•  PPSA for outstanding accomplishments in the PSA
   •  Hanns Kretschmar Award for Excellence in the Arts
   •  Grand prize in International Nature Photography Contest

Lowell T. and Kathy Jacobson
Topics: Vermicomposting

Kathy and Lowell Jacobson are retired high school teachers with 70 years experience between them. Family brought them to the Chippewa Valley and they found an older 20-acre dairy farm north of Bloomer to settle into. Vermiculture seemed a good way to utilize the older barn and out buildings, the business model fit nicely into personal goals, and worms and casting products meet the high expectations of today’s environmentally conscious consumers and gardeners.

Jacobson Enterprises produce and market ‘Wiggle Worm Soil Builder’™ , an organic fertilizer worm casting soil additive and fertilizer, ‘Tasty Bail Night Crawlers’™ for fishing, vermicompost, composting supplies and red wigglers for composting.

Their worms and castings are grown in a controlled production process in virgin peat soil and a grain based worm food fortified with minerals and vitamins. No other additives or unknown compost materials from unknown sources are used. The worm cocoons are hatched in incubators and grown to 6 to 8 inch size in about 28 weeks under controlled conditions.

Visit Jacobson Enterprises at www.jacobsonearthworm.com

Ron Kean
Topics: Chickens in the Garden & film screening “Mad City Chickens” - Friday (pre-conference option)
Chickens in the Garden

Ron is the state poultry specialist with UW-Extension. He grew up with a backyard flock of chickens and other poultry on a small, diversified farm in Nebraska. He has degrees from the University of Nebraska and Iowa State University, and has been at UW-Madison for about 18 years. Ron teaches courses on Breeder Flock & Hatchery Management and Biology of Companion Animals at UW-Madison, as well as answering poultry-related questions in his Extension role.

Marcia Kosmerchock
Topics: Siberian Iris Leaf Baskets - Friday (pre-conference option)

Marcia is a Master Gardener Volunteer and has been weaving, spinning and dyeing for more than 35 years. Her cottage style garden is packed full and serves as a source for many of her craft related activities. Marcia has entered her weavings in national and international shows and has received numerous awards.

Crystal Krienke-Bonskoski
Topics: Botanical Drawing - Friday Pre-conference option

Crystal is an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer working at UW-Cooperative Extension Marathon County in the 4-H program area. Crystal has a Studio Art major with an emphasis in textiles, metals, and black & white photography. She also obtained her K-21 Art Education Certification in 2008 from UW Green Bay. Crystal enjoys a number of different hobbies including rising angora rabbits for spinning, gardening, reading, knitting, painting, and mixed media jewelry. Crystal and her husband Brian live in a small north central WI community with their Giant Angora rabbits and their Bassett Hounds.

Sandy Lotto
Topics: Free Form Twig Trellis - Friday (pre-conference option)

Sandy loves sharing her passion for making rustic furniture and is the owner/instructor at Lotto’s Log Cabin Outdoor School, in Eagle River, Wisconsin.  She started making log bed frames and twig chair furniture using downed pine trees and sticks from the bonfire pile! Now she sells her furniture throughout Wisconsin and the UP.

Sandy has a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry, with an emphasis in Recreation and a minor in Business. Sandy has taught classes at Trees For Tomorrow in Eagle River, Nicolet College and Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) before starting her own business.  

Sandy is a veteran American Birkebeiner skier, having skied that marathon 20 times. Sandy helped build her log home (starting with peeling all the logs), and is furnishing it with some of her own rustic furniture.  Rustic furniture classes are held in a small log cabin on her peaceful lakeside property near Eagle River, WI.

Students learn about basic tool use and safety before beginning their projects. Classes are geared towards people with little or no prior woodworking experience.

Ed Lyon
Topics: Rock Gardens and the Plants for Beginners
Clutter, Chaos or Class: Using Creativity Effectively in Garden Design

Ed is full-time director of Allen Centennial Gardens, the teaching and public gardens for the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has previous experience at Rotary Botanical Gardens, Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Chicago Botanic Gardens. He lectures, teaches and writes for public and professional audiences under Spellbound Garden Writing & Consultation. Most important is that he is a gardener with dirt under his nails. Visit him at http://spellboundgarden.com/

Barb Moskonas
Topics: Hypertufa Trough Planters - Friday (pre-conference option)

Barb is a Master Gardener Volunteer and avid crafter and enjoys making many different types of garden crafts especially those made with cement. Through many trials and errors, Barb has learned the secret of making these attractive, durable and inexpensive planters that will withstand the temperate climates in the Midwest.

Charlie Nardozzi
Topics: Eat Your Landscape – Keynote
How to Grow Vegetables Almost Anywhere

Charlie is a nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, radio, and television personality who is a  garden coach and consultant teaching and inspiring home gardeners to grow the best vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, and shrubs in their yards.  For more than 20 years Charlie has brought expert gardening information to home gardeners through radio, television, talks, on-line, and the printed page. Charlie delights in making gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. His energy, exuberance, and love of the natural world  make him an exciting public speaker and presenter. He has spoken at national venues such as the Philadelphia Flower Show, Master Gardener conferences, and trade shows. He writes the Edible Landscapin on-line newsletter bringing timely information to vegetable, fruit, and herb gardeners every month, co-hosts In The Garden"; tips on the Burlington, VT CBS affiliate television station WCAX  and is featured on a weekly Vermont Public Radio call-in show, Vermont Garden Journal.

