Sunday, August 25, 2019

We Want YOU!


Every year for the past 12 years, something amazing has happened. One or two people with no particular event-planning experience have raised their hands and volunteered to host the Garden Bloggers Fling. And every year for the past 12 years, garden bloggers from all over North America and beyond have been able to attend an amazingly fun and exciting garden tour in a new city.
Next year the Fling will be hosted in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. But after that, we don’t know if there will be a Fling. Why? Because we don’t have a volunteer(s) to host in 2021.
We’ve been working behind the scenes to find a host city for 2021. But unless someone steps forward to say, “I’ll do it!” the Fling won’t happen. It’s that simple.
Maybe YOU can be the one to keep the Fling going! If you’ve ever attended the Garden Bloggers Fling and you have an active (or even semi-active) garden blog, then you can host. You don’t need prior experience in hosting a tour. You just need to be an organized person, a team player, budget minded, and someone with staying power who doesn’t quit until a job is done.
Having contacts in your local garden community is a plus for finding gardens for the tour, but if you’re willing to reach out to people (plant societies, garden clubs, designers, master gardeners, garden writers/communicators), you’ll find great gardens. We can advise you on the rest. In fact we have a handy-dandy Hosting Handbook with all the details so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
It’s a big job, so it’s best to have a partner – ideally another garden blogger who lives in your city. But this is flexible because not every city has multiple garden bloggers able to help. As long as the lead planner is a blogger who’s attended at least one Fling, the co-planner may be a non-blogger. And it’s possible for people to collaborate across the miles, although for logistical reasons you need at least two members of the planning team to be located in the same city.

It’s easy to take an annual event like the Fling for granted, assuming it’ll always be there. But the Fling happens each year only because someone steps up to host. Will YOU be that person in 2021? 
If you’re interested or have any questions about hosting, please contact Pam Penick. We hope to hear from you!
Fling Advisory Committee

Monday, August 5, 2019

Mark Your Calendars: June 18-21, 2020
Garden Bloggers Fling in Madison, Wisconsin

Wisconsin State Capitol
Justjeffaz (Jeff Brunton) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Get ready to Fling in Madison, Wisconsin! The Madison area is a meeting place: It’s roughly where the Eastern hardwood forests meet the prairies; where the edge of the glaciers morphed the land and melted, leaving a series of five lakes; and where garden bloggers will meet in 2020 for the Garden Bloggers Fling!

While the soil in the area varies somewhat, Dane County soil is among the most productive in North America. Many gardeners here are blessed with excellent silt loam soil as a base for their plantings. While Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland, the state also ranks first in the nation for snap peas for processing, cranberries, ginseng, mink pelts, dry whey for humans, milk goats, and corn for silage, among other crops.

So, it’s an excellent place to grow things! And an excellent place to gather and visit gardens together!

The horticultural gardens at the UW-Madison Arboretum
Plan to join us for three full days of garden touring, plus an opening event Thursday, June 18, afternoon/evening. Please check here for eligibility guidelines. More details on the hotel, registration, gardens, special events, sponsors, and more, will be posted here in the weeks ahead. All announcements will be posted on this blog and on the official Fling Facebook page.

Just to tease you with a preliminary itinerary (times and places may change):


Sculptures and gravel garden at Epic Systems
Friday, June 19, we’ll start out visiting private gardens and then we’ll enjoy lunch, a short presentation, and tours at the UW-Madison Arboretum, home to distinct garden collections, including horticultural gardens, prairie and woodland restorations, a native plant garden, and more. In the afternoon, we’ll visit more private gardens, and then head to Epic Systems for a tour of the company’s very unique outdoor gardens, led by Jeff Epping, one of the Epic lead landscape designers.


The Thai Pavilion at Olbrich Botanical Gardens
Saturday, June 20, enjoy a leisurely walk around the Wisconsin State Capitol building at the Dane County Farmers Market, America’s largest producers-only farmers’ market. Then we’ll load the buses for a delicious brunch before visiting the award-winning Olbrich Botanical Gardens, voted one of the top ten most inspiring gardens in North America by Horticulture Magazine. We’ll round out the day with more private garden tours. (Our event banquet and auction likely will occur on Saturday or Sunday. Stay tuned for updates.)


European-style garden at Rotary Botanical Garden
Sunday, June 21, begins with private garden tours and a trip to The Flower Factory, Wisconsin’s premiere hardy plant nursery, featuring a large selection of perennials, hostas, and ornamental grasses. Next, we’ll take a quick drive to Janesville, Wisconsin, to visit Rotary Botanical Gardens, a 20-acre botanical showcase. Private gardens and our final destination—Allen Centennial Garden, in the heart of Madison—will conclude the 2020 Fling. You’ll want to stick around until the very end, because we have a special surprise planned at Allen Centennial.


Allen Centennial Garden
James Steakley [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]








Madison Fling Co-Coordinators
Anneliese Valdes – The CobraHead Blog
Beth Stetenfeld – PlantPostings.com

Any questions? Feel free to contact us: madisongbfling@gmail.com. Hope to see you in Madison next June!