Supporting Veterans At Kopke’s Greenhouse (Hour 1)

Live on location, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across

Wisconsin on the Civic Media Rated Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

I'm Todd Albaugh.

We are live on location here in the town of Dunne in beautiful Dane County.

That's just outside of Oregon, which is just south of Madison, Wisconsin.

And we are a beautiful cop keys greenhouse here on it might be a little drizzly, a little, a little gray on the outside, but wow.

If you're not on our stream today, you want to get there either on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, whatever your streaming preferences are.

We have the cameras set up and behind me right here, we are inside of one of the beautiful greenhouses here, lots of red, white and blue.

We are going to be talking to Gordy Kopke, the owner and proprietor, the founder here of Kopke's Greenhouse a little bit later this hour.

Find out about this great local business.

Kopke's are one of our great sponsors here at Civic Meet.

you.

So always great to highlight them.

But we'd be here anyway, quite frankly, because it's a beautiful, beautiful place to be.

And more important, well, as importantly, we'll say it that way.

Coming up this Sunday, their annual event.

And this is a great event Sunday, May 25.

It's going to be all afternoon long.

But at 3pm, a special auction, and they're going to have all kinds of beautiful planters out here for you to bid on

all the proceeds from the planters, as well as the concessions, the brats, the sodas, all that sort of thing.

All those monies will go to Wisconsin Badger Honor Flight to bring our veterans from the Madison area, the Wisconsin area out to Washington DC and honor them for their service.

So just a really great cause, especially on this Memorial Day weekend.

And you're going to be talking to Gordy Kopke a little bit later this hour.

And we'll talk some plants as well.

Do you have a green thumb?

Do you want to have a green thumb?

We'll answer some of your plant questions a little bit later.

on in this show as well.

But right now on a hump day, by the way, thank you.

I forgot about the cable.

I got so excited about the flowers on

this

Wednesday, the 20th of May.

I forgot about the cable, but you can never forget about our Wednesday guests.

If I could talk joining us live for beautiful Lake Wissota in just the Chippewa Valley area there of Wisconsin.

Mr. Pat Crite low host of mornings with Pat Crite low now from six until nine across the civic media ready network and from our nation's capital outside of Washington DC.

Mr. Trigby Olson, a former Republican like myself and now the senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.

Gentlemen, how the heck are you?

Well, we're the heck in hoodies.

Him and his badger hoodie, mine and my Western Michigan Broncos hoodie.

You are bundled up like Nanooka, the north over there in the greenhouse.

It's pretty

warm in here.

Well, OK.

Relatively speaking, I got my jacket on.

My civic

media hat.

So we're a little cold.

We're kind of waiting for spring to come on back.

But I know, right?

It could be worse.

It could be worse.

Trigby, how is the weather out in DC?

You know, I haven't been outside today because it's rainy.

Oh,

it's raining.

That's where you go.

All

right.

He doesn't get out much.

You know, in

my 13 year old wanted to ride to school and dad was like, no.

Patrick, Patrick, you have your your Western Michigan.

I don't think we.

took time because, you know, you're a busy guy.

You're traveling all over the world.

But your son-in-law is a national champion, right?

Yes, works for the Western Michigan hockey team.

And the Broncos are your division one NCAA men's hockey champions.

So it was fun to watch them all throughout.

And then after the championship game, this hoodie that had worn for many games throughout the season, I put up on the top shelf of the closet figuring I wouldn't need it until next season.

And then there was a wind chill, the likes of which we haven't experienced in a while here in Chippewa.

When I was, uh, gassing and gassing up the car and getting groceries yesterday with the sideways rain pelting you and that stiff wind out of the east.

And now we're back in hoody weather for a little while here.

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's a little chilly.

Well, we're actually going to be up in Chippewa Valley with the show tomorrow in the greater Eau Claire area.

No, we'll

see.

We,

is that

still the plan?

Well, that's still the plan.

We, we, we, we thought about doing the show from.

patched pontoon boat on Friday or

an ice shack.

You know, it might be frozen over by then.

I don't know.

You know, it would be really if if you're if you're still thinking about coming up, we've got a lovely patio here with Lake WSOTA in the background.

You I'll be there.

I'll be in the air.

I'm coming up for my youngest niece's at Isabelle's high school graduation from Eau Claire Memorial on Thursday night in the parties on on

Saturday.

So

very nice.

And it's

great to be in the Chippewa Valley.

Shishu's comment on YouTube is perfect.

It's your fault, Pat.

You put the hoodie away too soon.

Yes, I will take full responsibility between that and running away to Portugal last week.

I just invited all the bad weather to come back this week.

My bad.

How was the trip, Pat?

It was amazing.

Portugal was not on my list, you know, going to Europe in general, yes, but I hadn't like looked at individual countries, had a dear friend getting married there, and they asked me to perform the ceremony.

And so I was doing that and Sherry and I got there a week ahead of time so we could see much more of the country.

And two things worth noting that I think might be of interest to Trigvi as well.

One is that their national elections were held.

last weekend, too, as we were there.

Interesting.

And it really says something about work.

We're not crazy about the two party system here.

That's a little too limited.

But they've got 10 parties to work with.

And they're having a heck of a time that that was their third national election in four years, trying to get a consensus government.

So that was the one point about Portugal.

But the other thing they'll be quick to tell you is they've only been at this democracy thing for 50 years.

Because it was 50 now 51 years ago that Portugal was on the verge of Civil War after 50 years of a basically a dictatorship and So they are still enjoying the freshness of democracy.

There's a little voter fatigue with these three elections lately, but

Unlike a lot of folks on say, though, the mag attempt, these folks in Portugal remember what it's like when you let despots in power and you let authoritarians run ragged across your country.

Their economy is booming now because of democracy and freedom and we would do well to not want to repeat what other countries have had to go through.

Very, very interested indeed.

Guys, I don't like to get too much into deep, deep partisan politics when we're on location at a business, but I did want to touch on this since I have both you guys here.

It's a little insider based ballish, but but you guys are the perfect people to talk about it.

Trigby, the Republican Party of Wisconsin had their state convention this past weekend in Ross child.

Brian Scheming survived.

There was kind of an attempt to vote to start taking him out and that got voted down.

So Brian Arthur Scheming still remains the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

And then coming up next month will be the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's convention.

And it appeared to be that Joseph Peckie was kind of the inside track to to win a takeover for Ben Wickler, who's not going to run again for the chair of the Democratic Party.

But now Wickler comes out yesterday and announces that he's going to endorse after saying he won his deputy.

And Pat, you had that guy on the show today.

Trigby, then Pat, what do you make of these, if anything, is this important to the average Wisconsinite?

These kind of kind of inside party fighting.

