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Public Gardens Volunteer Opportunities

Contact Name: Steve Nosal
Contact Phone: 402-441-8267
Contact email: snosal@lincoln.ne.gov
More Information on Public Gardens

Wake up the Beds (held every spring at Sunken Gardens)

Wake Up the Beds is an annual event that invites the public to help our gardeners plant annuals in the Sunken Gardens. This event takes place the second Saturday in May (May 14th, 2011), the frost free date for Lincoln, Nebraska. Good for individuals or groups.

 

Put the Beds to Bed (held every fall at Sunken Gardens)

The Put the Beds to Bed event is an annual event that invites the public to help our gardeners prepare the Sunken Gardens for winter. We pull annual flowers and spade the garden for winter resting of the soil allowing it to mellow with the newly added compost. This event takes place on the first Saturday of November (November 3, 2012). Regstration preferred: Email forestry@lincoln.ne.gov or phone 402-441-7035. Good for individuals or groups.

 

Garden Gab at Sunken Gardens

Garden Gab meets at the Sunken Gardens Pavilion, 27th and Capital Parkway every Tuesday and Thursday, May through October, from 9a-noon. These are weekly "Learn and Do" sessions with the Public Gardens staff which cover different weekly topics on the growing culture of plants used in our gardens. Following the sessions, the newly learned skills are then put to use at Sunken Gardens, Hamann Rose Garden and the Rotary Strolling Garden.

Garden GabTopics:
9 a.m. to noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays (weather permitting)

  • May: Garden installation techniques, plant establishment, plant identification, garden docent training
  • June: Rose dead-heading, garden pests-identification and their control, maintain water gardens, rose fertilization, shrub trimming.
  • July: Rose dead-heading, watering techniques for different types of gardens.
  • August: Garden photography, garden design, dead-heading annuals and perennials and roses bushes.
  • September: Garden weed control, fall turf management, preparation for garden harvest.
  • October: Soil preparation, garden harvest, fall pond maintenance, putting the beds to bed.

Garden Docents

Volunteers are needed to provide information and lead guided tour groups through Sunken Gardens, Hamann Rose Garden and Rotary Strolling Garden. Docent training is available.

 

The Rose Pruning Demonstration in the Hamann Rose Garden

This is a joint effort between the Lincoln Rose Society and the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Public Gardens Section held every year on the first or second Saturday in April (April 9, 2011)
  • Proper spring pruning of Hybrid Tea roses and well as shrub roses and miniature roses.
  • Proper maintenance techniques and general rose care during the growing season.
  • Proper tool sharpening techniques.

After a demonstration, the participants practice their new skills by spring pruning and clean up of the entire rose garden.

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