Page

18 Tollgate Volunteer General Meeting 7:00 6 TGAC Meeting 7:00

15 Tollgate Volunteer General Meeting 7:00

20 4:00

7:00

3 Heritage / Office / Dry Shade 9:00

10 Rain Garden / Front Farmhouse 9:00

27 Children’s / Nursery and Pond 9:00 17 Xeriscape / Children’s / Nursery 9:00

24 Rose / Entrance Garden 9:00

31

Labor Day Weekend

NO DIRECTED WORKDAY

Volume 25 Issue 7 July 2019

The Tollgate Farm News

“Sunset Garden Celebration” S , J 20, 2019 4:00 - 7:00

MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteer General Meeting in the Conference Center

Thursday, July 18, 7:00 PM

Michigan Native Plants and Gardens On Thursday, July 18, join volunteers in the conference center for a presentation by the direc-tor of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum at the University of Michigan. Robert Grese is also a Professor with the School for Environment and Sustainability. Bob last spoke to Tollgate volunteers about the Great Lakes Gardens — http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/files/GLG-20130130.pdf — at Matthaei in northeast Ann Arbor, 1800 N. Dixboro Road.

Robert Grese teaches and writes about ecologically-based landscape design and restoration with an emphasis on community involvement. He is the editor of The Native Landscape Reader, https://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/native-landscape-reader. Bob is currently working with David Michener on a book for the 100th anniversary of the Peony Garden in 2022.

You may have read about his prescribed burns to manage prairies by rejuvenating native grasses and discouraging invasive plants at Nichols Arboretum and in his yard on a residential street, http://aaobserver.aadl.org/aaobserver/35985. Bob has researched and written exten-sively about early landscape designers Jens Jensen and Ossian Cole (O.C.) Simonds who used native vegetation in their work. Bob is interested in green roofs and other low impact design ideas, as well as re-connecting children and families with nature. He has BLA and MSLA degrees in landscape architecture from the Universities of Georgia and Wisconsin.

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Greetings All,

Wow! Where did all the rain go? Recent dry weather has required lots of watering in the Tollgate Gardens for the last few weeks. I really appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into keeping the plants alive. Thanks too for all the great work by the many volunteers who have shown up for Saturday volunteer days! I really appreciate all of your assistance in keeping Tollgate’s gardens in such good shape.

Sunset Garden Celebration: The 2019 Open House will soon be upon us. Music will again be provided by the eclectic folk/blues/country band, Whoa Nelly and Tollgate’s own, Art Durow and friends. There will also be hay rides, refresh-ments, garden talks and lots of items of interest to help all of our visitors enjoy the afternoon. Come join all of the beautiful people who will be making the scene at Tollgate. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities for the Open House. There are many ways to sign up. You can re-spond to the recent email Doodle poll, email me or Renee directly, or sign-up with an actual pen in the volunteer building.

In addition to volunteering on the day of the event, we also need donated snack foods (store bought or home-baked) for our guests. Please make sure that there are no nuts in any donated goodies.

Even if you are unable to work on the day of the open house, please plan to join us, stroll the grounds, and take in the day.

Quilt Raffle: We will be conducting the raffle drawing on the day of the open house for the quilt made by Tollgate’s own Quilting Bees. This is a great fundraiser for the gardens. You still have an opportunity to purchase tickets for the quilt. Please contact me or purchase tickets on the day of the Open House. It all goes to support our gardens. This year promises to be our most successful year yet with the quilt raffle. Please purchase often. I just know that the winning ticket is still out there!

Ginger Meyer Award: I am seeking nominations for the Ginger Meyer award. The recipient of this award is the Tollgate Volunteer that has done the most for Tollgate over the years. I recently sent a nomination form to all of the membership. Please use the form to indicate who you feel has contrib-uted the most to Tollgate over the years and why. This is your chance to help us recognize those in our midst that have really given of them-selves to make Tollgate a better place.

Maple Syrup: 2019 was a great year for syrup. I still have some bottles left, but they are going fast. The next few weeks will be your last chance to buy the 2019 vintage.