No, I don't think it matters much at all that the average Wisconsinite they're not paying a lot of attention to it It matters a lot for the blocking and tackling and elections in Wisconsin who wins the various races I guess I'll I'll leave the Democrats to Pat, but you know, does it surprise me that shimming prevailed?

And there was less noisy.

No, not really because truth of the matter is

You know, sometimes what you discover with sort of that mega-wing, lots of noise, but not a lot of behind it.

What do you make Ron Johnson, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin seems to be at odds once again with Republican Derek Van Orton in the third district.

Van Orton all in the Trump train saying you have to pass what Trump calls the big beautiful bill, i.e.

the big expensive budget bill.

And Ron Johnson saying, no, we have to cut even further.

Is that just more noise?

No, I mean, I just think it gets to the truth of the matter is the Republican Party and it's been true for a while.

Sort of a messed up coalition of people that don't really want to be in coalition with each other It's a marriage of convenience mostly because a lot of them care about one thing power I think the bigger thing with Ben Orton is did you see this thing where he?

He's sometimes he's not the most adept at media relations He got asked a question about elections and losing and he said well, maybe we don't need spring elections anymore in Wisconsin

Yeah, we played that actually yeah and shimmy laughed at it

because the reporter went up to him afterwards and just showed me and said, what do you agree with Congressman Van Orton?

And he cut the reporter off and says, I always agree with Congressman Van Orton.

What do

you

say?

He wants to get rid of spring elections.

I think I mostly agree with Congressman Van Orton.

I agree with what Derek Van Orton

said.

He just said he wants to get rid of spring elections here in Wisconsin.

I agree with almost everything that

Derek Van Orton said.

Wow.

when your state chairman is metaphorically lighting you on fire in front of the media maybe that's a sign that was a mistake to do over on the van odd one man

he's something else

yeah

Over on the Democratic side, yes, we had Devon Remaker on today.

Very happy to tout his endorsement from Ben Wickler.

Joseph Pecky had some strong things to say about that on social media, and I'm sure that he will say those things again tomorrow when he's on our program during the 8 a.m.

hour.

And then we will have the third candidate in the race, William Garcia, on in the 8 a.m.

hour on Friday.

So all three candidates today, tomorrow and Friday, folks can go over to our show page.

over at civicmedia.us and listen to them all.

That sounds great.

Is this good for the Democratic Party, Pat?

I mean, Trigby and I come from the other side.

I mean, you were a former Democratic state legislator.

Is this a good thing for the party to have these kind of discussions if not fights on leadership?

I think this one is it's going to be a net positive.

I think that you've got people who

Ben Wickler's giving you big shoes to fill and they're looking at all three of these candidates and seeing who's most capable of doing that.

And all three of these candidates are trying to not get boxed in by or get pigeonholed, that Joseph Ecke is the Milwaukee candidate or the outside the party candidate, that Devin Remacher is the inside the party candidate and that William Garcia is the, you know, the out state candidate.

When all three of them have, you know, talents that would serve the party well, there's not any

any one of those three that I would be unhappy with.

Like Trigvie, I'd say this does not matter.

to the average voter.

But the people who work really hard inside the party, especially at the county party level, there's going to be a lot said about whether this motivates them.

Ben Wickler was a motivator.

Martha Lanning was not as friendly to county parties as she was to say kind of these ad hoc local organizations.

And so every every chair brings something different into it in terms of whether they have the motivation, the organization, the messaging and the ability to bring in money.

And I think

It's just going to be a nice, honest debate.

And then Democrats will quickly come together and move on.

From a DC perspective, you've worked, obviously, on the Republican side, but I know you've kind of reached across the aisle with your work in the Lincoln Project, to some degree.

The lobbying class, the money class out in DC, do they keep track of this kind of stuff at the state level, or does it really matter what it comes to a statewide

election?

Yeah, maybe the consultant class more than anybody, right?

Yeah.

But I think not huge.

The one thing I would say though is, you know, there is more attention paid to Wisconsin because it's Wisconsin.

Right.

It is, you know.

Michigan and Pennsylvania and Arizona get a little bit more

attention

to that stuff.

Well, we're going to pay attention to things here in Copkeys Greenhouse.

We are live on location in Oregon, Wisconsin.

I'm going to come back and ask Pat and Trigby their memories of Memorial Day on the old campaign circuit and what it means to have these veterans memorials.

We'll talk about that more on the other side.

We're live on location at Copkeys on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Sugar magnolia, possum is twinning, that's all they can, I don't care.

So might be, be down by the river, who she'd have to come up soon for dare.

Welcome back to the Towel Ball Show live on location on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are at Kopkes Greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon in beautiful Dane County.

A little drizzly outside, but as Gordy, the proprietor here at Kopkes likes to say when it's when it's raining outside, that's when you want to come in and buy your plants and then you plant them when it's nice out.

Gordy is going to be joining us here after the bottom of the hour break talking about Kopkes and also talking about this

Great event coming up this weekend on Sunday, May 25th.

The actual auction will be at three o'clock in the afternoon, but the event happens all day long.

It's live music.

It's great concessions, broths, hot dogs, that sort of thing.

Great sodas.

And then they have this big plant auction.

They have planters that they auction off.

and some of their right now they're here in the greenhouse.

Normally these things will go for anywhere around 70 to 80 bucks a pot and then they auction them off.

You usually go well over $100.

Some of them maybe not quite that much, but the key is all the proceeds from those planters at this auction as well as all the concession proceeds go to the Badger Honor Flight here in Wisconsin, which helps get our veterans from Wisconsin out to Washington DC to honor them.

Pat is a former state legislator.

I know part of the duties are going around giving speeches, particularly around Memorial Day, dedicating veterans monuments.

And Trigby, you went around, of course, with John McCain, one of our great veterans of all time.

You worked for him, not just here, but around the world.

I'd like to ask each of you what this weekend, remembering the fallen and Pat, particularly as you represented areas, what this weekend means to you, your members of it.

It's it reminds me from my time there that I wish more people Had had reason to or would make reason to Take part in some of these ceremonies a lot of these smaller communities They just do either a short parade or a short memorial service, you know in a local town park or something like that and to again hear the the stories of sacrifice to remember that these were these were

actual names, actual people in your hometown.

They're not just words on a marker as you drive past the courthouse every so often.

And I know being the son of a soldier who served during the Cold War on the border between East Germany and West Germany back in the 1960s, he knew so many people who were

serving in Vietnam instead and who again, you know, paid that ultimate price in service to their country that just simply must never be forgotten.

And another way that you avoid that is also not not damaging the military, not hurting our veterans, say for veterans health care.

And I know people are going, Oh, here, Pat's going to politicize this.

Look, if you're going to honor veterans, don't just make it a simple gesture on Memorial Day for the fallen.

It's something show that honor all year long and I'm seeing a real reduction in that honor lately to put it mildly.

