(upbeat music) We are finding that with the COVID pandemic, many people are discovering and enjoying mother nature at parks, gardens, and other outdoor spaces.

Today, we are going to visit one of the most beautiful areas in Western Minnesota.

It has a long heritage of research and producing plant knowledge, as well as plant beauty.

I'm Mary Holm, host of Prairie Yard & Garden.

And let's go exploring to find out more about this special spot.

- [Announcer] Funding for Prairie Yard & Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years, in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company & Federated Telephone Cooperative proud to be powering Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by Friends of Prairie Yard & Garden, a community of supporters like you, who engage in the long term growth of the series.

To become a Friend of Prairie Yard & Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(upbeat music) - Last week, my nephew and his wife drove their brand new motorcycle out to visit Tom and me at Morris.

It was so nice to see them and their beautiful new bike.

We had lunch and then headed to our favorite spot to host all friends and family who come to visit from out of town.

We walked and enjoyed the lovely Horticulture Gardens that have been a major part of Steve Poppe's life for many years.

Steve is here with us today to share the rich heritage of the Horticulture Gardens.

Welcome, Steve.

- Thanks for having me, Mary.

- Tell me what is the West Central Research and Outreach Center?

- Well, it is, I still call it an experiment station, Mary, because many years ago it was called the West Central Experiment Station.

But it is one of a total of eight other, you know, outreach centers within the state of Minnesota.

They're all located in various regions within the state, but we are in the West Central part.

And besides horticulture, there are other area types of research with animal science, water quality, agronomic crops, dairy, hogs, that type of research, which takes place here at our experiment station.

These branch experiment stations are part of the University of Minnesota.

Well, this particular garden here, where we're standing now, was relocated here in about the late 1960s.

The buildings around here, the administrative building I believe was constructed in 1968 and then all the other buildings around that same time period.

But we were originally located on what is now the University of Minnesota Morris Campus, when it's still, way back when, when it was the West Central School of Agriculture, but the experiment station was located there on the campus.

- [Mary Holm] Who started the gardens then?

- Well, there's a long history.

West Gray, was my faculty supervisor, who started this garden when we moved up here in the late 1960s.

And so, I was with him for a long, long time.

But he was the original horticulturist here until about 1988.

And so, he was a great teacher, taught me many things about horticulture and here's where we're at today.

- So when did you actually get started working here in the gardens?

- Well, just like we have students starting today that are for summer labor and interns or whatever else, and then in 1976, I started full-time as a gardener.

So, long time ago.

- What was the research that was done in the early days in the gardens?

- Well, we had annual flower trials.

I mean, way back when, we had, if I recall, we planted 10 plants per row, in a row, you know, and then they were three foot apart and they were all in rows, which was easy from a research standpoint to take data on.

So the flowers have always been here as part of our trial.

And then we did a lot of vegetable work, much more then than we're doing now because the University of Minnesota was really involved with trials, with suggested vegetable varieties back then.

Now the master gardeners of the University of Minnesota have taken that over and working on vegetable varieties.

But we had raspberries and we had strawberries also, some of those trials.

- [Mary Holm] How has the garden grown over the years?

- [Steve Poppe] Well, it really has grown.

Well, if you look at some of the hardscape features here, we have many hardscape features which provide an area where people can sit and enjoy the beauty of the garden, under a shady structure, a lot of benches, and we've tried to incorporate some of our trials with hanging baskets and containers as part of those structures.

But I mentioned West Gray.

I mean, while West Gray was still with us, we developed a garden that constructed with his family members and other people that know that donated to that garden.

So West worked with us on the design of that garden of his favorite plants.

So it's called the West Gray Backyard Garden, but there's been hundreds of thousands of donors that have donated to this program.

And so many of the features, the hardscape features, plus the plants and whatever, almost everything has been donated by a donor or a company or whatnot.

The gazebo and the play structure and the backpack shack.

And so we had a donor that gave us the dollars to construct those three, four pieces way back when.

- [Mary Holm] What is the size of the gardens now?

