Horticulturist will discuss ‘Square-foot garden’ method
Spring kicks off the gardening season, but it’s not always easy for some people to kneel in the dirt while planting, weeding and tending to row after row of vegetables.
That’s why Wisconsin Makers, a makerspace whose members reside in Walworth, Jefferson and Rock counties, is offering a workshop on “square-foot gardens” that are perfect for growing in small spaces and raised beds.
At its free Make-and-Take on Tuesday, May 10 from 6 to 8 p.m., Wisconsin Makers will reveal its prototype raised-bed garden, share a salad featuring its first home-grown lettuce of the season and learn about square-foot gardening from Rachel Catlett, a horticulturist, avid gardener, member of the Walworth County Master Gardeners and artist from Brown Dog Farm in Sugar Creek.
Catlett will discuss the principles behind the widely popular “Square-Foot Garden” method, which aims to utilize the maximum output in the minimum of space. This method especially is useful to gardens in small spaces or raised-bed applications.
Interested persons are encouraged to come to the workshop armed with questions and a list of the plants they would most like to grow so they can leave with a design specifically addressed to their needs.
Handouts and graph paper will be provided but participants should bring a pencil and a plant list.
Catlett’s gardening experience began as a child working with her grandparents on their vegetable farm and orchard in Virginia, continued through various jobs at garden centers and nurseries throughout college and graduate school in Texas and Colorado and continued on when she landed in the Midwest through her work at The Chicago Botanic Garden as an urban horticulturist with the Green Chicago Program, building community gardens throughout Chicago.
Through the next 20 years, she continued to grow vegetables for her family in several urban, suburban and now rural vegetable gardens. Her garden experience continued in retail garden center work, maintaining extensive estate gardens and working in the residential landscape design and maintenance field.
Catlett’s latest vegetable garden is developing quickly at Brown Dog Farm, a 40-acre farm she and her woodworker husband, Ed Hicks, recently purchased in Sugar Creek.
Also in attendance will be Frankie Fuller, Fort Atkinson, who is a member of the Jefferson County Master Gardeners.
Reservations are not necessary for the free Make-and-Take event.
Gardens need a home
Wisconsin Makers is providing five ready-to-grow raised-bed gardens for use by senior citizens or physically challenged persons in Walworth and Jefferson counties.
It is seeking applicants for a prototype container garden that measures 4 feet wide, 4 feet long and 31 inches high, enabling the recipient to garden from either a standing or a sitting position.
Wisconsin Makers will deliver the containers, already planted with a variety of garden vegetables, to the recipients in early June and then pick them up in mid-October for dry storage over winter. Recipients may reapply to use the garden again the next year.
Two raised garden containers each will be placed in Whitewater and Fort Atkinson, with the fifth going to a Walworth County locale. Applicants may be individuals or in a group setting or residence.
Applications for this pilot project are available at Wisconsin Makers at 200 E. Clay St. in Whitewater or by calling (920) 650-2333. They also may be printed off of www.Facebook.com/WisconsinMakers.
Application forms must be returned by Friday, May 20, to: Wisconsin Makers Garden, 200 E. Clay St. in Whitewater, 53190.
For information about the garden programs or Wisconsin Makers, a nonprofit community workshop with an educational mission, call Pete Spangler at (920) 650-2333. Members mainly come from Jefferson, Rock and Walworth counties, but all interested persons are welcome.
Wisconsin Makers is located at 200 E. Clay St. in Whitewater, across from the American Legion Hall at the corner of Clay and Wisconsin streets. Off-street parking is available and the building is handicapped-accessible.