Yeah, Trigby.

You know, I mean, I guess I think about a few things and when it comes to Memorial Day one is, you know,

as a kid growing up and occasionally when I'm back, the parade and then the ceremony that they have at the cemetery in River Falls is just fantastic and it's always the sort of passing of the baton for the high school band because you've got the kids who are graduating and I think about back when I was a senior and I wish I would have understood it better.

You know, there was a guy, Adie Halverson, who I think I've mentioned before on the show.

I ushered with him at church.

What I didn't understand about Adie is he was a survivor of the Baton Death March, and I didn't really get what that meant.

I knew that others kind of had respect for him, that was unique.

He never talked about it.

And...

He was just, he was the kind of guy that made the city of River Falls run.

And I, you know, I, there is an element of that to some degree that I think we've lost.

that

that

generation had because they were so shaped by their experiences at such a young age.

And coincidentally, we had Dan Hagan on from WGFWTV yesterday.

And he got very somber in noting that he had a relative who also died in the Batan Death March that again brings to life the sacrifices that we should never forget.

Totally agree.

I hope people take time this Memorial Day weekend to remember the sacrifices the freedoms that we all Enjoy were paid for with real lives and real blood.

You guys obviously trigger you live in DC.

I know Pat you've been there several times Agree probably one of the most powerful parts of DC is a visit to Arlington National Cemetery

Yeah, you know, we typically go there on Memorial Day because there's a whole set of veterans that go and and ride Harleys along the street in the Iwo Jima Memorial is a great place to go and watch those guys go by and as they they drive around and and it's always kind of an exciting time because they're You know starting on Friday, they're gonna start rolling in they kind of got the Wisconsin tradition because it's a lot of guys on Harleys, of course, but

yeah

I would just underscore that I hope that people take this opportunity as well to not only focus on the sacrifice, that is the main reason for the holiday, but the service of it as well.

These are people who served their country and that, um, you know, as, as I know, one of the listeners was saying on, on YouTube here right now, let's not just have, you know, a bunch of empty gestures.

Let's actually instill the values of service to the next generation.

I do see that.

I'm not one of those that's going to say, Oh, the whole younger generation, they have no idea.

There are, but you could, you could never do it enough to remind people of the value of service.

I typically talk about it.

I get it from an electoral standpoint, but whether it's in the military or.

or health or teaching here in some other ways, we really need to get this notion of service back rather than being selfish and I'm gonna get mine and I'm gonna get power or whatever the case may be.

Let's serve our fellow man and

woman.

That's right.

That's right.

A frozen tundra of like with so exactly.

All right, guys.

Thanks so much.

Come on back.

Dr. Gordy Koppke here.

We're here live on location at Koppke's greenhouse, where we have this big auction for our veterans coming up on Memorial Day weekend here at Koppke's greenhouse.

You're listening to the title bowl show across Wisconsin on the civic

media.

Welcome back to the Total

Ball show on the Civic Media already network where it is now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this win

the 20th of May or 21st, pardon me, 21st of May here and we are live on location at Kopkes Greenhouse in the town of Dullin that's just outside of the city of Oregon, which is just south of Madison.

So there you go.

There's your directions.

Easy to get to.

In fact, I had to I was almost out of gas and so I went to Oregon first.

It's like it's like less than a five minute drive from Oregon out to Copkeys.

And we're here live on location.

If you're watching on the stream on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, I hope that you are because it's beautiful.

We're inside even though it's a little rainy outside today.

We are inside here in one of their greenhouses.

All kinds of beautiful baskets and planters behind us here cover red.

white and blue theme, and we are joined here at our make-up, our desk here on location at Kopke's by the founder and owner himself, Mr. Gordy Kopke.

Gordy, how the heck are you?

Fantastic,

Todd.

Well, I can't thank you enough for allowing us to come out here today.

Number one, because I just love coming out here, it's a beautiful place, learn about plants.

But number two, once again, to talk about this great event that you're having this weekend to raise money for the Badger Honor Flight.

Well, it's an honor for us to have you out here as well.

And we have been doing this for a number of years and building up quite a clientele that come out.

just specifically for this auction and because all the money goes for a good cause.

Yeah, it really does.

Before we get into that, I think it's a good time.

You are so kind as to have us out here last year.

But just for folks that might not have joined us last year, tell us a little bit about Copkeys.

How long have you been here and how did this all come to pass?

Well, I was in alternative energy back in the late 70s and then Ronald Reagan got in and did away with the tax credits that helped one didn't he tore the solar collectors off the White House and I was sort of unemployed at the time and and I had grown up farming just a mile down the road and My best friend and I started a windmill business back in the late 70s and wouldn't yeah selling wind power generators and solar water heaters and

that went out of business.

And so I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with my life.

That could be doing something noble with my time.

And I built my first greenhouse in 1981 to start transplants for growing vegetables to sell at the farmer's market.

And things went very well.

We kept building a couple more greenhouses.

And then my mother, who was a very avid flower gardener,

convinced me to grow some flowers in the greenhouse while I could grow stuff but I didn't know mums are marigolds but I could grow stuff so I started growing flowers and taking them to the market and then over the course of time it just occurred to me that there was quite a significant demand for flowers and

You could grow them on benches.

You didn't have to bend over and pick them up off the ground like tomatoes and peppers.

And so we opened to further retail in 1984 to sell a few plants out of one little hoop house down here.

I didn't have much of imagination.

I could never have imagined that we were going to be the largest retail

grower to retail operation in the state of wisconsin

just incredible

yes it is

wow what and uh... how many uh... how many hoop houses do you have?

we have 34 greenhouses all together about three and a half acres undercover and then we have about a half acre production outside as well

Well, I think that's an important thing, especially for a day like today for our listeners to know in the Madison area.

But really, we go all across the state.

And if you ever want to take a drive, say on a weekend, say, I want to go just have a great day and make a day of it, I really would encourage you to come to Kopke's because like on a day like today, you have so much as undercover, you can come here and shop and never, never get wet.

Yes, exactly.

One time we had tour buses that used to come in from Green Bay.

Really?

Yeah, Galena, Illinois.

And we have still have a good customer clientele that comes up from Chicago that shops here as well.

And if people don't want to come here to the greenhouse in the town of Dunn, you're on the farmer's market on the square every Saturday morning as well.

We are at the farmer's market, although it's, you know, we get 16

feet of space.

Right.

Right.

We also rent a parking lot in Stoughton and we do about 10 to 12 percent of our business

is

sold right out of our little Stoughton

store.

It's quite an ordeal.

Was it busy for sitting to my last

week?

It was.

Up to Sunday, the parking lot gets pretty congested during the parade time.

So before the parade and after the parade, we do okay.

Yeah.