- [Steve Poppe] Well, this area right here where we're standing is about four acres.

And then we have other, I talked about those deer exclosures, there's another three acres plus some other areas we're probably in about, you know, 8 to 10 acres of research, demonstration and plots.

- [Mary Holm] Where do all of the plants come from, that are here in the gardens?

- [Steve Poppe] Well, a lot of what we're showcasing here and what you're seeing today are the annual flowers.

That is our major research trial.

And we spend the most amount of time on that as your husband, Tom well knows.

He grew a lot of those plants back before he retired.

We have about this year, about 450 different varieties of annual flowers that we're trialing from plant breeding companies that are now throughout the world.

We have about 20 to 25 plant breeding companies that send us either from seed or as vegetative cuttings.

And they send them to us and then we grow them and we trial them and we take data on them during our growing season.

At the end of the growing season, all the data that we've compiled with the flowers and the perennials, all those reports are sent back to those plant breeding companies, so they can see the results of our trials.

- [Mary Holm] When I came in I saw that there was a sign that had AAS on that.

Can you tell what that is?

- [Steve Poppe] AAS is All American Selections.

It has existed since the early 1930s.

It was the first type of nonprofit organization that trialed plant flowers and vegetables from seed.

And they're a great organization, they're moving up with their marketing skills and whatnot with some just very talented people.

But I'm a judge with All American Selections, so we trial flowers that currently don't have a name.

They just have a number and we trial them next to a comparison of another variety that is out in the trade that does have a name.

And then we also have an AAS display garden, where we display the past five years of those that have been stamped with an AAS stamp of approval, and we display those.

And then we also have AAS plants and containers, which they like for us to trial in containers also.

If you come out to our garden, you see the AAS display garden, those plants in there, they would be superior varieties for you to grow in the Upper Midwest.

- How do you decide what to plant where?

- Well, most of those decisions are made by the plant breeding companies that send us the seeds and the vegetative material.

So, I work with what they send us to plant.

So, I have to work with what they send me and spend hours and hours designing that into the garden.

But some of our special areas, gazebos and the West Gray Backyard Garden, we can pick and order and whatever choose whatever flower we think would work nice into that area for that year.

But no, I don't have a choice in what they're sending me.

So, yeah.

(Mary laughs) - But how do you decide that we're gonna put the blue Petunias over here and the star shade colors ones here and... - You again, yeah.

I usually try and bury myself at home.

So nobody bothers me for about three days and work on the design.

I've got it down to now about, you know, three days it takes to design those 450 annuals, but I guess I've done it enough.

It doesn't go real bad, but I just look at colors and textures, you know, and type of plant and height and width.

And if it's spreading or whatnot and, you know, I try and match up certain colors with certain colors, you know.

So to the best of my ability, but again, I don't have the part that I can order in all those flowers.

I have to work with what they send me.

(upbeat music) - Fresh salads and berries make the summer such a special time.

For all the visual delights of autumn, I can't help but be a little sad to see the growing season behind us.

But that all changed when I learned about freezing fruits and vegetables for the winter.

In Minnesota, we know lots about canning fruits and vegetables for the winter, but we can also use the freezer to save some of our summer treats for the winter months.

I'm here today with our resident chef, Carole Johnson.

Who's going to tell us how to preserve corn and create a delicious sweet corn that you can freeze and eat later.

Carole, one of the hardest things is getting sweet corn off the cob.

- Well, I have a good method to show you today.

It will be less messy and you'll have your corn all in one place.

I'll be using the bundt pan today.

You could use an angel fruit cake pan as well.

Just put the cob on the pole there.

(electric knife whirring) Now as you can see it falls directly into the pan.

You would do all of your ears of corn, and then you have your corn all in this one bowl and the cobs are ready to throw away and you are ready to start freezing.

- Carole, after you have the corn cut off the cob, what do you do with it then?

- We'll put all the ingredients into this pan, which will include water, sugar, and salt, and we'll heat it to a boiling point and cook it for a regulated amount of time.

Cool it down.

Put it in a freezer bag.

