We also had our first volunteer appreciation day.

We continue with our education offerings.

Landscaping Class

Everyone is working diligently to continue the development of this special place. A three-acre plot of land is graded this year for future development. A drainage project is part of this preparation and this area is tiled.

To give you a present-day perspective on where we are; this area is South of our Shade Garden, which is in that grove of Locust trees you see on the left of the photo. This spot is still a grass field but looks prettier now. If you stand in the present-day Display Gardens and look past the line of small trees to the left of the Forget-me-not Pond toward the East you would be looking at this grass field.

This spring the community gardens get into full swing. In this picture below, you see the plots laid out for them, we are looking South here and they are on the East side of the grounds, later on they will be moved to the other side of the shed paths, but they started here. 

Later in the growing season they were spectacular

Last year we saw the construction of some raised beds for annuals and this year we planted them

We also saw the donated tulips in their bed and here they are

The herb garden is developing nicely

This year’s annuals in the Wattle Garden are Celosia and dusty miller. If you look closely you can see there is the beginning of a fence made out of sticks that give this garden its name.

A prairie may not be considered a garden, but I wouldn’t argue the point. This was actually a part of the Master Plan from Phase 3. The plan calls for it to be, “the land North of the new access road….” It was to have a waterfowl lake (designated as Pond D).

At this time the mentioned access road does not exist and still does not, however, there is land North of Arboretum Drive that belongs to the Arboretum. This year a prairie is established there by Terry Rogers and her Hawkeye Community College Natural Resource Management students. Eagle Scout candidates Will Dance and Phil Nicol assisted with the project. Funding was obtained from the Living Roadway Trust.

I never found any photos of that prairie but it still exists, however, it now belongs to Hawkeye as we will learn later in the Arboretum timeline. The pond was not built.

Craig Gibleon and Eagle Scout candidate Alex Ginther and other scouts, parents, and friends plant trees and understory trees East and South of the Sesquicentennial Forest and it becomes known as the Upland Forest. The trees are grouped in plant communities with oaks and maples planted in different areas. buttonbush, alder, hemlock, and larch are planted in the damper areas. This is part of the Master Plan’s Arboretum and is expanding on what was planted earlier.

Hurray for all of the people that have contributed to the success of the Arboretum

Chris Buck

And so many more that I don’t have names for

We can’t forget that the Board of Directors are volunteers too

Some parts of the site are changing quite a bit already and others are very much a work in progress, but it is all certainly looking differently already.