MANKATO — Skilled gardeners recently shared their knowledge about what grows well in Minnesota, and just as importantly, what does not.
Spring Alive!, hosted by the Blue Earth County Master Gardeners, offered advice on defending flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs from invasive species of insects and plants as well as best practices for mowing and watering lawns.
“You basically can get any (horticultural) question answered here,” said Casey Kuderer, a local Master Gardener for about 10 years who was a greeter at the Saturday session.
The University of Minnesota Extension offered continuing education units to Master Gardeners who joined the general public at the event.
Bruce Tweto, of rural Mankato, was there for advice on how to keep up on tending to his 3- to 3½-acre lawn and still have time to enjoy the aesthetics of the expansive yard.
Tweto said when he mows the grass “depends on when it needs it.” He found Extension educator Jon Trappe’s talk about turf helpful.
“I liked the speaker’s idea of keeping the grass about 3- to 3½ inches tall,” Tweto said.
“Taller grass has deeper root systems and needs less water to stay green,” Trappe said.
His presentation included a chart listing information on the Big Three of lawn care: mowing, fertilizer and weed control as well as practical advice about Minnesota growing seasons.
“Every year is different, so it’s important to be adaptive,” he said.
Trappe grew up near a golf course, where he eventually was hired as an employee and began to become interested in what was growing on the greens.
“I ended up working there and that’s where I met experts in grass,” he said.
After he earned his bachelor of arts from Purdue University, Trappe decided to “keep going down the rabbit hole and see how deep that would take me.”
He went out to receive his master’s and a Ph.D. in horticulture.
His Extension duties as an urban green-space educator focus on “supporting anyone in the state of Minnesota with turf problems.” He teaches homeowners and cemetery groundskeepers and certifies lawn-care business employees in methods for reducing the amount of watering, mowing and pesticides needed to maintain the yards they use for recreational use, aesthetic beauty and/or erosion control.
Trappe fielded questions from his 40-plus member audience. Pollinator supporters wanted to know what makes a good “bee yard” and homeowners were seeking a way to fix patches of dead grass in lawns where pets relieved themselves.
“There is no solution to ‘dog salt’ — just time and a lot of rain,” he said.
At the end of his presentation, Trappe offered one-on-one sessions to attendees facing turf challenges and provided them with links to helpful resources, including the U of M’s website: turf.umn.edu.
Blue Earth County Master Gardeners’ next public event is its annual plant sale May 16.