Master Gardener Visits Brainerd Public Library

Anyone who enjoys spending time planting and up keeping a garden knows that it is a major task. The Brainerd Public Library and the Master Gardeners in Minnesota have teamed up to help inform local gardeners. Many locals who were looking to get some tips about their own personal gardens headed to the Brainerd Public Library today to hear from JoAnn Weaver.

JoAnn is a Master Gardener who does several talks in the area to help inform local gardeners about how to best garden in the climate of north central Minnesota. “On average our lowest temperatures are going to be -35 to -30 and we are going to have around 115 to 120 growing days. When we buy plants to put in our garden or seed, we don’t want things that don’t start producing until they have been in the ground 100 days because we are near the end of the season. We sometimes should choose things that have a shorter season,” Weaver said.

She bases her presentations on questions or concerns that she has heard over the years. For today’s lesson she focused on the where the roots of gardening come from, the soil.

“Garden soil, we tend to overlook that a little bit because it’s not real pretty, we don’t put it on the table and yet it has to be there to make things grow. I try to put together a presentation that the average person could take to heart and make some changes if they needed to,” Weaver said.

Many of the attendees are excited to learn new techniques and then put them into practice in their own gardens. One guest of today’s presentation was surprised by many of JoAnn’s tips.

“Over tilling, I was surprised about that, I thought I need to till my garden every year but apparently I don’t need to do that,” one attendee, Kathleen Lutter said.

Gardening is always growing and always changing so presentations like this one are necessary to keep the garden as healthy as it can be.

“Well, first of all, I’ve been to these little one hour classes before and they are very interesting, they’re quick, very informative and I know JoAnne – she is a good speaker, I enjoy her talks, she’s very informative and very down-to-earth basic good information that everybody could use,” Lutter said.

The Brainerd Public Library will continue to have a Master Gardener visit the second Tuesday of each month. In addition to the monthly presentations in Brainerd, the Master Gardeners are planning an expo to be held in the spring of 2018.