- Why is it important to use a freezer bag.

- Because of the weight of the plastic?

And you can always tell a freezer bag because it has a blue edging on it.

Those that are not have a red edging on them.

You want to lay your bags flat in your freezer.

Actually, they will stack better.

And the corn is going to keep for about one year in your freezer.

- If you are looking for delicious Minnesota sweet corn in your neighborhood, please visit minnesotagrown.com.

Do you have both sun and shade areas?

- We do.

Biggest part of the garden is full sun, but we have two areas.

One of the gardens is semi-shade, where it might receive some shade in the early morning.

And then another one is full shade all day long.

- Do you ever receive plants from other people too, to plant here in the gardens?

- Well, besides the plant breeding companies, we do.

I mean, there are, besides the flower trials, such as strawberry trials and raspberries and pepper trials that we have, you know, they send us the seed or they send us the plants as part of that trial.

- How many memorial gardens do you have now?

- I think there are about eight, you know, that these are people that had family members that have passed away and they wanted to put in a garden in their memory.

And so, we would construct that garden, working with the donor on the plants they would like as part of their family garden.

And then, the funds are stuck into an account where half the money is used to construct the garden.

And the other half goes into endowment where we can draw the interest off that endowment to fund the labor and supplies and that type of thing that are for that particular garden.

- How do you keep up with all of the weeding and watering here?

- Well, it takes a small army and we have many of volunteers that help us.

But we normally have six or seven students and probably 50% of what they are instructed to do is weed.

And we all have to weed.

I mean, we do use some herbicides and whatever else to help us with some of these research plots and display gardens.

Which helped us to some degree with weed control, but still, I mean, you have to come through here quite often and weed.

For most part, it is the six students we have this year.

- [Mary Holm] How about the watering.

- Watering, we're very fortunate that almost everything is under irrigation.

The entire display garden is automated computer controlled that has pop up heads in the lawn or in the garden areas that will automatically water.

You can set it for how much water you would like to put on.

Our research plots, I talked about are deer exclosures.

That is all under drip tube, where each one of those rows, there's a tube that goes down each one of these rows.

And it emits water at a certain amount.

And in some of our plots, which we put down a plastic or a plastic mulch, then that is a drip tape.

Which is a flat method, flat tape, which emits water similar to the drip tube.

So, and they're all regulated, but somebody has to watch them and turn them on at the correct time.

So, everything is under irrigation except for the containers and hanging baskets.

- Do you also have pollinator areas too?

- That's a great question because we've just over the last three years, west of our Pomme de Terre Overlook and south of there, we received a large sum of money to put in a pollinator-friendly habitat.

And so over the last three years, we've renovated that area to get rid of the noxious weeds and the woody plant material that were part of that hillside there.

And it was planted with pollinator-friendly forbes and grasses, this last late fall.

It's been, of course, very dry this year, so we, hopefully, they are just still sitting in the ground.

They will germinate when the conditions are right.

All we're doing right now is mowing off the weeds to keep things under control, but that within the next, probably 5, 6, 7 years, that area should just explode with pollinator-friendly plants and that is along a trail.

And there's some information kiosks there and some educational material that people can read about, and hopefully they can follow some of the same practices in their own home and garden.

- [Mary Holm] So is that a walking trail or a biking path?

- Both, it's a walking trail and a biking path that leads through that pollinator area.

- Do you have educational classes out here too?

- We do.

Our largest event is called Horticulture Night, which is always on the last Thursday in July, which we've been very, very fortunate.

We bring out about 1,500 to 2,000 people that come for that major event, annual event.

But then we have other programs that are once a month, 10 times a year called Come Grow With Us, where they're normally held at noon hour, in the winter months.

And it'll take place in our auditorium.

And in the summer months, it's usually around six or so.

And we'll have that educational event in the garden.

So, many different people, educators, master gardeners, people that are experts in their field help us educate those people during those events.

- [Mary Holm] Oh, I have to find out a lot more about Hort Night.

- [Steve Poppe] This year, is our 50th anniversary of Horticulture Nights, been taking place for 50 years.

