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Grow Your Favorite Recipe

Picture this - Your guest reaches over and plucks a sprig of mint from a planter to add to their iced tea or Mojito.  Nothing beats the fresh from the garden flavor or fun of ingredients right from your own garden. 

Take a look at your favorite recipes and start planning ways to include some of the ingredients into your landscape.  Try a salsa garden filled with tomatoes, a few hot peppers, onions and of course cilantro. 

Maybe it’s a pizza garden.  Roma tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano for the sauce.  Include a few peppers, onions, and slicing tomatoes for topping.  Young gardeners may like to plant these ingredients in the shape of a whole pizza pie or a slice.  And though we can’t grow cheese in your garden a ring of marigolds will add color.

Don’t forget the simple touches that make a meal special.  Freeze a few pansy flowers in ice and add to a glass of sparkling water.  Top off a bed of homegrown greens with edible flowers such as nasturtium, fuchsia and pot marigold.

A bit more information:  Flavor up your bloody Mary with a sprig of lovage.  This easy to grow herb has hollow stems and a celery flavor.  Place one or two plants in a sunny corner of a garden or one in a large pot for a vertical accent in moist well-drained soil.  This perennial herb can reach 6 feet in height, grow one foot wide and is hardy to zone 4.  Harvest sections of the stems, leaves and all, as needed.  Use as a straw in your bloody Mary for a little home-grown celery flavoring.

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August 6-16, 2026
Wisconsin State Fair
We Energies Energy Park, West Allis, WI
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August 29, 2026
Composting 102
Milwaukee Public Library - East Branch
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Sept. 3, 2026
FREE WEBINAR: 
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Sept. 11, 2026
Illinois State Master Gardener Conference
Rockford, IL
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2026 Knowledge in Bloom Conference
Urban Ecology Center, Milw., WI
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Sept. 17, 2026
FREE WEBINAR:
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Sept. 26, 2026
Pruning Hydrangeas & Other Shrubs
Pasquesi Home & Gardens, Lake Bluff, IL

Oct. 6, 2026
Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference
La Crosse, WI
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