Plants, Local Foods and Outdoor Spaces Gardening Event

The North Dakota State University Department of Plant Sciences will host a public event called Plants, Local Foods and Outdoor Spaces on July 30, from 3 to 6 p.m. in the NDSU Horticulture Research and Demonstration Gardens. Full schedule below.

New this year, tours will be held of NDSU’s Peltier Complex at 2:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. The Peltier Complex is NDSU’s newest agricultural research and teaching facility to support food science, meat science, food safety, nutrition and consumer sensory research. Tours are limited to a maximum of 25 individuals. Register for a tour spot at bit.ly/PeltierTours.

The gardens are located on the NDSU campus at the corner of 18th Street and 12th Avenue North in Fargo, North Dakota. Free parking is available on the north side of the garden. Overflow parking will be diverted to the lot adjacent to the new Peltier Complex on 18th Street North.

The event will feature walking tours of the annual and perennial flower gardens. The gardens are an official All-American Selections bedding plant display garden.

The star of the gardening event is the NDSU Historic Daylily garden which should be close to peak bloom. The daylily garden is the largest public collection of daylilies in the country with close to 2,000 cultivars. A special announcement will be made at the beginning of the event concerning the daylily collection.

In addition to garden tours, Julie Garden-Robinson, NDSU Extension food and nutrition specialist, and Joseph Zeleznik, NDSU Extension forester, will give talks under the big tent. Garden-Robinson will give a presentation titled, Fresh Preserving and Serving Ideas for Your Summer Bounty. Zeleznik will talk about the weather-related challenges that trees faced over the winter. 

Children’s activities will include hunting for insects in the garden. Adults and children alike are also invited to take part in a daylily scavenger hunt. A tractor trailer tour of fruit and vegetable research plots will start at 6 p.m. Ice cream truck, Chatty Bell’s Treats, will be on site selling pre-packaged summery treats.

Extension Master Gardeners will be accepting donations of fresh garden produce and canned goods to benefit the Fargo Emergency Food Pantry, and also will be on hand to answer plant questions.