Quilt garden new venture for area gardener

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Sandy Grolle next to her quilt garden which is
in the shape of a peace sign. (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune)

One Wood County Master Gardener is spending more time in her garden now that she has
retired from her post with the Jordan Family Development Center.
One of Sandy Grolle’s first projects at her rural Bowling Green home on Anderson
Road, was to combine her passion for gardening with her love for quilts. Grolle
planted a "quilt garden."
She had seen quilt gardens on previous trips to Shipshewana in Michigan, where the
concept is quite popular. For those not familiar, the idea is to plant your
flowers in such a manner so that when they are fully grown, the pattern will
resemble a quilt.
"Instead of material, you use flowers," she explained of her garden which
was designed as a peace sign.
Using seven flats, she planted Hawaii Blue Ageratum; gnome purple Gomprena; Silver
Dust Dusty Miller, Green Leaf Rose Begonia and marigolds.
Though she is pleased with her effort, like any good gardener, she is already
planning how to do it better next year. It is not filling out as quickly as she
hoped.
"The next time I might use more flowers," she said.
Her home also has a variety of quilts on display, including a piece quilt which
resembles the butterfly.
Grolle says she truly enjoys her time spent in the garden and is a 2007 graduate of
the Wood County Master Gardener program coordinated through the OSU Extension
office.
"That was one of the best things I ever did," Grolle said of the class.
"I really enjoyed it."
Another of her pleasures is the annual Wood County Fair.
"This year it could be interesting.
Because of the early spring, she is expecting some of the early spring flowers to
have a second round of blooms this year, allowing some different varieties at
the fair than normally seen.
She says her love of gardening stems from the fact there’s "always something new
to try."
While she has mostly focused on flower gardening over the years, she this season has
done more container gardening using most of the containers to grow vegetables,
primarily peas and green beans.
Aside from the vegetables, she says she is always tweaking something.
"That’s the way gardeners are – There’s always this or that for next year,"
she said.
One of the prizes in her garden is a peony bush which has been handed down for
generations through her family.

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