Thanks for all that you do to make Tollgate such a wonderful place!

Roy

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

The rains have finally quit which means that it is time to head to the fields and start making hay. Great weather this week allowed lots of bales to be made. The Tollgate animals will be very happy when winter comes.

Roy Prentice

FROM THE TOLLGATE

FARM MANAGER

GREETINGS

Art Durow and Friends at 2018 Sunset Garden Celebration

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“Flowers always make people bet-ter, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”

Luther Burbank

Thanks to all who have been working during this chal-lenging spring and summer weather to keep up on our garden maintenance and enhance the garden experience for all our visitors. You make Tollgate special.

Open House 2019 “Sunset Garden Celebration”!

Saturday, July 20th 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM It is time again for our public open house event and all are welcome to attend and/or volunteer. Please join us for this rain or shine event to educate and entertain as well as introduce more peo-ple in the community to the gardens and activities at Tollgate! This free, open to the public event is nearly upon us! We have planned garden walks, musicians, educational talks, quilt raffle, hayrides, vendors and more.

Volunteers are invited to participate as hosts then afterwards join us at 7:30 PM for the Volunteer Picnic! Main dish of roll up sandwiches, soda/water and side to be provided, dish to pass is always welcome but not required.

There are plenty of ways to contribute to this event. We still need: Assist with garden clean up during the week; weeding, deadheading for best presentation

Set up for Saturday. at 10:00 AM

****Finger food snack donations (store bought or home-baked) for our guests-cookies, brown-ies, tarts “fit on a napkin” type treats (no nuts please) - drop off day of event in conference center by 4:00 PM

Garden docents to meet and greet guests, talk about the gardens you love, no special expe-rience needed, Garden binders will have some info for sharing purposes

Parking assistants to direct traffic

Floaters to spell the docents and act as ambassadors for guest questions

If you have not yet signed up, OR just wish to RSVP for the picnic only, please contact me ASAP by email rmcottrell4@att.net or phone (248-398-2562).

It is time again to place your nominations for the Ginger Meyer Award. This award is present-ed at the end of the year at the recognition dinner. Please honor a fellow Tollgate gardener(s) who has demonstrated their knowledge, commitment and willingness to share their love of gardening. The nomination form is available at meetings and attached to this newsletter. Previous recipients are listed on the plaque in the volunteer center. Nominations are due July 26th.

Area Garden Teams - All expanded budget requests for garden area expenditures should be sub-mitted for TGAC approval ASAP. Any receipts and a reimbursement form for your Tollgate garden purchases should be submitted as soon as possible so we can reconcile actual expenses against budgeted expenses. Call Roy if you need a form and instructions. As Always, Thank you for being a Tollgate Garden Volunteer.

Renee Cottrell, TGV President

LEARN GROW

MAKE FRIENDS ENJOY

Notes from the President

Photo by Renee Cottrell

Renee Cottrell

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Kathryn Fitzpatrick

PAR GARDEN

Thank You C & N Foundation

The Tollgate Gardens recently received a big boost. The efforts of our garden volunteers to create a serene natural space was enhanced by a donation of $1000.00 from the C & N Foundation. The C & N Foundation is guided by Carole and Norman Hofley, parents of Eric Hofley. Eric and his wife Julia publish the much-loved Michigan Gardener magazine. Many thanks to Eric, Julia and their parents for supporting Tollgate’s continuing horticultural mission! Eric and Julia Hofley in their Garden

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The weeks after the spring plant sale are typi-cally quiet ones in the nursery, with lots of empty spaces in the rows. But things have been busier than usual this year with some early efforts at restocking and other activities. We sold deeply into our stock of Bearded Iris (Iris germanica) this spring, and so we wanted to re-stock these plants while still in bloom, so that we are could identify the bloom color(s) for each plant. As you may know, there are beautiful Iris varieties in several gardens on Tollgate grounds that are available for us to divide and pot for the Nursery. Renee Cottrell, TGAC President, in prior years has diligently logged these various varieties, including the specific location and plant characteristics, with pictures on file that show the full beauty of the plant. Digging these divisions while the blooms are still present allows us to link each of these pots with a specific picture and description. Then we can create a “plant tag” to post at the sale that will include a picture of that specific plant in bloom! As you can imagine, this makes it much easier to sell the plants next spring! We also have been potting up the remaining seedlings that were propagated during the winter – adding about 50 pots or more to the nursery. Typically, all of these would have been potted and placed in the nursery rows prior to the spring sale, but due to the cold and rainy spring, we didn’t have time to get these all potted, and many seedlings were still too small to sell in early June due to these weather issues.

