Volunteer and Master Gardener Sue Peterson said she spends most days in the garden–all day.
“There was something online, by the University of Minnesota, about how nature heals,” said Peterson as she helped her fellow volunteers decide where to plant various flowers and bushes beside the Purple Heart memorial. “We just love digging in the dirt, so we can stand back and see what we’ve done, and we like working together.”
The dozens of gardeners all receive annual training through the U’s Extension service. Once a new gardener performs 50 volunteer hours in his or her first year, then he or she earns the title master gardener.
“We set them up with volunteer projects in the community to do garden education,” said Program Coordinator Lia Spaniolo. “We work with residents to help them better understand how to have a healthy garden, a health landscape.”
A lot of that contact with the public comes in spaces like the veterans park–in Tom Ryan Park outside Blaine City Hall–as curious passersby stop and ask what they’re planting and why.
“We want to engage residents,” said Spaniolo. “We’re really about education and we’re really about teaching people and working with people to create this space for themselves.”
The program also offers weekly Ask a Gardener Zoom meetings and how-to seminars for anyone who is interested, and its also recently been a part of an on-going series on North Metro TV News.
The Veterans Memorial Park of Blaine Memorial Day event starts at 12:15 p.m. on Monday, May 31.
