Many of us are beginning to feel the weight of winter. It has certainly been a long, cold, snowy one. Cabin fever is setting in, and we are ready for a change of season! Rest assured, there is good news on the horizon. The first official day of spring falls next month. What’s more, Jimmy the Groundhog did not see his shadow this year, and according to legend this means an early spring is on the way. So it’s definitely not premature to be thinking about bulbs, budding flowers and green leaves again.

What better way to anticipate spring than by thinking about planting a garden? From the planning stages to reaping the benefits of your hard work, cultivating a garden can be a very rewarding experience.  Whether you are interested in growing flowers, vegetables, herbs or fruit; in community gardening or in sustainability, the benefits are endless. Gardening is a great way to enjoy the outdoors, get physical exercise, relieve stress and eat nutritiously as you enjoy what you worked hard to produce.

Whether you are an experienced gardener in need of a few tips or a beginner wanting to try out your green thumb, Madison College Libraries has resources to help. A good starting point is the library catalog. You’ll find a wide selection of books available. Sample titles include: “Beginners Illustrated Guide to Gardening,” “The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities,” “Practical Herb Gardening with Recipes,” and “Green Your Home for Dummies.”

For electronic resources, check out the Environmental Science and Sustainability Research Guides. Here you’ll find resources to help with your research, including web sites that have been reviewed by library staff. You can also find material on gardening in the library databases. From the library home page, click on the database tab and select a database from the A-Z list. A broad, general database like Academic Search Complete will have a wide range of articles on gardening, its benefits, sustainability and other related topics. And you can access these articles from home using your Madison College username and password.

Here at the Reedsburg campus we are looking forward to celebrating spring with a brand new hoop house. This 3,500 square foot greenhouse is the first of its kind in our Madison College district. It was built to support economic development in the region and offer continuing education courses covering topics such as sustainability, growing food for your family and community, growing perennials and annuals, constructing a rain garden, and even creating a salsa basket.

The Reedsburg campus library will help celebrate the new hoop house with a display showcasing the classes being offered, literature on gardening, and helpful library resources.

As spring approaches and we put the snow shovels away, think about getting the gardening tools out and letting the library resources assist you in a gardening project.    You’ll be glad you did!