With all the rain that’s been soaking Coulee Region gardens, local gardeners are anxious to get out and tackle the weeds and plant something pretty in their place.
That’s good timing for this year’s YWCA GardenFest, this weekend at the South Side Oktoberfest grounds.
There will be vendors with perennials, annuals, garden art, landscaping services, shrubs and trees, lawn furniture and decorations. To see the list of vendors, go to www.ywcagardenfest.com.
There will also be seminars, all offered on Saturday.
Among those presenting is Mic Armstrong, representing McKay Nursery and Ambrosia Gardens. He’ll talk about ediscaping, a fancy name for a new gardening trend that has gardeners interplanting their flower beds with edible plants.
No need to stick the vegetable garden and the fruit trees out back behind the house. Much of what we consume looks as good as it tastes, Armstrong said.
“You can use edible plants like peppers and things like rhubarb,” he said. “There’s lots of different possibilities, and you incorporate them into your ornamental plantings. You can have different textures and you’re still going to be able eat. A lot of people do it.”
If you really want to push the envelope and be adventurous, forget about the ornamental crab and plant a cherry tree, Armstrong said. It’s got flowers, but it also has fruit you can eat.
“We can incorporate shrubby plants, such as gooseberries,” he said. “Blueberries work great in the landscape especially now that they have cultivars that are predictable in size and color.”
What you need to do, Armstrong said, is blend the produce with the flowers so that doesn’t stick out as if it doesn’t belong. You still want the garden to look as beautiful as anyone else’s ornamental garden.
“That’s the trick,” he said. “We will do a landscape design incorporating all the elements designers use.”
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