold in some of the moisture. This is a method Deb developed that provides a bit of a head start, since the seeds will begin to sprout when they’re ready. The task with these varieties was to tease apart the small sprouts and transplant them into deep cells of soil filled pot-ting trays. There were also some packets of dry seeds that were planted in potting trays with shallow
one-inch cells - painstaking work to pick out 1 or 2 of the tiny seeds that, once planted in the soil, are basi-cally invisible! We need our reading glasses and tweezers to see and pick up some those seeds, and careful organization to keep track of which cell are filled versus those still waiting for seeds.
A particular focus this year was to work on filling up Row 8 in the SUN nursery, designated for plants with a botanical name beginning with Q or R – which ends up being mostly the various Rudbeckia varieties! We also planted a number of varieties for other areas of the nursery, mostly from “free” seed packets that typically contain a much smaller num-ber of seeds.
The Nursery is gearing up for a busy spring season and hoping to have a record number of new plants
Peg Palmer
NURSERY NOTES
VOLUNTEERS TOGETHER DIVIDING GROWING SHARING
Karen Worley, Susan Bremer, Sue Millington, Mary Bohner, MC Haering, Paula Brose,
Judie Tomaszewski, Deb Kearney, Bonita Glime
Seeds Planted and in Greenhouse
Sue Millington (left) Plants Seeds in 1” Shallow Square Cells. Mary Bohner (right) Plants Sprouts
in Deeper Cells.
Cells for Sprouts
Cells for Seeds
Page 5
It is once again time to renew your membership. Click on this link to the form on the MSU Extension Tollgate Farm and Education Center website: MSU Tollgate Garden Volunteers Membership Form. Forms will also be available at the next Tollgate Volunteer General meeting and attached to this newsletter. Cindy Bolterstein [email protected]
Be A Published Photographer In A Prestigious Publication
Submit your favorite photos of Tollgate for possible publi-cation in the 2020 Tollgate Calendar. Use Tollgate as a background to spark your imagination and develop your photographer’s “eye”. Photograph a unique perspective of Tollgate never seen in the Calendar. Winter is a wonderful time for unique, beautiful photography. Share your photos with other Tollgateites.
Email your photos to: [email protected]
The preferred format is JPEG landscape files. Photos from all seasons and aspects accepted.
Contact Larry Bolam at above email address with any questions.
Photos by Peg Palmer
accepted into the Nursery. In addition to divisions from the Tollgate Gardens, we will also be vigorously soliciting donations of plants from your gardens this year! We went into winter with 2,060 pots in the nursery – that’s about 235 less than last year and more than 800 less than fall of 2016! The rains of last fall and deep freeze and huge temperature swings of the 2018-19 winter season have us a bit nervous about winter losses. We would like to have 3,500 pots in the nursery for the spring sale – so we will really need your help this spring! Please watch for the first PLANTS WANTED list that will be pub-lished in mid-March – this will provide more guidance on the varieties and quantities of plants that we need, so you can plan ahead as you contemplate your spring garden renovations. The Nursery will be open to receive your donations by April 13.
If you’re interested in learning and having fun while involved in a different kind of gardening experience, consider joining the Nursery Team as a ROW LEADER or MEMBER AT LARGE. You don’t need to be a plant or propagation expert to join our team – we have all learned from each other and by doing. Most of our Row Leaders have become
experts about the plants in their row through the ex-perience of being a Row Leader and the interaction with others on team. We currently have openings for Row Leaders and Co-Row Leaders, and becoming a member At Large is always an option as well. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll provide you more information about the opportunities available.
Peg Palmer - [email protected]
Bonita Glime and Susan Bremer Planting Seeds
Nursery Notes (Continued)
Page 6
The Prentice Excellent Winter Vacation
Recently Roy, Cindy, Minnette and Sam Prentice decided to flee winter for a week in sunny – ish Charleston, South Carolina. Of course, we took both our dog, Jack, and Minnette’s dog, Carrie. Charleston is a very dog friendly place with lots of dog friends to meet on the beach. Lots of other great things to see too including a mile plus boardwalk loop through the Biedler Swamp, home of some truly monstrous bald cypress trees, a tour through the Charleston Tea plantation, USA’s only tea plantation and the Angel Oak, an amazingly huge live oak. Cindy and I are ever thankful that the kids still enjoy hanging out with us!
