The Iowa Garden

…and you have no choice but to learn new things. Today a good friend and I drove to Ottumwa (my first visit; a very cute town!) to attend the Iowa Horticulture Expo. BH&G garden editor Denny Schrock spoke on alliums; Stephanie Cohen, co-author of the Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer, gave the very entertaining keynote speech on garden design (the woman is a hoot); and the Dr. Ann Marie VanDerZenden of ISU spoke to sustainable landscape.

I came away with a lot, including (but not limited to):

A bag of compost from Chamness Technology;
A packet of lemon balm seed and a packet of giant italian parsley seed thanks to Seed Savers Exchange;
New knowledge about an awesome technology called pervious pavement (and its sisters pervious ashphalt and pervious pavers);
A link to information about rain gardens from the University of Nebraska;
A resource for groundcovers called steppables.com;
Great plants for the great plains, a website dedicated to things that do well in the upper midwest;
and my first-ever speeding ticket! (not, however, my first time speeding, so I probably deserved it).

We were going to go back tomorrow, but the unexpected reminder that spring is still a few days away has changed plans. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries before so I’m sad I’ll be missing him but I’ll be okay, I’ve got gardens to plan. A day like today is nothing if not imspirational.

One thing I didn’t come away with, because they were all gone by the time I went back – heuchera ‘Sweet Tea.’ It’s on my shopping list tho!

Yesterday I had the very great pleasure of spending almost three hours with Mary Harvey, one of the nicest, most generous people I’ve met. She told me stories that made me laugh and gasp and want to be just like her when I grow up.

But the important bits for you to know: they’re open now, and if you’re into starting things from seed, they have quite a nice collection. There were also hundreds (thousands?) of little sprouts making their way up into the world, ready to join your garden in a month or two.

The best part for me was walking in and taking a deep breath of that small. You know it… the wet, earthy, dirty smell that is so incredible, especially with a little undernote of compost. YUMMMMMMMMM.

Okay, enough drooling.

Harvey’s is open now. Go see them. If you have self-control. Or want to start seeds.

Tell Mary I said ‘hi.’

Harvey’s is located at 611 Nile Kinnick Dr. S., Adel, IA 50003
Phone (515) 993-3916
Visit their website.

The Flying Frog will open May 1st. If you haven’t been there, plan to visit (if you have been there, plan to visit). They have over 1000 varieties of hosta and are adding more perennials each year. The display gardens are beautiful. The location is peaceful. If Summerset Winery has music that day, it floats into the gardens and makes you want to sit on the deck sipping a cold drink all afternoon.

Marsha and Bruno are not just great plantspeople but great people in general. Bruno is going to be at the downtown Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, too.

Throughout the summer the Frog has Open House events… enjoy refreshments and special pricing on certain plants. This year’s Open House dates:

Every weekend in May
June 11-13
June 25-27
July 16-18
July 30, 31 and August 1
August 20-22
August 27-29

If you want to visit during the week, give them a call. 515-961-3585 or 515-208-9002 (cell).
Website

The address is:
5148 155th Avenue, Indianola, Iowa. It’s 30 minutes door-to-door from my house in River Bend.

Every year, I follow rabbit holes through the internet, trying to figure out when favorite garden place A will open, if garden center B has this plant or that plant, what exciting horticulture events are available, yadda yadda. This year I decided to make my life easier – and share the results – by putting as much of it as I can find in one place: theiowagarden.com.

So if you’re an Iowa garden center, nursery, retailer, wholesale, home gardener with plants to spare, botanical center, educator, mulch maker, compost composer, etc., email me your information and a link and I’ll put your information up. Working on linking a calendar. I have only a very fuzzy idea of what this will be, so if you have an opinion, guide me.

There may be blog posts about plants I want, but it won’t be a whole lot of “Sara’s feeling…”. This is a clearinghouse, and not a clearinghouse for my angst.

(And there may be an occasional post about animals. I’m one of the directors of http://www.thepetprojectmidwest.org… and in my experience, animals and plants go very nicely together.)

Thanks! Happy gardening! Sara