University of Wisconsin - Extension

While major league baseball opens its season in the spring, The Wisconsin Gardener, a gardening program on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), indulges in a different set of spring games at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 23, with an encore broadcast at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, May 26.

There's no retractable roof, but the stadiums that Madison gardener Astrid Newenhouse creates provide a leafy alternative for young players. She demonstrates growing beans, pumpkins and flowering vines that offer a shady nook for kids.

Looking beyond the kids' area in a yard, producer/host Shelley Ryan investigates new spring plantings, including unusual, but easy-to-grow, annuals. Her consultant is Mark Dwyer, landscape manager of Rotary Gardens, Janesville.

Ryan undertakes a shopping excursion with UW-Extension Milwaukee County Commercial Horticulture Agent Lisa Johnson for disease-resistant trees and shrubs. As they examine the merchandise, the two consumers let viewers know how best to recognize and purchase well-cared-for greenery.

Offering other ideas about trees, Ryan checks in with Dr. Laura Jull with the UW-Madison Arboretum. Jull suggests planting some underused urban shade trees.

Finally, for Anglophiles, Jeff Epping of Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison, builds rustic plant supports for tall perennials. His end result is the perfect tool for pea staking, which is common in Great Britain.

Visit the Web site, http://www.wpt.org/garden">www.wpt.org/garden, for more information about The Wisconsin Gardener.

Major funding for The Wisconsin Gardener is provided by Fiskars Inc. and Ariens Foundation Ltd.

Viewers with WebTV Plus boxes on their personal computers can simultaneously watch The Wisconsin Gardener and call up Internet links and

exclusive interactive content related to the program through on-screen prompts.

These prompts and links are embedded in the program, so they carry through to all repeat broadcasts, as well as videos recorded for later viewing.

Viewers without WebTV Plus boxes or Windows 98 interactive TV systems will not see the on-screen prompts.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Wisconsin Public Television is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls, WHLA-TV/La Crosse and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.