So, many different types of vendors and educational booths will be part of our event.

We'll have seven stops randomly located throughout the garden.

Pollinators and 50-year anniversary garden, and herbs, and many different things that are taking place on the last Thursday in July.

- [Mary Holm] Can anybody come to that?

- [Steve Poppe] Oh yes, you don't have to register.

You don't have to sign up.

You just come at any time.

If you're coming from a distance, look for the wind turbine, which is part of our property.

Come up Highway 329, and someone will help you park your car in the appropriate place.

- Is it always on the last Thursday in July?

- Forever, it's been that date.

Yes, right.

And I've held true to that.

And people have wanted to maybe change that.

And I, uhuh, it's the last Thursday of every July.

- Is there a charge to come?

- No, there isn't, it's free.

Yes, and we've kind of held to that.

You know, a lot of other educational events usually cost or whatever else, but this is a free event.

- [Mary Holm] Do you sell plants at that Hort Night?

- [Steve Poppe] Oh yes, that's kind of popular where the vendors that set up in our tree rows in the shade, they bring their plants, some of the nurseries and budding plant centers and whatnot.

And yes, they do sell plants.

That's a big hit where they don't have to go to Battle Lake.

They can just come to Morris and they can buy their plants, you know, things like that.

So yeah, that's a big draw for people to buy.

(upbeat music) - I have a question.

I'm looking for a good native vine or shrub to put next to a fence.

What would you recommend?

- Well, one of the best is American Bittersweet and I'm standing next to an improved variety of American Bittersweet called Autumn Revolution.

American Bittersweet is native, but the wild plants are male or female.

So if you wanna plant them in your yard and make sure that you're gonna have fruit, you have to have probably plant three or four plants and hope one of them is a male.

So this gets rid of that issue.

You can plant one plant or as many as you'd like.

And in addition to not having to worry about having a male, the fruit on Autumn Revolution are twice as large as the native Bittersweet, and they're extremely showy.

They put on just a beautiful show in the fall.

And a lot of people like to enjoy 'em just in their yard or on the fence or arbor side of your garage, whatever it might be.

But they're also wonderful for cutting and using in fall arrangements.

In fact, some people plant this as a crop on trellises and harvest the fruit and sell them at farmers markets, and other places in the fall because they're so beautiful.

And the fruit dries and lasts throughout the winter for many months.

Many people have heard of the Oriental Bittersweet, which is an invasive vine.

And that can just take over native forest areas.

So this plant is not that, it's a Minnesota native and a selection that has been developed, specifically, for use in landscapes.

It's a very hearty plant, so you don't need to prune it, but if it gets too big or it's hanging over a walkway or whatever, you can be prune it as really as much as you need to.

And just to keep it controlled and it'll just continue to grow and thrive.

It's a relatively new plant.

So maybe renewal pruning would be beneficial.

A lot of plants benefit from cutting some of the older parts of the vine down low and letting new sprouts come up.

I haven't done that personally, but I would bet that would work well for this plant.

- [Announcer] Ask the Arboretum experts has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, dedicated to enriching lives through the appreciation and knowledge of plants.

- Steve, tell me more about the Overlook.

- Yes, the Pomme de Terre Overlook, which is located on the west end of our garden.

That was an area we constructed through private donations about 18 years ago now.

And so it's been there a while, but it's a great place to sit and enjoy the beauty of the Pomme de Terre River Valley.

It overlooks the city, the University of Minnesota, Morris, and we are very fortunate that it connects with the trail system that is part of the Pomme de Terre City Park, which eventually leads up into the garden to so.

But if you're wanting an awesome area to sit down and enjoy the sunset in West Central Minnesota, it's the perfect area to view that.

And it's, again, we talked about the pollinator that's 17 acres that we've renovated.

It is connected with that too.

So it's a beautiful site and there's parking there.

And it's part of the whole expansion to the west, where we brought in a lot of suggested trees and shrubs that are also part of that expansion area.

- [Mary Holm] Well, and there's also a children's area, right?

