From the Gardens Registrar: Low Temperatures Forecast; Reminder About Workdays and the No Workday Fee; A Few Words About Dogs; No Workday this Weekend

Hello Gardeners,

IT’S REALLY FREEZING – Tomorrow night, the forecast is for a low of 16 degrees. Night temperatures are expected to continue under freezing until Monday, when a slight warm-up is forecast. If you have cold-weather vegetables that you hope to grow a little longer, you might want to protect them for the next few nights – row cover, sheets, blankets, buckets, whatever you’ve got. Or you may just want to give up and pick your last vegetables tomorrow.

A SLIGHTLY FRIENDLY REMINDER – Our final workday for the season will be at the end of this month. A number of recent workdays have been rained out, and I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to have any more. Please remember that when you filled out the application for a garden plot, you agreed to either do a workday, or else pay the “no workday” fee. So if you haven’t made it to a workday yet, it’s probably time to pay the fee. The deadline is December 1. Make your check, for $32, payable to Division of University Housing. You can mail it to Eagle Heights Community Center c/o Gardens, 611 Eagle Heights, Madison, WI, 53705. Or you can drop it off in person at the Community Center. Please include a note with your name and plot number (or write the plot number on your check.)

(Note to residents of Eagle Heights and University Houses – if you drop off your check, please make sure you put it in a green envelope, so the office staff knows it goes to the gardens. Last year, several resident gardeners sent in their no-workday payments, but the money ended up at the Housing Accounting office, and was deposited as rent payments.)

If you are not sure whether or not you performed a workday, or possibly paid the “no workday” with your plot fees, please email me to ask. We still have over 200 gardeners who have not either done the workday or paid the fee. Are you one of them????

And, to keep harping on the subject, if you plan to renew your plot next year, you won’t be able to if you haven’t taken care of this obligation. After December 1, the only way to reinstate yourself is to pay the $32 fee, plus a $20 late fee. So don’t put off dealing with this, okay?

But what if you’re not coming back next year? Even if you’re not coming back, you still owe either a workday or the fee for this year.

DOGS – I received a complaint from a gardener in University Houses Gardens about dogs frequently running loose in the gardens and in the Nature Preserve. If you bring your dog to the gardens, you must have him or her on a leash. If you are gardening and see a dog running loose, you are welcome to call the UW Police, or the Housing Office to alert them. Dogs are wonderful animals, but they do not belong either in the Nature Preserve or in other people’s garden plots, particularly if they are leaving urine or droppings behind. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Good Dog!

WORKDAY – Due to current weather forecasts, we are not scheduling a workday this weekend.

Happy gardening,

Kathryn