Garden Talks - free (donation accepted)

 

Master Gardener Update Conference

For a PEAK EXPERIENCE in the Black Hills, come to the SDSU Extension Master Gardener Update conference Sept 22-23.  

Photography Contest

Art Contest 

Self Guided Tours

Guest Speakers

                            Banquet

Elevate your gardening experience with like-minded plant aficionados.

Register NOW at:

Master Gardener Update Conference [MC-03069-01] Registration, Fri, Sep 22, 2023 at 2:00 PM | Eventbrite

 

Northern Hills Master Gardeners at Booth Day 2022

 The Northern Hills Master Gardeners will be participating in Booth Day May 20th from 10-2 at the DC Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish. Look for us in front of the Booth House as well as other exhibitors around the Hatchery grounds. The Northern Hills Master Gardeners will have gardening education materials and also informal Q&A for adults. The kids will get to plant seeds and also have an activity to learn about good soils.

SD Master Gardener Update Conference will be held in Spearfish Sept 22 -23, 2023.

Announcing:  The 2023 SD Master Gardener Update Conference will be held in Spearfish Sept 22 -23.  Save the Date.  

Organizers are the Nothern Hills Master Gardeners in conjunction with the SDSU Master Gardener Program coordinators.

"4-Season Gardening, from the ground up"

High Elevation Gardening Event

Join us on Saturday April 4, 2020 for the High Elevation Gardening event from 9am to 1pm at the Historic Homestake Opera House, 313 W Main St, Lead SD.   A collaboration event sponsored by the Northern Hills Master Gardeners and the Historic Homestake Opera House. 

o Lots of seating in the theater.

o $5 donation suggested.

o Free city parking lots in Lead southwest on Main St across from the opera house and bechind the opera house to the south

Presentations by Northern Hills Master Gardeners will include:

    9 to 9:50am          Plants for Special Habitats

    10 to 10:50am      Identifying Plants

    11 to 11:50am      Pollinators:  Plants, Bees and Bugs

    12 to 12:50am      Get Smarter than your Weeds  

Plants for Special Habitats 

                 Richard Wells

                 What to plant in those special locations such as full shade, drainage, hottest sun, bog,                    sandy, rocky, etc.

Identifying Plants

                 Barb Kuhlman

                 Barb walks us through her process to identify plants.

Pollinators:  Plants, Bees & Bugs 

                 Becky Olmstead and Sharon Henry

                 Learn about how pollination is synchronized in nature

Get Smarter than your Weeds

                 Linda Wiley 

                 Black Hills weeds - what are their strengths and weaknesses.  (Also at the event you                     can sign up for a free spreadsheet on when and what to do for fifty weeds in our area)   

Be[come] a Master Gardener

Love plants? Flowers and Trees? Growing Veggies and Fruits? Have a pesky unknown insect?
Want to “clone” a favorite plant? Have fun and learn with others who enjoy nature like you do?
Get ready to engage in learning! SDSU Extension’s Master Gardener [SDSU EMG] program
develops gardening enthusiasts into knowledgeable specialists who share research-based
information to their communities through programs, projects, and services.
A little history: Nationally, the Master Gardener program began in 1972 in response to high
public demand for horticultural information from local extension offices in the state of
Washington. The program became part of land grant colleges/universities across the nation.
South Dakota’s Master Gardener program began in 1985. Each year, Master Gardeners
volunteer more than 10,000 hours answering your questions and hosting programming.
How do you become an Extension Master Gardener? Through the SDSU Extension Master
Gardener program, interested volunteers receive 60 hours of training in horticulture and
environmental topics of special value to home gardeners. We will have this MG training course
going on this summer in Sturgis, SD May 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27; July 11, 18, and 25. The
program provides individuals with scientific specialized home gardening horticulture training.
For more information, contact SDSU Extension Master Gardener program staff
at sdsu.sdmg@sdstate.edu, or to register https://extension.sdstate.edu/garden-yard/master-
gardeners.

Then what happens? Following successful completion of the course, in partial exchange for our
training, Master Gardener Interns share time and knowledge on approved projects within our
communities. New interns must complete 50 hours consisting of volunteer educational outreach,
support, and service, in the first two years to earn certification as an SDSU EMG. Your local
club will help you earn your hours. Then to maintain certification, EMGs need to contribute 20
hours of volunteer service and gain 10 hours of continuing education each year thereafter.
SDSU Extension Master Gardeners are VOLUNTEERS, an arm of SDSU Extension,
answering horticulture questions and sharing science-based information to help educate the
public about gardening and natural resources. Being an Extension Master Gardener is also about
helping deliver meaningful community programs to improve the well-being of individuals and
communities, to protect natural resources, and to help keep fresh fruits and vegetables on the
table. It’s about working to make a difference in the places we live, learn, and work.
Locally we are the Northern Hills Master Gardeners [NHMG] a local club made up of EMGs
from Spearfish, Lead, Deadwood, Belle Fourche, Sturgis, Fruitdale, St. Onge, and Whitewood.
Contact us at northernhillsmastergardeners@yahoo.com or on Facebook

Find us at the Spearfish Farmers’ Market during the summer months, or at Arbor Day, tree, and many gardening workshops.

Where we assist in addressing community needs by:
- Answering the public’s gardening questions on outdoor and indoor plants
- Providing educational programs for the public
- Facilitating gardening projects at schools, libraries, and other public community sites
- Beautifying projects at the DC Booth Fish Hatchery & Adams House
- Presenting school gardening programs to promote science awareness in kids
- Identifying insects and plant problems and suggesting solutions when needed
- Working on protecting pollinators, combating invasives, and encourage gardening
- Writing articles for gardening pages of local newspapers
- And much much more!

Come, join us. Be an Extension Master Gardener. Find new friends with similar interests, take
part in new activities, increase your horticultural knowledge, gain valuable resources for problem
solving, and have fun helping others. The NHMGs are offering assistance for two people for the
Master Gardener Training in Sturgis. To apply contact us:
northernhillsmastergardeners@yahoo.com and request an application. Application due date is
April 6 th .

Want to know more? You may contact me at sww@spe.midco.net Sue W. White, President of
SDMG Association and member of the NHMGs.

NHMG Children's Garden 2018

With the coming of June, the Children's Garden at Hills Horizons got underway on a beautiful sunny day! Children from the nearby Kids Camp trekked over to get some real gardening experience with our NHMG volunteers.

To begin our day, NHMG Sharon Henry brought a picture book about gardening to read with the children, and then they had a turn with gardening tools (trowel, claw, and weed digger) to plant the seedlings that they had started at their school earlier this spring.

Who loves pizza more than kids? The kids got to plant pizza ingredients (including tomatoes, basil, onions, eggplant, and peppers) in hula-hoop sized giant pizza garden plots! Along the way, they got to dig in the dirt, label the plants, and water their new garden project. They even made friends with some creepy crawlers, like worms, centipedes, and beetles.

The children also planted more traditional gardening rows with seeds of carrots, radishes, and lettuce, with a pollinator flower garden nearby. Another garden bed teaming with strawberry plants shared some space with the cabbage, kale, broccoli, and watermelon plants that the kids had started from seed. What a delicious and rewarding experience this summer will be for our young gardeners!

With all the seeds and plants in the ground and watered, the group was satisfied with the opportunity to get a hands-on growing experience with lots of fun in the dirt and water! And the NHMG volunteers got to share the wonders and skills of gardening with a new generation who may cherish this experience as much as we did. We will meet weekly with our gardening kids until the end of July, so they can see the progress of their garden and enjoy the harvest and taste of fresh strawberries, carrots, radishes, and more!