He has written for national magazines such as Organic Gardening and contributed to many of the "Gardening for Dummies" titles, authoring Vegetable Gardening For Dummies  and the Ultimate Gardener (2009) which highlights heart-warming stories about the trials and tribulations of gardening. He  contributed to other book project such as 7 in 1 Gardening for Dummies (2003) and the Better Homes and Gardens’ Yard and Garden Owner’s Manual  (Meredith Books, 2004).Charlie’s skills as a garden communicator extend beyond the printed page. In 2005, he was the host of PBS’s Garden Smart and has been a gardening expert on many national syndicated television and radio shows such as HGTV’s “Today at Home”, Discovery Channel’s  “Home Matters”, Sirius Radio's Martha Stewart Living, and Natural Eating with Elys.

Formerly he was the senior horticulturist and spokesperson for the National Gardening Association (NGA). He wrote and edited articles for their magazine and on-line newsletters,  conducted media interviews about gardening, and provided horticultural consultation to NGA programs. 

Charlie will be presenting the keynote Eat Your Landscape and How to Grow Vegetables Almost Anywhere on Saturday.

http://www.charlienardozzi.com
http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=bio

Bruce Paquette
Topics: Beekeeping 101 - Friday (pre-conference option)

Bruce is a retired North Central Technical College instructor and owns and operates Paquette’s Greenhouse of Wausau. For over 40 years, he has been a, “bee caregiver” and “honey robber”. Bruce is a member and vice chair of Marathon County Honey Bee Association and a recipient of many, many bee bites.

Bill Reichenbach
Topics: Shrubs & Trees, Pruning, Planting & Care - Friday (pre-conference option)
Natural Landscapes - the GREEN Landscape Solution

For much of his career Bill was a landscape designer–horticulturist for The Kohler Company, of Kohler, WI and landscape designer–horticulturist and arborist for Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls, one of Wisconsin’s premier nursery growers and landscape contractors.

Recently Bill has joined Wachtel Tree Science and Service in Merton, WI as an arborist and educator, marketing science based tree care practices. Bill has been active with the Wisconsin Arborist Association since 1982 and served on the board of directors in the early 90’s. In 2005, Bill represented Johnson’s Nursery and received an International Society of Arboriculture Gold Leaf Award and a Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council Award with the City of Waukesha for a team effort in preserving the Dunbar oak in Waukesha.

Bill has enjoyed appearing on PBS’s `The Victory Garden’ and `The Wisconsin Gardener’ concerning various horticultural topics. An active member of `The Waukesha Land Conservancy’ Bill is also working with `The Mequon Nature Preserve’ in developing native landscape plantings and programs and has worked with Boerner Botanical Gardens leading several of their garden walk classes including Woodland Shade Gardening and Creating Interest with Conifers.

Bill is an avid landscape gardener at home, and an owner of a Langlade County woodland that helps satisfy his passion for trees and the landscape. Bill is a 1975 graduate of Wausau West High School and a 1979 graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a degree in Horticulture. Bill was fortunate to work as a student intern at U.W. – Madison Arboretum under the tutelage of Professor Edward R. Hasselkus while in school. Bill is excited to return to North Central Wisconsin near his home town of Wausau to speak to master gardeners and others!

Kathryn Schiedemayer
Topics: Gardening With the Moon

Kathryn is a Master Gardener Volunteer and Herbalist and has taught classes and seminars throughout Wisconsin and Ohio. She has presented seminars for the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union, Madison Area Technical College, Janesville Rotary Gardens, Rock County Master Gardeners and numerous gardening groups.

Kathryn is an active member of the Madison Herb Society and the International Herb Association. The Madison Herb Society is dedicated as a non-profit organization to the education of its members and the public with regard to the culture and use of herbs. The International Herb Association provides information on the benefits and uses of herbs and is a resource for those involved in herb-related endeavors.

Kathryn and her husband Marvin live and garden in the rolling hills of New Glarus, WI, America’s Little Switzerland and own and operate Garden Spirit Natural Bath & Skincare. Visit them at www.gardenspirit.net.

Dale Secher
Topics: Fruits: Unusual and Lesser Known for Northern Gardens

Dale and Cindy Secher own and operate Carandale Farms located south of Madison, WI. There they established an on- farm test plot in 2003 to evaluate the economic, environmental and social sustainability potential of more than 40 fruiting plants from around the globe. Dale hopes his test plot along with his training and experience in agricultural engineering, land use and water management may help guide future generations towards a more sustainable existence.

Lynn Steiner
Topics: Landscaping With Native Plants of Wisconsin

Lynn Steiner is one of the Upper Midwest’s best-known garden writers and a frequent speaker at gardening and environmental events. She has been a professional garden writer since 1987, focusing her writing since 2003 on native plants and how to bring them into home landscapes.

She is the author and photographer of Landscaping with Native Plants of Wisconsin, the first book designed to identify Wisconsin’s native plants and plant communities and to demonstrate how to use them effectively in a typical home landscape. Lynn is the author of three other books. For 15 years, Lynn was the editor of Northern Gardener magazine, the official publication of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society and today is still a regular contributor to the magazine with her column titled “Northern Natives.”

Lynn grew up in Shawano, Wisconsin, where she spent many enjoyable hours hiking and camping in the north woods. She has a Bachelor of Science in natural resources from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in horticulture with a minor in agricultural journalism from the University of Minnesota. She is a member of Garden Writers Association, The Nature Conservancy, Wild Ones, and Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Lynn lives with her husband, a golden retriever, and two cats on a 100-year-old farmstead in northern Washington County, located outside of St. Paul, Minnesota, where she enjoys tending her gardens, watching the progress of her restored prairie and oak woodland, and hunting for native plants in the surrounding countryside.

Click here for Wisconsin Native Plants Resources List