Inside/Out & About

The Danville Garden Club is holding its first garden tour ever on May 11, 2013. Historic Danville is located in Boyle county, Kentucky, about 35 miles south of Lexington.  For a peek at what you’ll see on the tour, follow this link to today’s story: Danville Garden Club Tour.

Be sure to check out the related photo gallery, too.

Click here for other Inside/Out & About posts.

Internationally renowned light artist Bruce Munro will make Cheekwood Botanical Gardens twinkle and glow

… click here for the full story and some enticing photos.

Click here for other Inside/Out & About stories.

There is a lot to see at the 2013 Kentucky Crafted Market this weekend, March 2 and 3 at the Civic Center in downtown Lexington.  Many of the hand-made works of art and craft will appeal to gardeners.  To  view the slide show with photos of many Kentucky Crafted offerings, and continue reading, click here: Kentucky Crafted.

The Art and the Animal exhibit is up at The Art Museum at University of Kentucky until April 28, but this weekend, you can also catch Art in Bloom, with its bonus of companion floral arrangements, installed as part of the museum’s annual fundraiser.  About fifty designers and a host of volunteers have worked together to create a paradise for the winter-weary public eager for the advent of spring.

This is the perfect opportunity to introduce your kids to visiting an art gallery.  The images of animals are astounding, colorful and immediately understandable.  Statements about the artists, the works, and also by the floral designers are posted by each piece as well, to help you answer any questions.  It’s also fun to look for features in the paintings which are echoed in the floral arrangements.

One word of caution:  Everyone visiting the museum is cautioned that touching is not allowed, so it’s a good idea to bring something for your kids to hold on to, like a small stuffed animal or even a little flowers of their own, so that their hands are kept busy while their eyes take in everything.

The floral designs are iin place Saturday & Sunday, noon – 5 pm. $5 admission fee; free to students and UK faculty, staff and alumni.  For more information as well as normal gallery hours, see  The ART MUSEUM at the University of Kentucky

Other Art in Bloom events open to the public include:

A Night on the Town Cocktail Reception
Saturday, February 23, 7:30 – 10:30 pm
Cocktails, Hors d’oeuvres and Silent Auction
Tickets: $100 each or $75 for the “under 40 crowd”
Cocktail Attire

Artists Demonstrations
with Mary Neely, Cate Wagoner, Kelly Brewer,
and Ann Rutherford Pass
Sunday, February 24, 2-4 pm

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky is located at the Singletary Center, at the corner of Rose Street and Euclid Avenue, Lexington, KY 40506-0241  859.257.5716

To read other Inside/Out & About posts, click here.

Every February, floral designers transform the University of Kentucky Art Museum  into a garden of floral delights with galleries filled with colorful art and flowers.  Art In Bloom, the Museum’s primary fundraiser, will run from February 22 through 24 with fifty designers and a host of volunteers working together to create a paradise for the winter-weary public eager for the advent of spring.

The floral designers will choose as inspiration works of art from the Museum’s permanent collection and the special exhibition Art And The Animal. They will then use flowers, plants, and other natural elements to create their own works of art. This year the event chair is Ellen Karpf, an enthusiastic champion for the arts. The Museum will honor John Gardner for his support of the arts. The signature artist, local painter Ann Rutherford Pass, has created and donated a wonderful work of art just for the event.

Here is what’s happening:

An Evening of Elegance Black-Tie Gala
Friday, February 22, 7 pm
Cocktails, Sponsors’ Dinner and Live Auction
Sponsorship packages from $500 – $10,000
Black-Tie Attire

A Night on the Town Cocktail Reception
Saturday, February 23, 7:30 – 10:30 pm
Cocktails, Hors d’oeuvres and Silent Auction
Tickets: $100 each or $75 for the “under 40 crowd”
Cocktail Attire

Artists Demonstrations
with Mary Neely, Cate Wagoner, Kelly Brewer,
and Ann Rutherford Pass
Sunday, February 24, 2-4 pm
$5 admission

View floral designs Friday, Saturday & Sunday:
noon – 5 pm. $5 admission fee.

For more information, contact  The ART MUSEUM at the University of Kentucky

Rose Street and Euclid Avenue, Lexington, KY 40506-0241  859.257.5716

To read other Inside/Out & About posts, click here.

Homegrown Herbs Tammi Hartung  Storey Publishing 255pp $19.95

This year I tried my hand at growing a few herbs from seed because it pains me to pay five dollars for one potted plant.  In my container herb garden, I ended up with spindly basil, dead cilantro, and puny parsley.  Homegrown Herbs to the rescue, not only for seed starting and growing tips but compost and soil enrichment techniques as well.

Author Tammi Hartung, owner of certified organic Desert Canyon Farm in southern Colorado, is well versed in horticulture with resume highlights such as managing arboretums, growing and propagating medicinal herbs,

...click here to read more of Emily Schneider’s review.

Click here to read other Inside/Out & About stories.

The Complete Gardener’s Guide:  Everything You Need to Know to Create and Care for Your Garden.  Simon Akenroyd, et al. Royal Horticultural Society; Dorling Kindersley Ltd.  448 pp $30.00

The Complete Gardener’s Guide introduces new gardeners to the specifics of what plants need: light, water, nutrition, healthy soil.  It then goes about showing how to provide these basic needs.  Starting with how to enrich the soil, composting, and where to place plants for maximum light exposure, the guide expands to a rather large and excellent chapter on how to design a garden. Beginning with making decisions on how you want to use your yard—for vegetable gardening, flowers and herbs, play areas, a storage shed, a water feature, or any combination of these — instructions on how to draw up a landscape plan are provided, as well as diagrams of sample gardens, ideas from which could easily be incorporated into one’s own yard.  Design problems such as sloped yards, creating boundaries and privacy screens, how to make a path, garden buildings, pergolas, and lighting are also discussed here. There are simple directions for erecting a fence, building a deck, laying a lawn, making a water feature, and raised beds.  You may want to replicate the vegetable garden design which is pictured on page 37, just for the sheer beauty of it.

When I began reading this book, I had to chuckle at … (click here to continue reading Linda Corridoni’s review)

For other Inside/Out & About posts, click here.

The Arboretum Founder’s Lecture Series presents Steve Foltz as the featured speaker on Wednesday, February 14, at 7 p.m. Foltz is horticulture director at the Cincinnti Zoo and Botanical Garden, which  plays a unique role in regional horticulture. One of the most visited public gardens in the Midwest with over 1.3 million people coming to the Zoo this past season, Foltz addresses how they take advantage of this opportunity to educate and inspire visitors about plants and what they can do in their own landscape to help make a difference in our local environment. Proper plant selection plays a key role in helping people be successful in their own garden. See how the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden selects the “Zoo’s Best” plants for the landscape.

Foltz is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, with a BS degree in Ornamental Horticulture. He has been at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for 24 years. He is also a member of the Theodore Klein Plant Awards committee, International Plant Propagators Society and is on the Ohio Invasive Plant Council Board. He also teaches plants at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State and Technical College.

LOCATION:   Gluck Equine Research Center

1400 Nicholasville Road

University of Kentucky Campus

Corner of Nicholasville and Farm Road

ADMISSION:  General Public $5              Friends of the Arboretum & Students with I.D.   Free

INQUIRIES:    The Arboretum 859.257.6955   www.ca.uky.edu/arboretum

Approved for 1 hour CEU:  International Society of Arboriculture           Ky Landscape Architect Board