MASTER GARDENER ASSOCIATION OF NORTHWEST MICHIGAN (MGANM) Presentations offer Continuing Education credits unless otherwise noted. A $5 donation is requested for non-MGANM members. Registration is required. www.mganm.org Presentations are open to the public unless shown as “Members Only”. This presentation is held at the Grand Traverse Conservation District, 1450 Cass Rd, Traverse City, MI. For any questions, please contact Nate Walton at 231-256-9888 or waltonn2@msu.edu

“Caring for Trees in a Changing Climate” is presented by Bo Burke and Ellie Johnson. The presentation outlines recorded and projected climatic changes, how those changes impact the health of standing trees, and ways to be proactive in landscaping decisions. Since 2021, Ellie Johnson has served as the District Forester for Leelanau, Grand Traverse, and Benzie Conservation Districts. As District Forester, she offers technical assistance to hundreds of private landowners annually through the Forestry Assistance Program. She also connects with the greater public at numerous community workshops, field days, guided hikes, written articles, radio shows, and garden club meetings. Ellie has an MS in Forest Resources from Clemson University and a BS in Secondary Biology Education from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Bo Burke is an ISA-Certified Arborist and an ISA-Certified Tree Worker/Climber Specialist. He also holds an ISA Tree Risk Assessment credential and a State of Michigan Pesticide Applicator license. He is a Chainsaw Safety Instructor for the Grand Traverse and Leelanau Conservancies. Bo has extensive experience in promoting positive ecological attitudes by encouraging clients, trainees, and the public to protect native tree habitat, to be aware of tree health, and to respect natural cycles. Bo has served as Arborist for the cities of Chicago and San Francisco, as well as several cities in Colorado. Bo also consults for several organizations in northern Lower Michigan. Currently, Bo is the owner of Bo Knows Trees and Climb a Tree.

Native Plants grown at Gruler Gardens are ready for transplanting to your garden. The inventory is always changing, and there may be additions to or deletions throughout the season based on availability, demand, and growing conditions. Can't make it to a plant sale? Plants are also available for purchase via email beginning in late May/early June with pickup as arranged. Send order requests to grulergardens@grulergardens.com with the word ORDER in the subject line.  Or use the contact form here on our website. Tell us the plants you would like, quantities of each, your name, email, phone number, and any other message you like. We will check our inventory and respond to you promptly to confirm availability and arrange a pickup time. Native plant orders received less than one week prior to any scheduled sale will be filled the following week with post-sale stock. Plants and flowers are subject to availability. Dates are subject to change. Additional sales may be added depending on inventory and availability. Subscribe to our site here to receive email updates.

To see the list of plants click here

Location: 1298 E Gruler Road, Petoskey, MI

Remaining 2025 Native Plant Sale Dates​: Saturday, October 4​

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is ongoing maintenance of the gardens.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273

NMMGA members meeting at 5 pm at Depot Beach Pavilion in Charlevoix. A brief business meeting be followed by a potluck picnic dinner. More information coming in the August newsletter. Please RSVP to Beth Cowie, President of NMMGA.

To get directions to Depot Beach from your location click here.

Easy way to get there coming from the north on U.S. 31:

• Turn left on Mercer (Charlevoix Inn & Suites is on the corner).

• Turn left on Chicago Avenue

• Turn left toward the water and Depot Beach.

Photo Credit: Babette Stenuis Stolz

Save the date for the annual plant sale for the Northern Michigan Master Gardener Association. This sale supports the work of this not-for-profit organization.

Enjoy the demonstration native garden at the Conservation District’s office at 303 North Street, Boyne City. Learn of the benefits of native plants. Light refreshments provided.

Click here to see the invitation to the public and learn about other events.

Native Plants grown at Gruler Gardens are ready for transplanting to your garden. The inventory is always changing, and there may be additions to or deletions throughout the season based on availability, demand, and growing conditions. Can't make it to a plant sale? Plants are also available for purchase via email beginning in late May/early June with pickup as arranged. Send order requests to grulergardens@grulergardens.com with the word ORDER in the subject line.  Or use the contact form here on our website. Tell us the plants you would like, quantities of each, your name, email, phone number, and any other message you like. We will check our inventory and respond to you promptly to confirm availability and arrange a pickup time. Native plant orders received less than one week prior to any scheduled sale will be filled the following week with post-sale stock. Plants and flowers are subject to availability. Dates are subject to change. Additional sales may be added depending on inventory and availability. Subscribe to our site here to receive email updates.