We're here at Copkey's greenhouse in the town of Dunn talking to Gordy Copkey.

Before we get into the honor flight, Gordy, a little bit more about the business.

I know that you kind of slowly transitioned already handing the business over to the next generation.

This is a family owned business.

It's an independent business, which for me is really, really important as we travel the entire state.

I love talking to family owned businesses.

I get it.

You know, the big box stuff is fine to a degree, but I really like it when there's a family owned local business who's invested in the

community.

Thank you.

I've set up my retirement scenario in such a manner that I have another generation that's hopefully going to take over and I'm sharing, gifting my stock in the corporation to six of the employees, one of which is my stepson, and they are collectively going to take this over and hopefully

keep my name going long after i'm out of here

yeah well josh has been incredible we talked to him setting this up as well and i know one of the other things i think you called in one day to the show you're a listener we appreciate not only are you a sponsor but you're a listener we always appreciate that gordy not only are you noted for your plans but i think it's important to you maybe your service out here

well thank you um we have uh been voted

Best Garden Center for four years for the People's Choice Award.

And I think the last two or three consecutive years as the best customer service, which includes not just greenhouses, but all of the businesses in this local area.

And we spend a lot of resources hiring people who love to share their knowledge with other people.

And it's paid off for

us.

I know when I've come out here and shop before I was out here a couple of weeks ago and got some plans for mom up original and center and you can't you can't go more than 20, 25 feet and people aren't intrusive.

But are you okay?

Do you need anything?

You find everything okay?

And if you need and what's great about it is they're not just nice folks who will help you carry stuff out to your car.

They're knowledgeable.

You can ask them a plant question.

Hey, is this going to grow in the sun?

Is this an annual or a perennial?

There's real plant knowledge here.

to help whether it's the most experienced gardener or whether it's a novice.

Yes, we try to hire people who have a passion for gardening and like to share that knowledge with them and so we have it sort of set up with some

annual people answering annual questions.

We have a perennial staff that will answer your perennial questions, and then we generally have a person in the vegetable house that will answer questions pertaining to the vegetable garden as well.

So there are no stupid questions at Kopke's greenhouse.

Everybody's welcome, and you'll get a good answer.

Well,

I've heard a stupid question once in a while, but I tried not to let on.

Really?

You're nice about it.

Yeah.

Midwest, nice.

Well, the big question, our owner CEO, Sage Weil, looking for raspberry bushes before we went on the air.

I already talked to your staff.

I found some, some of them take stage some raspberries here at the end of the show.

So he's, he's very excited about that.

And it doesn't matter whether you're doing vegetables, as Gordy said, plants or a garter.

flowering plants, annuals, or perennials.

And what I really like, and I got some of these from Mom last year, are the native species of wildflowers here.

That's a really cool aspect.

If people want to kind of plant, there's a big push on

controversy over no mo may but i think a lot of experts say rather than don't mow your yard just plant native species and that's better for the pollinators

exactly and uh there's been a big move in the last several years to move to more natives and uh so we tried it out to cater to that demand as well so we have a section

that can help those folks out as well.

All right, sounds good.

Talk to Gordy Kopke here at Kopke's greenhouse in the town of Dunn.

Gordy, this event coming up this weekend, I think it's one of the coolest things around.

It's a big auction, it's a big day, lots of fun, but there's also a very serious aspect of honoring those who have served before raising money for the honor flights.

Tell folks about it.

Yeah, we started a number of years ago.

I was up at the EAA when the plane load of the vets came back through there.

And I was almost brought to tears to see these veterans coming back and how well they were treated by the people who were welcoming them back home.

And so I did a little more investigation into it and found out that they have a chapter here in southern Wisconsin.

We started the first couple of years, we'd just do a silent auction where you come up, put your number and outbid the next person.

And one of my good customers, Bob Johnson from down by Milton, is an auctioneer.

And he saw what we were doing, he said, oh, come on, I can raise more money than what you're doing.

He says, I'll donate my time and we're gonna do this thing live.

I said, okay, Bob, let's go for it.

And since then, he's an amazing character.

He brings out the most out of people and last year we were able to raise $16,000 just in planting Wow.

Yeah,

that was 16 grand in plants alone

and then we did another four grand on our Broadstand and and that's basically runs Saturday Sunday Monday where people come up and just put a few bucks in whatever they want to and And it goes for a great cause.

Well, I think it's so cool because for those that might not know and I know our our friend and colleague Jane Matt

on Matt Nair on air every morning from 9 until 11.

She's had people on.

I believe there's another chapter in Milwaukee that does flights as well on General Mitchell Field.

This is the Badger on her flight out of Madison.

They go to the Ding County Airport and and if you haven't heard of it, this is where they.

Money is raised like Gordy and Kopkes here is doing this weekend.

And then they take veterans.

I think it started with World War two veterans.

And I'm not mistaken.

But now it goes all the way through people who have served in the I think Afghan or Iraqi war Vietnam, certainly.

And they take him out to DC, take him to the respective memorials just to say thank you.

And when people come back, when the veterans come back, the airport hallways oftentimes are lined with family and friends.

and they're clapping and they're giving them the welcome home that some of these vets Gordy didn't have when they came back from service.

Exactly.

I was treated as a guest a couple of years ago because we've raised enough money where we spent.

quite a few people on this excursion and I got to ride along with it and to come back and see the thousands of people waiting there at Dane County to welcome these people.

I was just overwhelmed and as they were, a lot of the guys were in tears because of the appreciation that they were receiving.

somewhat delayed in many cases.

And correct me if I'm wrong.

Does each veteran get to choose a chaperone or a guest that goes with them?

Sometimes it's a kid or a grand kid or somebody like that that goes with them on this.

And what a what an amazing experience for them to learn firsthand from their from their grandparent or from their parent.

And maybe find out things that mom or dad were never able to discuss before with them.

Yeah, a lot of its children and a couple of people on the plane I was with there is grand.

children.

But yeah, definitely a lot of the soldiers never told the stories of what they experienced.

Yeah, it's tough.

I mean, I never served, but when I worked for a member of Congress, I had the honor of doing military and veterans affairs, and you get just a little bit of a taste of what these families go through, what the service, of course, this weekend, we remember those who gave all and gave their lives for this country.

And I just want to say thanks to you and to Kopkes greenhouse, because this is a great example of what civic media talks about all the time, community.

Nobody's making you do this.

You don't have to do it.

But here you're taking, you know, you've been gifted a lot.

And now you're paying it forward every year with this great event coming up on Sunday here at three o'clock the auction, right?

Yes.

But it goes all day.

The event goes all

day.

The event goes all day.

Brats start being served at 10.

We have live music comes on from 11 to three.

All

right, we'll come on back.

We'll talk a little bit more about greenhouses and the honor flight where a cop key is greenhouse on location.

