PORTAGE COUNTY UW-EXTENSION &

CENTRAL RIVERS FARMSHED present

2010 VEGETABLE GARDEN WALKS

Tuesday evenings at 7:00 P.M.

Join us for a walk through some of Portage County’s private vegetable gardens!

June 15

Bill Ebert, Stevens Point Area Neighborhood Garden, Stevens Point, WI

The garden is located at the intersection of West Cornell Ave and West Whitney (across the street from the Mead Park Pavilion).

The Stevens Point Area Neighborhood Gardens project started in December 2007. Our mission is to strengthen our community by providing common ground for neighbors to garden together and get to know each other.

June 29

Vinnie Miresse, The Miresse Garden, 500 Mill St, Amherst WI Directions: From Stevens Point take Highway 10 East to Amherst exit County Road B. Turn left at the end of the off ramp on to County Road B and head East. Drive into Amherst through downtown, over the river, up the hill and we’re the yellow house on the corner of Mill St. and Division St. on the left.

The Miresse garden is an example of a garden for renters fueled by the passion of two locavore foodies’ absolute need for homegrown veggies. It features a medium-sized, yet intensively planted organic annual garden including simple permaculture practices for efficiency, water conservation, and also perennial, culinary, and medicinal herb and food production. Other highlights are former flower beds filled with fabulously overflowing fantastic food, shitake mushroom logs, compost, and rain water catchment. It just goes to show with a green thumb, a little persistence, and some relationship building, anything is possible even while renting.

July 13

Artha Sustainable Living Center - B & B - Marguerite Ramlow, 9784 County Road K, Amherst, WI 54406

From Plover/Hwy 39:

Travel east on Hwy 54. Turn left/north on County Road AK. Take your first right onto County road K and drive 1.4 miles, Artha will be on your left at the bottom of a hill. From Amherst/Hwy 10: Take County Road A for 4.5 miles and turn left onto County Road K, drive for 2 miles. You will come to a T in the road, take a right continuing on County Road K. Artha will be the third driveway on your right before the hill. (Google Maps have us correctly located, GPS and Map Quest are incorrect)

View a large organic vegetable garden on which all the vegetables and herbs, for a family of three and Bed and Breakfast, are grown. We use drip irrigation, straw and leaf mulch and have large 20’ X 30’ hoop greenhouse which contains raised beds filled with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in the summer and is used for starting all of the seedlings in the spring. There are apple, cherry, plum, pear and quince trees, and a large everbearing strawberry bed. A small pond sits across from a Gazebo near the garden and there are a variety of flower beds scattered around the property.

July 20

Vinnie Miresse, MREA Permaculture Demonstration Site, 7558 Deer Rd., Custer WI

Directions: From Stevens Point take Highway 10 East. Turn left on to County Road QQ. Drive North on QQ for approximately 1/2 mile. Turn left on to Deer Rd. Drive on Deer Rd for approximately 1 mile. Turn right into MREA drive way. Park in large parking lot in front of building. Site is behind main building.

From a construction site to a little slice of heaven, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s permaculture demonstration site is an approach to landscape design and perennial gardening that mimics relationships found within natural ecologies. It features cherry and plum trees, blueberry, current, and hazelnut bushes, and an extensive herb garden. It also features a small scale rainwater harvesting system that will be used to irrigate the organic annual and perennial gardens and the edible food forest that will be used to produce local food and medicine for the MREA community. Wholistic Home Solutions, a natural building and permaculture company, recently completed the first phase of implementation and the project will continue to evolve over time.

August 10

Jeremy Rankin, 1867 Edgewood Ln., Stevens Point.

This is about a mile and a half outside of the city limits near the intersection of Jordan and Torun. At that intersection, go north on Torun about 40 yards and turn left immediately into a little subdivision on Jack's Drive. Follow Jack's Drive until it forces you to turn and this will become Edgewood. Go to the end of the road--mine is the last on the right before the road begins turning again (blue house).

I have a first-year raised bed garden (about 2700 sq.ft), organic methods and a fruit garden as well. Also, I have a 4-tier composting system. I'm sure I'll have plenty of novice gardener caution stories to share from whatever obstacles come my way this year (I already have some).

August 24

Judy Traviki and Ken Castleberry, 11166 Hwy. 49, Iola, WI

Located 5 miles east of Rosholt. Take Hwy. 66 east approximately 1 mile to Hwy. 49, follow 49 east to the garden at 11166 on the north side of the road. Watch for the old school bus parked in the field.

This is a large organic-minded garden using natural/organic methods, including mulching, composting, and green manure crops. Come see our two 60 to 70 foot circle gardens and triangle garden.

September 7 (6:00 P.M. start)

Sam Werlein, UWSP Campus Garden on Franklin St., Stevens Point, WI

Located on Franklin Street off of Business 51 (Division St.) next to the UW-Credit Union and across the street from the fire department.

The UWSP Campus Garden was established in 2006 by the Sustainable Agriculture in Communities Society. There is a mixture of both raised and regular beds to highlight the benefits of each and minimize the pains in the hopes of creating a more diverse rotation. The main concern this year is improving and building our sandy soil to create not only a better yield but a more quality product.