To see the list of plants click here

Location: 1298 E Gruler Road, Petoskey, MI

Remaining 2025 Native Plant Sale Dates​: Saturday, September 6 & Saturday, October 4​

Join us at the NMMGA tent at the Boyne City Farmers Market. Smart Gardening fact sheets will be shared. The Farmer’s Market is on the lawn of the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Lake Charlevoix in downtown Boyne City. You will easily find our canopy and information tables. Easy parking along the park. Come at 7:45 am to help set up. Stay as long as you want. or drop by after you have done your market shopping! Contact Frances Paris if you have any questions.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. Robin’s newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (November 2024), is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Sponsored in part by the Worship Endowment, by your generous contributions to the Worship program, and by a grant from the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation.

Cost: $15 for nonmembers and $10 for members of the Bay View Association

Click here to register: https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/bay-view-association/67d9db22b0f2890f584b5a01/

Join the Crooked Tree Art Center of Petoskey for this unique opportunity to participate in an online live moderated conversation with Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a plant ecologist, educator, and writer that articulates a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in scientific and Indigenous knowledge.

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. 

Cost: FREE

Click here to join the Zoom meeting

This event is made possible thanks in part to Bay View Association.

Harvest and press flowers and foliage for decorative art projects, using the plants right here at Gruler Gardens! We'll talk about which flowers work best for pressed flowers, how to dry them, and how to store them for future use. You'll receive your own flower press to take home so you can continue to harvest flowers and foliage throughout the growing season. All supplies are provided. This is the much-anticipated companion to our popular winter pressed flower workshops, where we create art projects with pressed flowers.

Location: Gruler Gardens 1298 E Gruler Road, Petoskey, MI

Cost $75

To register click here

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is ongoing maintenance of the gardens.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273

The Little Traverse Conservancy presents Lee Brewbaker for a FREE plant and medicinal herb walk and talk at the Hindle Ross trails. We will observe the abundant Monarda in the fields and discuss the medicinal and cultural uses. As we walk the trails, we will encounter and meet other native plants and learn about their uses and cultural significance. Lee started to cultivate his love of plants while gardening with his father, along with the herbal lore shared by his grandmother. With a degree in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan, he then continued learning from wild crafters, herbalists, and the plants themselves. Lee always enjoys sharing his stories and passion about his green relatives.

Cost: Free

Register here and learn details about the location of the property

Enjoy a beautiful natural setting as you create your own flower arrangement with flowers and foliage cut from Gruler Gardens. The class starts with a flower arranging demonstration and tips to help make the process fun and easy. We believe that every arrangement is beautiful, and you'll be encouraged to experiment and find your own style. In the process, you may begin to experience a deeper connection with nature as you notice the colors, shapes, textures, and aromas. You'll leave with a vase of fresh flowers to enjoy at home. Available flowers vary weekly throughout the growing season. See arrangement examples in the description and in our website Flower Gallery. We'll wrap up with a tour of the gardens with opportunities to ask questions. Class will be approximately 1.5 hours in length, depending somewhat on the needs and interests of the group. Limited to 10 participants. Your choice of Mason jar or cylinder vase (your own vase of comparable size may be substituted), flowers, foliage, and materials are provided. You may want to bring a camera, notepad, and gardening gloves.

Cost: $55

Location: 1298 E. Gruler Road, Petoskey, MI

To register click here

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is ongoing maintenance of the gardens.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273

Join Little Traverse Conservancy naturalist Brad Von Blon on a trip around the Seberon “Boo” Litzenburger Nature Preserve, just northwest of Harbor Springs, to identify many of the trees that call Northern Michigan home. We’ll focus on simple ways to distinguish common species and discover their unique places in our ecosystems. Be sure to dress for the weather and bring shoes that can get muddy!

This preserve includes fallow field transitioning to traditional forest and a cedar swamp. The newly built lookout platform and bridge overlook and cross over the beautiful Five Mile Creek that flows through the property and eventually empties into Little Traverse Bay/Lake Michigan. Once the site of an old general store, the remnants of a mill pond can still be found on the property. Register here. Map available at the registration link.

