Rotary Botanical Gardens

My daughter and I had a great hike through the Chippewa Moraine Natural Area (East of New Auburn, WI) on Friday as we headed up to Rice Lake for my Saturday presentations. It was a neat experience and they had a nice visitor center and we learned alot about glacial activity in this area in the past. Interesting that, as part of the Ice Age trail, we noted that we’ve been to the ends of the Ice Age Trail system(http://www.iceagetrail.org/) and this trail also passes through our hometown of Janesville, WI. Lots of neat things emerging although that area looked to be 4-5 weeks behind us as plants were just breaking ground up there. My daughter is truly a nature girl and as seen below, was easily distracted by acorns, moss, etc. She even waded out in some of the small lakes looking for frogs although the water was ice cold. I hope the day never comes where she doesn’t want to explore and get a little dirty! We stayed overnight in a hotel in Rice Lake which is a nice little town. My talks for the Barron County Master Gardeners went well and the crowd of 150 or so was an enthusiastic bunch. I knew I was in Northern WI when a lady was mentioning that the Irish Spring soap she put out to deter deer from nibbling on her tree just caused the local bear to get mad and knock down the tree! The event was at the conference center of Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College which is adjacent to the UW-Barron County campus. I had read of a small Japanese garden on the UWBC campus and we tracked it down during the lunch hour. It was small but quite well done (see pictures at the bottom). Only after my daughter’s rock climbing (bottom picture) did we notice the sign reading, “Parents, please keep care of your children in this garden. No climbing on the rocks.” She sure thought that was funny.

The Japanese garden was the first garden created at Rotary Botanical Gardens back in 1989-1990. Petranek Brothers Landscaping (Dave, Wayne and Scott) originally designed and created the garden with Dr. Yahr’s input. This garden space continues to be very popular and is consistently ranked one of our visitors most favorite. The Roth Journal of Japanese Gardening ranked this garden one of the top 25 Japanese gardens in North America. Anderson Gardens down in Rockford, IL has been ranked #1 for many years. Definitely worth a visit. Little Jerry, Karen, Jim, Dr. Neeno and others do a nice job taking care of this garden. The floods in 2008 caused some major damage to paths, trees, etc. but we’re getting back to normal now. Increased mulching, an irrigation system and interpretive signs have been the latest additions to this maturing garden.

Not many volunteers today although we had Kay peeling labels (see bottom photo) and Janice working on her projects. Magda popped in to talk about her area and Marv and Marianne came in to drop off some supplies and pick up a projects. Maury, Rod and Dick P. were over here as well. I finished another presentation and continue to work on plant ordering for spring. March will be quite busy I’m sure!

The sunken garden began as a BMX bike track back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The top photos show some of the structures that were on site and we still have many adults mention how either they or their kids used to bike down here in the past. The track was in a depression which lent itself to the sunken garden itself. Other pictures above show much of the soil work that was involved with creating the garden and surrounding berms while dealing with existing trees. Those early photos show the original arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Techny’) hedge that surrounded the garden. These 105 evergreens are what have become deer fodder in recent years. The Parker family funded this garden and it is a very popular spot for wedding, special events and other uses. There are a wide range of plants positioned informally here but the pool, fountain, archway (to the reception garden) and a sculpture lend some formality to this popular space as well. Due to the surrounding cottonwoods (Populus deltoides), this garden continues to get shadier although will receive plenty of light at mid-day.

Small crew today with Bill working on picking up pruning debris and Kay and Heidi peeling more labels. Janice came in this afternoon to keep producing labels and signs for the spring sale and we saw Urban, Rose, Jenny, Dave, Greg, Angie and Mike over here as well. I’m finishing up some presentations and plant orders this week and will be on seed delivery rounds in the morning.