A note from the autumn garden...

With a new program set to air at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, Be more Tuned In is happy to present a guest column from Shelley Ryan, the producer/host of The Wisconsin Gardener. Ryan writes a regular column like this for The Wisconsin Gardener E-Newsletter. If you would like to sign up for this newsletter, delivered monthly in your E-mail inbox, or to sign up for other WPT E-newsletters, visit this site.

SHELLEY RYAN'S COLUMN: CELEBRATE FALL!

Autumn is my favorite time of the year. Unlike spring when it's hurry, hurry, get the plants in the ground, fertilize, prune the trees ... autumn is a slower time of year. And thanks to global warming, autumn seems to last longer than it used to. I like that. I remember snow in early October.

A longer fall gives me time to get my houseplants cleaned up and put back in the house. It means my mums and ornamental kales will look great outdoors for weeks to come. It means I don't have to rush to get my garlic planted. Good thing, too, since I haven't gotten to that particular chore yet.

Many of my favorite plants are at their best in the fall, such as ornamental grasses, ornamental kales and cabbages, and the many colorful squashes and gourds. The newest episode of The Wisconsin Gardener, entitled "Celebrate Fall," highlights some of these wonderful plants.

It was a fun show to create. We discovered new gardens and made new friends along the way. We traveled to Bailey's Harbor in Door County to learn how to keep garden beds colorful and interesting well into late fall and even early winter. My guest, Caleb Whitney, was great fun and had tons of wonderful ideas. I particularly liked his colorful bottle trees. You’ll be seeing more of him in the future.

We also welcomed Wave Kasprzak, chef and co-owner of The Dining Room at 209 Main St. in Monticello, to our program. Wave created some wonderful recipes using onions, leeks and garlic. The caramelized onion pizza was a real hit with our camera crew. Okay, not just the crew; I think I ate about six pieces myself. I love having chefs on the show!

UW-Extension Plant Pathologist Brian Hudelson is a regular guest on The Wisconsin Gardener. In this episode he shared some of his favorite plant viruses. It's fun to watch Brian get excited about things the rest of us gardeners hate to see in our gardens.

We also traveled to Galesville near La Crosse to look at some wonderful ornamental grasses. My guest was La Crosse County UW-Extension Horticulture Educator Joyce Cielecki. She was great and you'll definitely be seeing more of her in the future as well. Thanks to her I'm thinking (once again!) of re-doing my garden with more ornamental grasses and fewer labor-intensive plants.

I sometimes think the greatest challenge of hosting The Wisconsin Gardener is creating only four new shows per year. I meet so many super people and wonderful gardeners. We get to talking and pretty soon we've come up with another five or 10 great ideas for future shows. Then I have to figure out how to cram all those people and ideas into only four shows. Maybe this is a problem for all gardeners. We have limited space, limited time, and yet there are still so many plants, trees and grasses we are just dying to possess. It hurts, but boy is it fun.

Shelley Ryan