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Garden Curator Notes - Summer 2010

by Susan Wilkins

  
   
Volunteer Work in the Garden
Invasive Work
Volunteers removing Garlic Mustard.
Susan and Jim Proctor
Susan Wilkins and Jim Proctor working on removing a young Buckthorn
Volunteer desk in the shelter
The Volunteer Desk inside the Martha Crone Shelter.
 
 
 

We had a tremendous amount of volunteer-based people power fueling our work at the Garden this past spring. More than 100 individuals lent a hand during the spring months in the field and at the Martha Crone Visitor Shelter. Volunteers were involved in a variety of ways, all working toward making this public resource a treasure trove of native plant beauty and a place to find inspiration from and information about the natural world.

Volunteers who work in the field contribute to the efforts to keep the native plant collections in and around the Garden healthy and ecologically vibrant. Those who volunteer in the Visitor Shelter staff the building and educate the Garden’s many visitors about the wonders of this special place. Between April 1 and June 4, more than 1,100 hours had been donated by volunteers in a variety of capacities at and around the Garden. Here is a breakdown:

Field-based weeding and planting effort

  • Legacy Volunteers weeding in assigned plots = 70.5 hours
  • Friends’ Invasive Plants Action Group weeding events with community volunteers and also a special event with the Aveda Corporation = 106 hours
  • May Program high school volunteers from Breck School weeding and planting = 504 hours
  • Special group weeding and planting events with General Mills, Optum Health and Americorp = 93 hours

Education and staffing of the Visitor Shelter

Visitors Shelter Volunteers = 330.5 hours

The community of Garden volunteers is a vital thread in the web of life at the Garden. Garden staff members and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board are so thankful for all of the efforts made by the volunteers of the Garden and the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden.

For more information about the various volunteer programs and opportunities at the Wildflower Garden contact Garden Curator Susan Wilkins at 612-282-2286 or visit the Friends website at www.friendsofeloisebutler.org.

Susan Wilkins is Curator of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary and is an employee of The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB). The MPRB website address is http://www.minneapolisparks.org

 
 
   
©2010 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. This article was published in the Friends newsletter The Fringed Gentian™ Summer 2010, Vol. 58 #3