Linn County Master Gardeners, ISU Extension and Outreach to host Urban Ag Field Day Open House in Marion

The public is invited to explore the gardens at Lowe Park in Marion and learn from Linn County Master Gardeners about urban gardening at an open house this month.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and the Linn County Master Gardeners are hosting an Urban Ag Field Day Open House to share how to turn community spaces into productive, beautiful and educational areas.

The free public event will be held at Lowe Park in Marion on July 31 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is the first time ISU Extension and Outreach and the Linn County Master Gardeners have hosted this event.

J.D. Otterbein, Linn County rural/urban ag and natural resources program coordinator, said the event will bring all levels of gardeners and farmers together to learn about agriculture in urban areas.

“(When) we hear agriculture, especially in Iowa, you think you need the big farm equipment and things like that in our rural communities, but urban ag is huge and there’s so much that you can do, even in just a backyard in town,” Otterbein said, “and this field day is a great chance to ... learn about it and get started with it.”

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Scheduled presentations will guide attendees through the innovative growing techniques used in Linn County. Master Gardeners will present on topics like composting, sustainable growing practices, community and donation gardening and supporting pollinators.

Garnet Stanger, Linn County master gardener coordinator and volunteer manager, said the presentations are intended for attendees to ask questions and get ideas to implement at home.

“Caring about the earth and pollinators and growing food — all of these those things can still happen, even in a city environment, even in a neighborhood,” Stanger said. “You don’t have to be a farmer to participate in those things.”

Self-paced garden exploration is encouraged to observe urban gardening methods on display.

Stanger noted that the demonstration gardens at Lowe Park are worth spending time with.

“It looks like one big garden, but it’s really divided up into 12 different small gardens and each of those gardens is demonstrating something specific,” Stanger said.

There’s a xeric, or rain garden, for example, and herb, vegetable, and bird and butterfly gardens, planted within the demonstration gardens.

Stanger said she likes to walk through the community gardens at Lowe Park.

“Some of them are very artistic and beautiful, and some are very practical,” Stanger said, “but it’s really cool to walk through there and experience how people can take the same space and same growing conditions and do something so different. It gives me a lot of scope for imagination and kind of daydreaming.”

Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com

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