The title of all show on the civic media ready to work.

Whatever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media ready to work.

We are alive on location at copkeys greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon, which is just south.

of Madison.

And today is the having fun part of it.

Absolutely.

And if you're watching on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, streaming, beautiful inside, even those little dreary outside a few sprinkles, overcast skies, it is warm and beautiful inside the greenhouse here at Kopkes, where you can come in and shop to your heart's content and never really get wet because it's nice and dry inside here.

Glad to have you along here from Kopkes.

We are being joined right now by the

Founder and owner of Copkeys, Gordy Copkey.

Gordy, thank you again for doing this.

Thanks for being the sponsor of Civic Media.

A couple of things I want to highlight again.

The sign is right up above us here, just outside the camera view.

It says the 2023, I think 2024 best greenhouse and customer service award, people's choice awards.

That to me is such a big thing.

People can go to a lot of different places to buy plants these days, but it's a rarity when you could go and A, have friendly and quick customer service, but knowledgeable customer service.

And that's something people get when they come to Kopkes in the town and dump.

exactly it's the key to my success is hiring people who will make me look good

but you're one of those people i mean whether you're talking here or when you're up at the farmers market you're always going to smile you're friendly uh... you're great just to chat with and people want to do business with people like that i think

Well, yeah, I think so.

I guess I'm the same way in what I miss in today's culture is going to a store and looking for somebody because I have a question in my walk around for five minutes and can't find anybody and just it gets me frustrated and looks

I want to shop somewhere else.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree.

I shop.

I try when I have something for a hardware, let's say there's a small ace hardware in Madison and you go in there and the people know exactly what where things are at.

They can tell you what it's about.

And it's the same way when they come to Kopkes here in terms of plants and all your care needs that way.

Yes,

it's really great.

I want to mention again, you have this great event coming up this Sunday, May 25th, all day long, but there's an auction.

at three o'clock in the afternoon here at the greenhouse have all how many baskets or planters do you have?

I

believe we've got 45 and then we generally will

Sometimes we'll do a duplicate of a particular design and the auctioneer will give the choice for the backup bidder if they want to buy the second container of that design.

That's great.

And the proceeds for all of these planters that are going to be auctioned off at three o'clock, as well as the concessions to the Broadstand, that's all going to go towards the Badger Honor Flight.

Money's raised going to Badger Honor Flight for our veterans to go visit Washington, D.C.

and have them honored.

We want people to come out on Sunday, Gordy, rain or shine, but if you can't, if you're with the show goals all over Wisconsin, there might be people to haywords like, hey, I can't make it down to the Copkeys, they can still donate and they can still bid.

They certainly

can.

They can call us on the phone and we'll bid for a container or if they just want to make a donation, they can do a credit card donation over the phone that goes directly to the Honor Flight.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Osama is going to put it up there on the

screen will give it to you and the show notes as well.

The number to call on Sunday if you want to donate to the Badger on our flight or bid on one of these fantastic planters is 608-835-7569.

That's 608-835-7569.

That's also the greenhouse number here.

But it's a great way for people to get involved and still donate and still help out even if they can't come down.

Exactly.

And we have had customers call in and bid and buy containers as well as just making a donation to the general cause.

And we're also here Saturday and Monday doing the Brot stand.

Really?

So yeah, it's a three day event.

And again, all proceeds go directly to the honor flight.

We have a quick trip has donated 300 Brots this year.

Wow.

Brots and buns and the we provide

all beef hot dogs and we have some plant-based burgers that we offer for the people who are into those.

And so we try

to cater to all folks.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Well, it doesn't matter, like I said before, whether you're a novice person with plants or whether you're a seasoned pro, stop down to Kopke's greenhouse here in the town of Dunge, south of Madison because you're going to find great folks who are going to help you out.

And healthy plants, by the way, everything I bought here last year, the perennials from mom came back

except the black-eyed Susan, because the deer ate it.

There's no guarantee on deer or rabbits.

No guarantee on deer or rabbits.

That's funny.

No, no.

We'll replace that and we'll try to keep the deer away.

But they're healthy plants and it's just, it makes you feel good in a world that can be kind of nuts right now.

We all need a little zen, Gordy.

Ah, yes.

We not only sell plants, we sell soul food.

I love that.

I love that.

There's a lot of great ornaments to put in the gardens of glass bulbs, lots of cool artwork here, lots of red, white and blue stuff right now for this weekend.

So it's not just plants.

And whether you want to kind of decorate the entire garden, there's things for you.

Yeah, I have a great person who's in charge of the accoutrements that we sell.

She does a great job of bringing out some unique items.

And right now we have the seasonal thing with the red, white and blue theme.

And you also have everything, not just the plants, but you have awesome pots of

every size and style, design, potting, soil, fertilizer, everything that you need for the garden.

You're going to find it here at Copper.

We try to

have it

all.

Well, including great service and always with a smile.

And again, this is coming up this Sunday, the big, the big auction at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Again, all proceeds from these planters and from the Broadstand all weekend long.

Go to the Badger Honor Flight.

Anything I miss, Gordy?

I think that pretty much covers it.

I think you did a

great job.

I appreciate you coming

out.

Well, we appreciate you.

as a partner, a sponsor to Civic Media.

A lot of people are supportive and few people put their money where their mouth is.

And we really appreciate that, Gordy, because what we do can't be done on our own.

It takes great sponsors like you who invest in the community.

And I just want to say thanks on behalf of Civic

Media.

You're quite welcome.

We appreciate it.

Gordy Koppke, everybody will be here.

Maybe you'll find somebody to answer some plant questions in our number two as well.

And coming up, we have What's Worse.

Don't go anywhere.

We are live on location of Koppke's Greenhouse.

It's the All Ball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Great new network.

Live on location, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

A crossword scumson on the Civic Media Rated Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Albault along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

It is Wednesday, May 21st, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is

pump day.

There you go.

It is hoping we're at the on location as Terry Barr said always appreciate her great introductions We are live here on location at copkeys greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon Which is just south of the city of Madison here in Dane County glad to have you along.

Thanks for being with us It's a little drizzly.

Mr. Zalmers here in the town of Dunn although most of the rain has stopped just gonna overcast a little damp but inside here in the

In the greenhouse, I hope everybody's watching on the stream today on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

We have some lovely plans here behind us.

The greenhouse is full, it's warm, it's fantastic, and it's dry.

So if you're in the area listening on WMDX in Madison, or if you want to take a drive, come on out out to Kopke's today.

You're going to find some, not just great plans, you're going to find some great service as well, and just an overall great time.

We thank Gordy Kopke for being here on the show in the first hour.

Sounds like you might come back and we'll answer some plant questions at the bottom of this hour.

So I know a lot of people this time of year have questions in terms of, well, what to plant where perennials versus annuals.

