OHIO
Victory Gardens. The Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio State University Extension Offices are kicking off the second year of the Victory Gardens Program. Due to high demand, the program is expanding to include 25 counties, up from 10 counties last year. Approximately 8,300 seed packets will be available free to the public to get people planting.
Seeds will be available to pick up the first week of April at county extension offices. Specific days and times for each office are available on the Ohio Victory Gardens website, u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens, along with planting resources and information.
Counties in the program this year include Athens, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Mahoning, Stark, Butler, Fairfield, Jefferson, Miami, Summit, Clark, Franklin, Knox, Montgomery, Trumbull, Clinton, Geauga, Licking, Seneca, Union, Coshocton, Greene, Lucas, Shelby and Washington counties.
GEAUGA COUNTY
Gardening help. Send your gardening questions, or a description of the problem, to the Master Gardeners at mggeauga@yahoo.com. Ohio State University Extension volunteers are trained to educate others, with timely research based gardening information, and are available April through October.
Include a detailed description of the problem along with your full name, address and phone number in your email. Feel free to send a photo of the gardening problem. Emails are checked Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
They will research your submitted problem and get back to you.
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY
Flower sale. The Ernest Warther Museum is commemorating the upcoming 85th anniversary of the opening of our first museum coinciding with the opening of the arboretum and the annual flower sale.
Mooney Warther opened his single room museum on Mother’s Day 1936 and 85 years later, the museum has grown but the message remains largely the same. In celebration this year, the Ernest Warther Museum opens the Dave Warther Arboretum May 8.
The museum has officially been granted Level 1 Arboretum status through the ArbNet program with the Morton Arboretum. Although there will be no official gathering for the opening of the Dave Warther Arboretum, the museum and family will celebrate it in a private opening ceremony.
Dave Warther brought in some plant and tree species to the area that are not typically found here because he wanted to share them with the visitors. These species are the tricolor European beech, sweet birch, coastal redwood and Grenache grape vine.
Although some of these were already on the property like the American sycamore, they are some of the oldest in our city of Dover.
These sycamores lined a once working millstream and they are over 150 years old. One of the grape vines is original to the museum, and it is over 100 years old.
On May 8, the arboretum will be available to the public. There will be a guided tour of the arboretum, featuring discussions on plants, trees and perennials found on the property as well as the history of the property itself. Space is limited and advanced sign up is required.
Two sessions are available, with space for 20 people per session, offered at 9 and 10 a.m.
On the same date, the museum will host its fourth annual flower sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., honoring Frieda Warther.
A variety of items will be for sale ranging from seeds, perennials, ground covers, annuals, vegetable plants, combo planters and hanging baskets. Pre-order is available to ensure flower selection. Proceeds from this sale benefit Frieda Warther’s original Swiss gardens.
To place a pre-order or register for the arboretum tour, call 330-485-3891 or send an email to kristen@thewarthermuseum.com.
Both the flower sale and the opening of the arboretum mark the 85th anniversary of the opening weekend of the first official museum at the 331 Karl Ave. property.
(To add a nonprofit event to our gardening listing, send details at least three weeks in advance to: Gardening News, Farm and Dairy, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or email: editorial@farmanddairy.com.)