Another unique post-sale nursery restocking activity this year has been Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Every year, we work hard to increase the nursery stock of native plants, and milkweed varieties are high on our list of fa-vorites because of the important role they play in sustaining Monarch butterflies. Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) both sell extremely well! However, Butterfly weed is very hard to overwin-ter in a pot. As a drought tolerant plant with a deep taproot, moisture that collects in the bottom of a plastic pot as snow melts or spring rains fall

is often deadly for this hardy plant that otherwise overwinters quite successfully. Our greenhouse space at “Tollgate North” is limited, so we are unable to generate the number of seedlings we need to allow for the heavy losses the following winter, so we tried a new experiment this spring. You may remember seeing a square plot of soil within the first row of the SUN nursery that was roped off during the plant sale. We had scattered a number of Butterfly Weed seeds in this plot of soil a few weeks before the sale (later than we planned due to rainy weather). Due to the cold weather right up to plant sale, the tiny seedlings weren’t even close to ready for potting by the sale day, but they took off as the weather im-proved in subsequent weeks. We are currently potting these seedlings that will be available at the fall sale, and hopefully we can successfully overwinter enough to have a good supply for Spring Sale 2020!

The nursery is now closed until mid-August, when the pop-up will return for you to drop off your donations. Please be aware that the nursery team DOES NOT check for donations while the nursery is closed! If you have desirable plants available that can’t wait for this timing, please get in touch with Peg Palmer to make specific ar-rangements to ensure that your donation receives the attention required for survival!

Although we’re not ready for your plants yet, we will welcome donations of your recycled pots! We accept 1 or 2 gallon sized pots in good condition (we use the 1 gallon size primarily). Please leave your pot donations in the nursery shed – place them in the large tub to the right just inside the door. There is a sample of the 2 pot sizes we accept attached to the wall

Peg Palmer

NURSERY NOTES

VOLUNTEERS TOGETHER DIVIDING GROWING SHARING

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Continued on Page 6

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above the donation tub to help you determine if your donations meet our need. PLEASE DO NOT DONATE SMALLER OR LARGER POTS – WE DO NOT HAVE ROOM TO STORE THEM!

Working in the nursery is a great way to learn about a lot about a lot of plants! Let me know if

you would like to learn more about how we operate, or if you would like to join the Nursery Team. We currently have openings for Row Leaders, Co-Row Leaders as well as At Large members.

Peg Palmer - pegpalmer@mi.rr.com

Kay Pratt, Connie Marcangelo, Susan Bremer, Lynn Strong, Mindy Kinsey and

Kathy Light (bottom right) Quilters Missing from Photo: Darretta Ferasin,

Gail Kevwitch and Nancy Roggers

NURSERY NOTES Continued

Time is running out. There are two more opportu-nities to purchase your quilt raffle tickets. Tickets can be purchased at the July Volunteer General Meeting and at the annual Tollgate “Sunset Garden Celebration” Open House. If you can’t get to either event, contact Roy for tickets. The drawing will take place at the end of the open house. You need not be present to win.

Quilt Pattern: Solid Foundation

Approximate Size: 74 inches x 74 inches

Raffle Tickets: $2.00 each or 3 tickets for $5.00

uilting 2019

OPEN HOUSE GUEST DESSERT REQUEST

To augment our open house celebration, donations of savory and sweet “finger foods” (store bought or home-baked) are requested. No nuts please. Come and join for a wonderful afternoon/evening at Tollgate!