If you have a plant question, get ready, save it up and we'll invite your calls at the end or pardon me at the bottom of this hour.

So around.

335.

335.

Gordy will be back.

We'll be taking your calls for plant questions here on the show today.

Looking forward to that.

Providing a little extra service for you.

Plant service here on a Wednesday.

The big thing we want to mention here at Copkeys, not only is it a great place to buy plants, get great service as well, but coming up this Sunday on Memorial Day weekend, there is a big

auction, planned auction, and is all to raise money for the Wisconsin Badger Honor Flight, and that is to help get our veterans from Wisconsin out to Washington, D.C.

honor them both there, having to see the memorials, and then come back home and have a great welcome at the Dane County Regional Airport.

I know I mentioned also that our friend and colleague Jane McNair of Matt Air on Air every morning from 9 until 11.

She and Greg have talked about this on

show as well.

There's another division I believe that goes out of General Mitchell Field in Milwaukee and they've talked about this on their show.

So these are just great organizations that because I think too often we overlook those who have sacrificed for us.

Of course, this weekend is set aside for people who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the line of service.

But it's never a bad time to remember all those who have served.

So the cool thing is

if you...

the home listener or viewer would like to donate to Badger Honor Flight.

You can do so without even being here.

Of course, we'd love to have you come out this weekend.

The cop is in the town and done.

But if you can't write down this number, Zomers has it on the screen as well.

The number to call if you'd like to donate to Badger Honor Flight or this weekend on Sunday to bid on one of the fantastic.

And let me tell you, they are fantastic baskets here or planters are bigger than a basket of planter of the number to call.

is 608-835-7569-608-835-7569.

That is the number to call to bid this weekend or to donate to the Badger Honor Flight.

It's just been a lot of fun, Zommerz, to be out here.

It's a great vibe inside Kofkes.

Yeah, I can imagine.

Earlier before the show, Luke Mathers was talking to me and he's like, you know, it's pretty nasty outside, pretty windy and wet.

What's Todd going to do?

And I said to him, you know, it's called copy's greenhouse.

There's there's a greenhouse.

So it's going to be in there.

But yeah, no, it looks beautiful.

There really is.

And I think I think because I've experienced this now, I know Luke, he comes out here.

He is lovely wife.

They're customers of cockies.

And it's one of those places where even if you just buy a couple of things or or or just one little plant.

just walk through the entire thing because it's just it's a candy for the eyes of all the colors and greenery and it'll make you feel better, particularly on kind of a cool day like this.

The greenhouses inside are pretty warm.

So warm up a little bit.

In addition to all the outdoor stuff, they also sell indoor plants, correct?

Yes, they sell some indoor plants.

They sell well here.

Look, I'm gonna reach over here.

Look at this.

This is a luminary.

I feel like I'm on QVC now.

This is a it's called Lumiz L U M I Z and they're a battery operated at the remote.

And so it's like a Chinese lantern.

You can hang up in your garden indoors or out and then you use the remote control and turn it on and off.

How about

that?

So, I mean, they have really cool things like that, not just plants.

They have other cool things for your garden indoors and out as well.

So, we'll talk to Gordy a little bit later on in this half hour, or at the bottom of the hour, rather, and get your plant questions answered.

So, hold off on the plant questions until Gordy rejoins us.

But right now, at 11 minutes past the hour of three o'clock, time once again for what's worse.

Let's go!

Time once again for once worse.

No prize money to give away.

Nothing in terms of giveaways involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard all across all 11 stations of the Civic Media Radio Network.

Always glad to have you along.

No better place to advertise like Copkeys.

They are a pain sponsor of Civic Media, and we appreciate their support and sponsorship so much.

Join Copkeys and be a sponsor here at Civic Media.

Go to civicmedia.us and find out how to be a sponsor here.

All right, Summers, timely, timely indeed.

Now, I can tell you, this weekend, for the big Memorial Day fundraiser here at Copkeys Greenhouse, there will be nothing but great food and great soda.

But sometimes, sometimes when you go to certain events, that is not always the case this time of year.

You go to picnics and people put out less than attractive drinks.

Or here we go.

So if it's,

you know, a family event and you've got your two liter of soda that you opened last week.

That too.

That too.

All right.

Here's the category today for what's worse.

What's worse?

Flat soda or warm beer.

Flat soda or warm beer.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Give us a ring of ling.

Tell us what's worse, flat soda or warm beer and zomers.

You'll have to put up the, when we have somebody in the line up in the chat here on the old stream yard

so I can

see it on the screen if you feel very kind.

But give us a call.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Or you can text us on the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, you can download it today on your Apple or Android device.

Simply go to the Civic, your search engine, your search engine, your search bar on your on your app store.

Type in Civic CIVIC.

Media, it'll pop up with a little CM logo.

You click on that.

It takes less than a minute.

It's free.

It's what CBS's Gale King calls a deal, the Civic Media app.

You're going to want to have it.

Anyway, because coming up on Friday, another free ticket Friday giveaway for Milwaukee Brewer ticket will be up for grabs, not just on our show, but on several across civic media.

You won't give you a key word.

You must use the app to text in that word on Friday, and you'll be eligible to win four club level seats for a game to be named later on Friday.

We'll tell you about that.

But right now, what's worse, flat soda or warm.

beer eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two all right uh Dave in New Berlin checking in on the app saying warm beer is worse a side thought flat seven up is good if it's cold

All right.

Well, there you go.

David with the flat seven.

It's called Brian in Milwaukee.

Listening on W. A. U. K. Says flat soda is worse when you're drunk.

You don't care if the beer is warm.

Well, that's that's very creative.

Brian in Milwaukee.

I hadn't thought of that.

That is a good point.

But

if it's

your first, that might be kind of nasty.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That could be a little nasty.

What's worse flat soda or warm beer 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2

855-752-4842.

Or you can text us on the Civic Media app.

Always glad to have you along here.

We're here live at Kopkopke's Greenhouse.

Going to take your garden questions at the bottom of the hour as well.

Gordy Kopke will be along.

It will answer as many of those as we can for you at the bottom of the hour.

But right now, time for what's worse.

Let's go to the phone lines 855-752-4842.

Steve calling in from Milwaukee.

on WAUK, Steve, flat soda, or warm beer.

What's worse?

What's worse is warm beer.

I don't mind flat soda.

Warm beer is terrible.

All right, very good.

I appreciate you calling in.

Thank you so much, Steve.

I think I'm pretty much with Steve.

Gordy and I were talking about this over the commercial break here because I think that, you know, I don't know.

Whoever it was, Brian, or whoever it was that said that if the flat soda is cold, like over ice, you can kind of choke that down.

But boy, I don't know.

Warm beer.

Yeah, unless you're already kind of toasted, you're not going to notice so much.