Page 7
Beth Anthony Andy and Jayne Berry Linda Bodzin Pat Canfield Angie Carter Bernie Ethridge Kathryn Fitzpatrick Brian Frol Cheri Gelnak Sue Grifor Gayle Gullen Hal Henderlong Carmen Hamilton Karen Harris Keith Heraty Erick Hoscila
Dan Hudson Deb Kearney Tracy Krauss Martha Larsh Cathy Lichtman Paul Lukasiewicz Debra Lueder Connie Marcangelo Beverly McCarter Janice McNulty Carolyn McQuiggan Elizabeth Millington Don Millington Sue Millington Audrey Murphy Patti Nehr
Hans and Linda Neuroth George Popovich Denise Reinelt Jennifer Roberts Pam Rusin Linda Sack Tamara Shepherd Phyllis Stengel Jackie Stengel Chet Tarczynski Eric Ulin Martha and Wayne Watson Deb and Kurt Westermann Betsy Wilds Debbie Yuhas
To all of you who made a donation to help the Tollgate Gardeners make Tollgate a more beautiful place. Your donation is greatly appreciated! The support that you have provided will
continue to help our program prosper and grow. Thanks again and Happy Gardening!
Tollgate’s own Quilting Bees have been working feverishly on the 2019 Tollgate Quilt that will be raffled off at the July 20 Open House.
More information to follow in the March Farm News.
Quilt Pattern: Solid Foundation
Approximate Size: 72 inches x 72 inches
uilting 2019
Susan Bremer Connie Marcangelo
Kathy Coleman Kay Pratt
Darretta Ferasin Nancy Roggers
Gail Kevwitch Lynn Strong
Mindy Kinsey
2019 Tollgate Quilting Bees
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2008
2005
2009
2011
2010
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Volunteer Activity Day and Meetings Information
248-347-3860 ext. 400
● The Tollgate Gardens Advisory Council next
meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 7:00 in the Tollgate Office Building. All Tollgate Gardens Volunteer members are welcome to attend.
● Listings to contact individual Council Members and Area Garden Leaders are available at all general meetings and in the Volunteer Communication Center.
● Tollgate Volunteer Membership is renewed annually. The 2019 Tollgate Garden Volunteers membership is from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.
Farm Manager Roy Prentice - 248 347-3860 ext. 251 email - [email protected]
President ........................... Renee Cottrell
Vice President… ............... Marilyn Alimpich
Secretary… ........................ Dave Komraus
Treasurer ........................... Sue Janczarek
Membership ...................... Cindy Bolterstein
PR ....................................... TBD
Programs ........................... Jackie Stengel
Hospitality ........................ Teresa LaRosa
Farm News Editor ............. Darretta Ferasin
For membership questions or to update your current membership information send email to:
MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteers For general information and questions Contact Roy Prentice or See Website: http://tollgate.msu.edu/volunteering/
Activity Days Activity day hours are 9:00 to noon unless otherwise noted on the Tollgate Garden Volunteer Important Dates and Events listed on the first page of the Tollgate Farm News or by the Area Garden Leader (AGL).
Lunch will be provided on scheduled workdays. Veggie alternatives are available upon request.
This schedule does not exclude you from working independently on the site. However, on non-scheduled days, your efforts will need to be self-directed with guidance from the garden area binders located in the Vol-unteer Communication Center.
If you aren’t getting The Tollgate Farm News
email, Check your SPAM folder
Trowel
Pruners
Loppers
Garden Scissors
Your Favorite Weeding Implement
Hand Saw
Plant Division Forks
Shrub Rake
Sun Screen
Garden Gloves
Knee Pads
Insect Repellant
List of Suggested Gardening Implements to Bring
from Home as Needed
Spades
Garden Rakes
Brooms
Wheelbarrows
Weed Buckets
Leaf Rakes
Garden Hoe
Long Handled Garden Forks
Garden Tools Available for Use at Tollgate
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In the event of an emergency please notify:
____________________________________________ __________ - _____________________________ Name Phone
Were you a Tollgate volunteer member last year? Yes ( ) No ( ) Are you interested in serving on a committee or garden project? Yes ( ) No ( ) If yes, please note below if you have a particular area of interest.
________________________________________________________________
A donation in support of the Tollgate Volunteer organization would be greatly appreciated ($20 suggested). If you would like the newsletter mailed to you rather than emailed, please include an additional $10 to cover postage. Check here to have the newsletter mailed to you. ___
Make checks payable to: Michigan State University
Return to: Tollgate Gardens Volunteer Office 28115 Meadowbrook
Novi, MI 48377-3128
Questions: Phone: 248-347-3860 Ext. 251
2019 Membership is from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 Please read this Privacy Policy: By filling out and submitting this form you authorize the Tollgate Garden Volunteers (TGV) and MSU to use your contact information to communicate with you via email, newsletters and other formats. If you wish your email and other identification information to not be used by the TGV and MSU, please check this box ( ). (By checking this box you will not receive email notification of workdays, or other volunteer opportunities, special events and educational opportunities, or the availability of the newsletter online).
Name______________________________________________ Address____________________________________________ City _______________________________________ MI Zip______________ - _________
________________________________ Name you would like on badge
Telephone Number Day ______ - ___________________________
Evening ______ - ___________________________
Email ____________________________________
Date Submitted __________________________
2019 Please print all entries. Thank you.
MSU Tollgate Garden Volunteers Membership Form
