The Dodge County Master Gardener Association and Extension Dodge County announce the opening of the Ask a Master Gardener Helpline. The Helpline is open during the growing season: May 6 – September 2, 2021.

Spring is an ideal time to plant new trees in the landscape. There are some key practices that ensure long term success for your new addition.

In Wisconsin, some growing seasons have abundant rainfall and others do not. Seldom do we go through an entire season without needing some supplemental watering.

Spring has arrived and most gardeners are anxious to start growing something.  It is too early to plant most vegetables, but some of the earliest that can be planted are the greens. 

Why do you grow flowers? To attract pollinators and beneficial insects? For the sheer beauty? For cut flowers? To brighten your landscape with late-season color? To have some flowers for drying? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to add some easy-to-grow annual cosmos to your list of favorite plants.

If you enjoy the nutty taste of quinoa, but not the high price, or are just looking for something different, try growing quinoa as a garden crop.

Bees are important insects for our food sources. Seventy-five percent of our major food crops depend on pollination to mature, and bees are great pollinators. While honey bees are an important source of that pollination, and provide the added benefit of delicious honey, they are not the only bees that we enjoy here in Wisconsin.

Dodge County is graced with many lakes, rivers, and streams. Much of the shoreline of this vast water network is on private land, and we manage it for recreational use, property beautification, and for the creatures who inhabit this place between land and water, known as the riparian zone.