But I don't know.

I'm not sure I could do the warm beer.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Luke Mathers before the show shared his thoughts on this and he said Some these are not the exact words, but he said you can cool down a warm beer.

You can't recarbonate a flat soda

Well, that's true, I mean I guess that was he talking about like a tap in the glass or a beer or a bottle

I'm not sure

Because I mean then if it's already been warmed up and you try to cool it down Then you get skunky beer and skunky beer.

That's no fun at all

I've had a couple of skunky beers before.

You don't want that.

But I don't know, maybe, maybe if you really get it cold enough on the second try.

But all right, Luke has a good point, though.

You cannot, you absolutely cannot reap carbonated soda.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse, flat soda or cold beer.

You can also text us on the Civic Media app.

You want to go?

I don't know.

This is a difficult one, because

as you

said, they both suck.

I would rather have water.

I like water anyway, personally.

Not everybody does, but I do.

I think I'm going to have to say that warm beer is worse.

Again, you can cool it down, but most soda is still at least decent if it's flat.

Like it is

just

sugar water, but sometimes that's OK.

Right.

Yeah, I hear you on that.

I would I would probably agree with you.

I think that the cold flat soda is easier to choke down than a warm beer.

Like, like, but I mean, Luke is creative.

Mathers is creative that you could possibly if it's in a bottle or can recool it down.

But then I think it gets skunky and you don't want skunky beer.

I feel like one.

heat and cool, especially if you're not like putting it in a furnace and then in a freezer.

You know, if it's going to warm and then you cool it back down, it's not going to ruin a beer.

Even Milwaukee listening to WAUK texts in on the cynic media app and says, warm beer tastes terrible, unquote.

I'd go along with that.

I'd absolutely go along with that.

All right, we'll continue to take a couple more calls.

What's worse, flat soda or warm beer, 8-5-5, 7-5-2, 4-8-4-2.

But when we come back after years of restoration, Old World Wisconsin is opening the 1930s tavern.

How about that?

We'll have details.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all-bowl show.

Live on location at Kopkes Greenhouse, just outside of the city of Oregon.

On the city, on the city, on the Civic Media Radio Network.

The Tahleball Show live on location of Kopkes Greenhouse here in the town of Dunn, just outside the city of Oregon.

Watching right now, a hummingbird has entered the greenhouse and is buzzing around if we make it bombed here by a hummingbird at any moment.

No, it's great.

It's great to have you along here, Zommerns.

We are right now finishing up what's worse.

How are things back in the old world headquarters on State Street?

They're good.

It's also pretty dreary here, but you know.

We still need the

rain inside a greenhouse.

It's fantastic

Also that song that I played on the way in is off of the album Plantasia by Mort Garson a synthesizer pioneer of the 70s this album He wrote specifically for plants to listen to

Really really that's a bitter cookie guy cut That's a very deep cut.

So he he he wrote music for plants to listen to

yep, exactly

Uh the uh on the album cover it says warm earth music for plants and the people who love them All

right, well very good very good.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate it all right Let's wrap up what's worse here a couple more calls eight five five seven five two Four eight four two.

Let's go to the phone lines.

We have Betsy in Jefferson Betsy.

Thanks for listening flat soda or warm beer.

What's

worse?

Warm beer anytime because of fear and if you order a Guinness and great dinner in Great Britain and you ask Rick Cole They're going to think that you are very strange and they're going to serve a tea warm anytime and delicious

Now see you picked the one beer that yes, I think that's the exception

I mean, Guinness is made to be served at least room temperature or whatever.

But you wouldn't want to say it like a Miller High Life.

You wouldn't want that warm or a spotted cow.

All right.

Sure.

Why not?

It's beer.

Really?

Really?

OK.

All

right.

It's beer.

All right.

So you're definitely saying flat soda is worse.

Yeah, that's nasty.

OK.

I love it.

Thank you so much for your listeners, Betsy.

Have a great day Betsy in Jefferson All right, thank you very much eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two All right anything else on words on the text line before you wrap that up here.

I mean I'll say personally I have not had a Non-cold Guinness.

I'll have to try that but nope

I have not bad.

I've also had a Guinness float

put like a dollop of ice cream in again.

That sounds pretty good.

It's a real deal.

Yeah, it's not bad at all.

All right.

25 minutes past the hour of three o'clock after the bottom of the hour news update going to have Gordy Kopke back talking about your plant questions.

So get ready to dial in or text in on plant questions.

But first, this is a great story.

from a couple of days back here.

Milwaukee Journalist Sentinel and Cali Gleason wrote this, after years of restoration work, Old World Wisconsin is open in 1930s tavern.

And it has been open now.

It says the wait is almost over.

Well, now it is.

After years of work, an authentic 1930s tavern is finally opening at Old World Wisconsin.

Wittenbell's Tavern, founded in 1906, was moved to the historical site in Eagle about four years ago and has since been restored to its post-prohibition look.

It'll be accompanied by an outdoor beer garden.

The new additions are part of a years long effort from Old World Wisconsin owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society to create a full immersive experience in honor of Wisconsin's brewing history.

As a part of the mission, the 600 acre historical center also opened a brew house in June of 2022.

They had some festivities on on the 17th and 18th last weekend to kind of christen this and I Understand it was a really really great event if you've never been to Old World, Wisconsin before an Eagle really encourage you to to get down there and experience it It's a great place to take the family It's one of those places where you can learn a lot of history at Old World, Wisconsin But also have a lot of fun and now it's not just for kids anymore.

You can take the whole

family down there to Old World Wisconsin and enjoy an adult beverage as well.

So, uh, every been there's honors to, uh, to Old World Wisconsin.

I have not.

I'll have to check it out.

Yeah.

It really is a cool place.

Went down there back in my days working for, uh, state Senator Dale Schultz, who was, who was on the state historical, uh, committee and part of the state historical society for a long time.

Also a hitherto unknown fact.

Again, they're very modest people.

They don't talk about this very much, but what a, uh, one of the.

Maine, I shouldn't say Maine, but a very generous contributor to the State Historical Society are the founders of Culver's.

Craig and Lee Culver have long been huge supporters of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Old World Wisconsin and everything that they do.

So like if you didn't need enough of a reason to go to Culver's, there is another one because they have been very generous and philanthropic.

in giving to the Wisconsin State Historical Society, particularly if you go at the UW-Madison campus, and that's where the State Historical Society headquarters are located.

Really, they help redo that beautiful, beautiful library and study area in the State Historical Society.

So just another opportunity to mention and to remind people there is a lot of good going on in the state.

There are a lot of cool places to take the family.

I know that this weekend is kind of the unofficial kickoff of summer.

Lots of focus gets put on water parks in the Dells, and that's great.

Nothing wrong with that.

But take time to go to places like Old World, Wisconsin.