- Yes, we have University of Minnesota Children's Garden, which was created probably about 20, 25 years ago, where we're trying to teach children the important role that plants play in our daily lives.

And we've had educational classes there, off and on throughout the years.

But the beauty of the children's garden is you can come here with your children or grandchildren or whatever else.

And it's self-guided, there are brochures there.

There are areas that you can educate yourself about, you know, pollinators and birds and sensory garden and whatever else, which is all told about in some signage or some pamphlets or whatnot.

But this next year, we're very, very fortunate.

We received some money from a donor where we're going to hire a intern, an education intern from the University of Minnesota Morris.

That's gonna help us develop new curriculum for that during the winter semester, and then provide that to, you know, families and educational people that might want to use the children's garden now and into the future.

It's a grant that is gonna be with us for about five years.

- If people come and want to look for those brochures and where do they go to find those?

- All our brochures are located throughout the entire display garden.

From, you know, the water garden to, you know, ornamental grasses to hostas or whatever they are in brochure boxes located throughout the garden.

And there are two kiosks, one on the west end and one on the east end that have more educational material for you to look at.

- Steve, you mentioned that people come for Horticulture Night.

Can people come anytime?

- Oh yes, yeah.

The garden is always open from dawn to dusk.

During the growing season.

Yeah, it's open all the time.

So, feel free to come here.

We've got some parking right along on the west end and on the east end.

So, enjoy the garden at any time.

- [Mary Holm] And is there a fee to come in?

- [Steve Poppe] Nope, no fee.

Everything is free, yep.

- Okay.

Now, as beautiful as things are, I'm sure you've won some awards and accolades.

- Well, I've been very fortunate.

I did mention earlier the Annual Flower Trial, and with my connection with the All American Selections and that display and that research has brought in people from all over the world that want to trial their flowers with us.

We have from Israel and we have from the Netherlands, we have from Japan, Thailand, you know, and those that wanna trial flowers with us.

They have brokers in the United States that sell their flowers, you know, to the major plant companies.

But that's been a huge achievement.

A couple years ago, we had a plant company from a major plant company, visit our garden during Horticulture Night.

And he provides us with numerous flowers that we trial in the Annual Flower Trials.

And when he was here, he really thought quite highly of what we were doing here.

And so, we interviewed him and it went in our local paper and we've used it forever on our website or whatever, but he's traveled the world.

But he said, this garden here ranks in the upper 10% of all the display gardens within United States.

So, that was, and he's coming back again this year.

So, we really, you know, treasure those quotes like that because that we're doing a good job with all the help that has helped us create this beautiful display garden.

- [Mary Holm] Well, that's a real feather in your cap and it's a real testament to the beauty and the wonderful job that you've done here in your career.

- [Steve Poppe] Well, I've enjoyed my job.

I mean, I still look forward to every day when I come to work and for, you know, for the past 45 years, I've been here and I look back and, you know, I've had some unbelievable guidance through administrators and other plant scientists that helped us become the garden that we are today.

But we've been recognized on some of the major TV networks within the Metro area for our display garden.

And it's a hidden treasure in West Central Minnesota, and not everybody knows about us.

So, if people come here from far away or, you know, we've done a good job, it's taken a lot of people, a lot of donors and a lot of volunteers to be where we're at today.

So, I'm very proud of all the people that have supported us.

- [Mary Holm] Well, I'll have, you know, that whenever we get company we're out here and our family now goes back and says, you should see those gardens.

- [Steve Poppe] Okay, yeah, that's good to hear.

- [Mary Holm] So, we're encouraging everybody to come and visit the gardens in Morris.

- [Steve Poppe] Yes, that would be nice.

- Well Steve, thank you so much for telling us about the gardens and the history of the gardens and Hort Night too.

- Yes, thank you for having me.

- [Announcer] Funding for Prairie Yard & Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company.

Providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful Prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by Friends of Prairie Yard & Garden, a community of supporters like you, who engage in the long term growth of the series.

To become a friend of Prairie Yard & Garden visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(upbeat music)