Teresa LaRosa

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Photo by Darretta Ferasin Photo by Marilyn Alimpich

Photos by Renee Cottrell Photo by Renee Cottrell

Photos by Darretta Ferasin

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Photos by Darretta Ferasin

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Are you are proud of the effort you have put into your Tollgate garden area and you want to show others how great it looks? Take a Tollgate Picture. Or do you love the way the sun hits an area of Tollgate at a certain time of day? Take a Tollgate Picture. I would love to see Tollgate through your camera lens and consider your pictures for the 2020 Tollgate Calendar. Photos of all seasons and areas of Tollgate are wanted.

Email your photos to: TollgateCalPics@Gmail.com

The preferred format is Jpeg, landscape files.

Contact Larry Bolam at the above email address with any questions.

Tollgate Calendar Photos Wanted

Grakon Workday Recent the Tollgate Gardens got a big assist from the employees of Grakon Corporation. Grakon is an engineering company that does a lot of work with automotive lighting. Grakon volunteers performed much needed work weeding and mulching the plantings around the parking lot. In three hours they spread four dump trailer loads of mulch, a new Tollgate record!

Thanks you Grakon for helping to make the Tollgate Gardens a better place.

Photo by Larry Bolam

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Above Photos by Darretta Ferasin

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Above Photos by Jennifer Roberts

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Photos by Darretta Ferasin

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Volunteer Activity Day and Meetings Information

248-347-3860 ext. 400

● The Tollgate Gardens Advisory Council next

meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 7:00 in the Tollgate Office Building. All Tollgate Gardens Volunteer members are welcome to attend.

● Listings to contact individual Council Members and Area Garden Leaders are available at all general meetings and in the Volunteer Communication Center.

● Tollgate Volunteer Membership is renewed annually. The 2019 Tollgate Garden Volunteers membership is from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

Farm Manager Roy Prentice - 248 347-3860 ext. 251 email - prentic1@msu.edu

President ........................... Renee Cottrell

Vice President… ............... Marilyn Alimpich

Secretary… ........................ Dave Komraus

Treasurer ........................... Sue Janczarek

Membership ...................... Cindy Bolterstein

PR ....................................... TBD

Programs ........................... Jackie Stengel

Hospitality ........................ Teresa LaRosa

Farm News Editor ............. Darretta Ferasin

For membership questions or to update your current membership information send email to:

tollgatemembers@gmail.com

MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteers For general information and questions Contact Roy Prentice or See Website: http://tollgate.msu.edu/volunteering/

Activity Days Activity day hours are 9:00 to noon unless otherwise noted on the Tollgate Garden Volunteer Important Dates and Events listed on the first page of the Tollgate Farm News or by the Area Garden Leader (AGL).

Lunch will be provided on scheduled workdays. Veggie alternatives are available upon request.

This schedule does not exclude you from working independently on the site. However, on non-scheduled days, your efforts will need to be self-directed with guidance from the garden area binders located in the Vol-unteer Communication Center.

If you aren’t getting The Tollgate Farm News

email, Check your SPAM folder

Trowel

Pruners

Loppers

Garden Scissors

Your Favorite Weeding Implement

Hand Saw

Plant Division Forks

Shrub Rake

Sun Screen

Garden Gloves

Knee Pads

Insect Repellant

List of Suggested Gardening Implements to Bring

from Home as Needed

Spades

Garden Rakes

Brooms

Wheelbarrows

Weed Buckets

Leaf Rakes

Garden Hoe

Long Handled Garden Forks

Garden Tools Available for Use at Tollgate

Ginger Meyer Award Nomination Form The Ginger Meyer Award was initiated in 2003 by the family of Mrs. Meyer to recognize the Tollgate Volunteer who shares some of the treasured qualities of Ginger Meyer. The Tollgate Garden Volunteer members will nominate candidates, with a list then compiled by TGAC for presentation to the Americana Foundation for final award selection. Please make the nomination on this form or submit a short paragraph describing each of the following qualities of the nominee: Name of Nominee: ___________________________________________

1. This member has shown a commitment to the Tollgate Garden Volunteers by:

2. This member has demonstrated a love and knowledge of gardening by:

3. This member has demonstrated a willingness to share gardening knowledge with others by: