The new garden recently installed by Cook County Master Gardeners at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais.
The Master Gardeners have struck again. A garden outside the Arrowhead Center for the Arts that had suffered from heavy traffic has now been raised off the ground and replanted with a variety of long-lasting plants.
Emma Bradley, a Grand Marais Playhouse volunteer and a Master Gardener, spearheaded the project, according to Playhouse director Sue Hennessy.
The new garden has one weeping larch (known in Cook County as a tamarack), a deciduous tree that will lose and re-grow its needles each year. Thisone has a Dr. Seusslike lean to it and will not grow as large as the wild tamaracks found throughout the area. It also has three purple gem rhododendrons, six Mother Lode junipers and one Stella D’oro daylily salvaged from the original garden. Emma Bradley said the Stella D’oro had weathered the heat and wind common to that location as well as two summers in a plastic bag in her own yard.
The project was co-sponsored by the Grand Marais State Bank and included donations of soil from Edwin E. Thoreson, Inc., and mulch from Hedstrom Lumber Company.
The mission of Cook County’s Master Gardeners is to provide education to the gardening public. Master Gardeners have assisted with the planning and planting of numerous public gardens. They do not provide ongoing garden maintenance, however, so they designed the ACA garden to require little upkeep.
Some local Master Gardeners focus on flowers, some focus on vegetables, and one focuses on fruit trees. All must provide 25 hours of volunteer work each year in order to keep up their certification with the Minnesota Extension Service.
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