I have been a Master Gardener since 1994. I had decided to quit working as a professional chained to a desk and get outdoors where I really wanted to be. I took a job as a gardener at a home on Doty Island in Neenah. Whenever there was a decision to be made, my employers would say “Well, you’re the expert.” But I really wasn’t. The Neenah Library was on my way home and I checked out and read just about every gardening book available to make sure I didn’t screw something up. Then I heard about the Master Gardener program and decided that I should look into it.

      I am still far from “the expert” and I still find new topics and techniques I know nothing about even after all these years.

      My husband and I live on an acre in the Town of Clayton west of Neenah.  When we moved here, the yard was beautifully landscaped and I needed to learn how to take care of everything quickly so nothing would die.  It was several years before I even had everything identified.  In fact, there are still two shrubs whose identities remain uncertain. 

      I have made many changes to our acre in the last 19 years.  I immediately added a big vegetable garden where I grow all the usual things and try a few new things each year.  At one end of the vegetable garden I have three raised beds because the soil at that end of the garden is hard clay suitable for making pottery!  I also have an herb garden with both annual and perennial herbs inside the vegetable garden.  My vegetable garden could be described as “casual.”  I am diligent about removing weeds but any volunteer annual flowers are welcome wherever they self-seed.  So there are lots of calendulas among the strawberries, cosmos in the potatoes, and cleome between the beans.

      Several years ago my husband and I installed a pond with a waterfall.  It was so much work, but so much fun!  Landscaping around and behind it was a big part of the fun.

      About ¼ of our acre has been left unmown for about 17 years.  In this area we have lilacs, apple and pear trees, elderberries and other native shrubs that I planted.  Every year I am completely surprised by some new wildflowers that grow among the tall grasses.  This had been a grass lawn since at least 1972 and before that it was farmland for many years, so I don’t know if these seeds have been lying dormant in the soil waiting for just the right conditions to germinate or if birds or other animals are bringing them in.  Either way, the surprises are wonderful.

      My husband and I enjoy walking our dog on the Wiouwash Trail.  That is where I become passionately interested in our native wildflowers and the invasives that threaten them.

      Other than gardening, I enjoy reading both fiction and non-fiction, biking, quilting and crocheting blankets for Project Linus, a national organization that provides blankets to children in crisis situations.