Location: Seberon "Boo" Litzenburger Nature Preserve 5285 Five Mile Creek Road, Harbor Springs,

About your guide: BRAD VON BLON, STEWARDSHIP TECHNICIAN

Brad grew up in Ohio but quickly escaped a few times to neighboring states with more exciting flora. He earned an Associate’s Degree in Wildlife Management at Hocking College before transferring to West Virginia University for a Bachelor’s in Wildlife & Fisheries Resources. A lot of his time has been spent on the arid ridge tops of the Appalachians down to the humid muskegs of Michigan, usually looking for rare plants. He’s worked mainly as a naturalist, a “certified bird feeding specialist,” a bobcat necropsy technician, and a tech at West Virginia’s largest herbarium. He fell in love with the North Woods after spending a season at Seney National Wildlife Refuge, and this will be his third summer with LTC. 

North Central Michigan College, Room 333 in the HESC Building and in Adam’s Garden. Petoskey hosts an in-person class with Adam Wiklanski. Dig, water, feed and handle plants from strong specimens to tender shoots.

Are you ready for a new approach to growing plants?

In this class, you will:

• Walk together with Adam in his perennial garden as we harvest, weed, and handle issues we find.

• Dig, water, feed and handle plants from strong established specimens to small tender shoots.

• Mix up and create some truly awesome soil for general use, and you will get to take a plant of your choice and a pot of soil you get to mix up.

• This course will focus on methods that Adam has practiced for years and are far beyond organic.

Please note:

* 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM, this class will be in room 333 on the NCMC campus

* Noon to 1:00 PM, this class will meet at Adam's Garden at 916 Baxter St. Petoskey, MI 49770

FEE: $30 Class is filled. You may join a wait list.

Registration: https://www.ncmclifelonglearning.com/event-6224474

EVENT CANCELLED— Veteran’s Park is hosting the Boyne Thunder event and the usual alternate site for the Farmer’s Market is not accessible due to water and sewer pipes being stored for a large city project. Our next opportunity us to support the Smart Gardening tent is August 9. Arrive around 7:30 am to help set up. The event runs from 8 am to noon. The August 9 Farmer’s Market is on the lawn of the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Lake Charlevoix in downtown Boyne City. You will easily find our canopy and information tables. Easy parking along the park. Stay as long as you want. or drop by after you have done your market shopping! Contact Frances Paris at 248.807.1546 if you have any questions.

This event is cancelled. We regret any inconvenience this change of plans may have caused

This is a pre-registered monthly program. Registration was closed in November 2024. A year-long monthly series of workshops sponsored by the MSU Extension is free to Master Gardeners. Earn education hours with the hour long online Zoom programs. You only need to register once for the whole series. Look for registration for the 2026 series this fall.

Kelly McClelland ,MSU Extension Community Food Systems Educator, presents Growing Together: Strategies, Structures, and Impact of Community Gardens.

Community Food Systems Educator Kelly McClelland will explore the vital role of community gardens, focusing on strategies and structures that maximize their impact. She will share research on the benefits of community gardens, along with personal stories from her work supporting community gardens in the Genesee County area.

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is ongoing maintenance of the gardens. We’ll inspect for the condition of the plants, assess mulch coverage, and pull the occasional weed.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273

Join us at the NMMGA tent at the Boyne City Farmers Market. Smart Gardening fact sheets will be shared. The Farmer’s Market is on the lawn of the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Lake Charlevoix in downtown Boyne City. You will easily find our canopy and information tables. Easy parking along the park. Come at 7:45 am to help set up. Stay as long as you want. or drop by after you have done your market shopping! Contact Frances Paris if you have any questions.

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is ongoing maintenance of the gardens. We’ll inspect for the condition of the plants, assess mulch coverage, and pull the occasional weed.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

The next work session is July 8.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273

Join members for a morning work session at the Emmet County Fairgrounds. Today’s work is maintenance of the gardens. We’ll inspect for the condition of the plants and pull the occasional weed. Perhaps we will need to divide or move plants. We’ll check up on the demonstration native garden and assess for additions, divisions, or removals.

Location: 1129 Charlevoix Ave. (U.S. 31 S) Petoskey, MI  49770. Closest major intersection is U.S. 31 and U.S. 131 North. Use the entrance off Eppler Road.

Questions? Call/text Linda at 231-838-1273