Some of our state parks as well is another great place to spend the summer and get out and enjoy the activities.

So just a little bit of a reminder to you to get out there and enjoy things on this Memorial Day weekend.

Are you traveling summers for the weekend?

I am.

I'm going to be going back to Manitowoc to spend some time with my family, visit some friends, all that good stuff.

All right, very good.

Well, I am where we're on the road here We're gonna pack up and head up to the old RC and then up in Eau Claire So tomorrow we'll be joining you from Eau Claire talking about conservation I believe tomorrow on the show amongst other things and then on Friday

will be somewhere near Endora Round or on Lake Wissota with our very own Pat Krightlow.

So it should be a lot of fun.

Come on back.

If you have garden questions, call in now.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

With your garden questions, Gordy Kopke will be with us on the other side.

We're live from Kopke's Greenhouse across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

live on location here at Copkeys Greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon, which is just below the city of Madison.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media radio network.

And it's now 35 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Glad to have you along.

And we are joined once again here at our desk.

We're inside, by the way.

It's a little gloomy outside, but as Gordy likes to say, when it's gloomy and rainy outside, that's when you come in and buy the plants and you plant them when the sun shines.

So we're in this beautiful greenhouse.

Join us on StreamYard, YouTube and Twitter to see the visuals all across Wisconsin, of course, on our radio stations.

Joined by the proprietor of the owner here, Gordy Kopke.

Gordy, once again, thanks for letting us do this.

You're quite welcome.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's it's so great to be here and we're going to take your people's plant questions in a minute.

You know, it's like the old Johnny Carson showed a stump the band with Doc Sevenson was but it's not hard to do the general playing questions.

I know

people have questions about what time of year to plant things, what kind of variety is that sort of thing.

But if you have a question, give us a call 855-752-4842 855-752-4842.

Gordy will do his best to answer.

If we don't have an answer, we'll get you one.

Or you could text us on the Civic Media app.

Download it today, your Apple or Android device on the Civic Media app.

So text or call right now your garden question.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

And Gordy, we already have one.

Lama listening on to the MDX of Madison asking, do you have pepper plants?

We

have probably...

a dozen varieties of your sweet peppers.

And then we have probably a dozen varieties of hot peppers, ranging anything from on the milder end, like the chipolano all the way up to the Carolina Reaper, which really blow your brains

out.

That sounds very dangerous.

I'm not a super spicy guy, but I do love fresh salsa this time of year.

Well, I'll be a little bit later.

But once you get the tomatoes going and the fresh onions and the cilantro and the peppers and you kind of combine up, nothing beats fresh

salsa

yeah and as far as tomatoes go we grow I think it's 30 some or 40 varieties of tomatoes yeah and we have a standard production line and we do an organic production line as well

incredible.

So you literally have every ingredient you're going to need for salsa right here at Hopkins.

Certainly do.

All right, if you have other questions or comments or about your garden, give us a call 855-752-4842-855-752-4842 or text us on the Civic Media app.

Gordy, I think one of the big questions this time of year, a little cool this week, but at what

should people start planting things outside in terms of both flowers and vegetables?

Well,

wonderful Wisconsin, boy.

You know, last week when it was 80, or Mother's Day when it was 80 some degrees there, I thought it was a great time to get everything planted and then Mother Nature came along with her magic wand and gave us this kind of weather.

But typically they say mid-May, the last frost-free date is around May 9th for the Madison area.

and a lot of things are soil temperature related and some of your crops like peas and

coal crops like broccoli and cauliflower you plant much earlier they're frost hardy and they can grow in very cool soil environments whereas things like your tomatoes and peppers they like a soil temperature where it's 55 degrees or warmer and typically you don't get that kind of soil temperature until your nighttime temperatures are 55 degrees which is leaning toward the 20th of May or later.

So maybe after this weekend or so

yeah when I was

growing up Memorial Day weekend was the weekend where you put your garden in and You know everybody's jumping the gun and want to get to get an early start on everything and It doesn't necessarily hurt the plants unless of course they get frosted but

They just don't grow if the roots aren't very active.

And again, it's based on soil temperature.

If folks have jumped the gun because this show does go all across the state, I was up at Sean O by Green Bay over the weekend and my step mom, actually I took one of the potters.

I came in last week, got one of the planters and took up to her for Mother's Day and Father's Day combined up there for dad and my step mom.

And she covered it up on Sunday night because the temperatures, there was a chance of

frost up there in Shawno.

If people have jumped the gun, have something in the ground or have a pot out and they're part of the state, it's going to get down say into the mid 30s or so.

Is it okay to what are you just a old sheet or what's the best thing to cover?

Typically, I would cover it.

It's amazing.

You'd about five degree protection with just an old sheet.

Okay.

about five degrees for a sheet.

Yeah.

Otherwise, plastic or something like that, it got to be

created.

Plastic is is less so because it transmits the the the temperature really through the plastic much easier than the cotton fiber or nylon would.

Yeah.

Now, this is why I go to copies because I would have thought, oh, you know, like you have a plastic bag that heats up or whatever, but you're telling me the sheet a little bit better

with any fiber material in what we do for us protection because we get a lot of stuff that we put outside to harden it off.

So it works better in the gardens for our customers is we have a woven fabric material, which is what you see.

And so it's called a weed barrier.

You'll see it a lot in commercial gardens.

And we'll use a tarp of this if it's going to be frosting that we'll put over the top of our plants to keep them from freezing.

If you have a question for Gordy Kopke on your garden on plans, give us a call 855-752-4842-8557.

524842 or you can text us on the Civic Media app.

Another question we've gotten before, Gordy, is with climate change, with the warming of the earth, this sort of thing, have you seen a difference in

Because of people, my grandparents were all gardeners and plant people, and you buy plants sometimes by a zone.

You say, well, this grows in zone four, zone five.

Have you seen over the course of the years with climate change, the plants that might not have grown in Wisconsin before are now able to do so?

A dramatic increase in the plants that are now will overwinter in Wisconsin versus when I was a boy.

Really?

Yeah, even when I first started, well, it's

45 years ago when I first started.

We were certainly zone three and some winter zone two and now we're more in the zone four range.

Wow.

Which enables us to overwinter a lot more of what were borderline perennials back then.

Incredible.

I know one of the plants that, one of the ornamental trees, the Japanese maple is a big favorite, and that used to be really hard to grow here.

I mean, you saw them here now, and I mean, if you protect them, it's still a viable plant.

Yeah, and my wife is getting peaches off our peach tree, which is unheard of when I was a kid.

My mom always had a peach tree thinking she was going to get peaches, and I think in my lifetime, she got peaches maybe once or twice, and I didn't even know it was a peach tree because we never got peaches off it until one.

was loaded with them because we had a mild winter.