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“What’s News”?
At the AELC?
The Native Plants Botanical Garden was designed and planned in 1994 and went into full operation 1996-1997. The trail starts at the Nature Center and follows the river to the main Botanical Garden. I found a description in an old pamphlet that stated “Along the ways signs identify and give natural history information about many of the interesting native woodland plants. Several benches allow the visitor to just sit and relax. Upon reaching the Botanical Garden the visitor is greeted by twenty different plantings.”
Well, when a group of girl scouts, a handful of volunteers, and I arrived at the Native Plants Botanical Garden on Monday morning at 8:15 a.m we saw a lot more than twenty different kinds of plants. The girls didn’t recognize any plants that we should have like the purple prairie clover, the lead plant, the spiderwort, or the wild onion. They saw overgrowth and weeds.
I am pretty sure these poor girls were terrified and would have run away if their ride hadn’t have already left. However, we were wearing long sleeve shirts and pants. We had more than enough tools in the back of the gator. So we were ready to work.
Considering the humidity of the day, these girls worked very hard and I was impressed. They were all on time and during our time out there we managed to pull every thistle that we could see. I am not a gardening person myself, so when the group asked me what we should pull, I said “the thistles”.
Thanks to Wendell Johnson, who came out a few weeks ago and told me what each of the plants were. I marked them with twisty ties so I would remember what to pull out. Unfortunately, we’ve had a good growing season and I wasn’t able to find several of the markings that I knew I had put on several weeds. So, we pulled thistles and were out there for well over an hour.
By the time we were finished, we were all hot, sweaty, and ready for a cold soda and air conditioning. We decided to call it quits a little after 9 when the last thistle had been pulled. We had originally planned to weed until ten, but, I’m a flexible person and the last half-hour that we sat in the Nature Center with pop and cookies was well deserved!
I want to thank Cindy Englstad and Val Lieser for their help with my project. I would also, especially like to thank all the young women who came out and worked so hard. Without the assistance of these ladies, I don’t think our garden would look quite so nice.
Thank you for your support in the Agassiz Environmental Learning Center. To contact the office for more information about the AELC, please call 218-945-3129 or e-mail aelc@gvtel.com Thanks.
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