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Michigan farm garden honors rural backgrounds of patrons

By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It’s early morning, but moms, dads, kids, grandparents and omnipresent red-hatted ladies pour out of their cars and stream toward the entrance of the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.

Inside are wetlands, woodlands, meadows, amazing indoor and outdoor gardens and a significant sculpture collection.

“We have a children’s garden that has fun interactive things for kids to play with,” said Amy Sawade, public relations specialist.
“You can walk in our sculpture park and see world class internationally acclaimed artists exhibited in the natural landscape. It is quite a unique place for Grand Rapids and the Midwest.”

Keeping 132 acres looking good for guests year-round is a big job.
Indoor horticulturist Lucinda Grover explained how the gardens operate: “We have currently the director, two horticulture managers, one for indoors and outdoors. Indoors we have four staff and outdoors we have seven staff. We have interns through the summer and we have a volunteer force (800) that goes year-round.”

Inside the greenhouses, which are Grover’s domain, are tropical and carnivorous plant collections, tropical fruits, shrubs, flowers, specialty collections in the Victorian room and an orchid collection.
“During our annual tropical butterfly exhibit we have 140,000 people through here in two months,” Grover said.

Having that many guests precludes the use of anything toxic in the gardens.

“We have guests every day of the week, so spraying pesticides, anything that is harsh or has a high reentry or has a long life, we simply don’t use it,” she said. “We use organic-type things. But we put a lot into health of the soil and good cultural methods.”

From the greenhouse it is a short, scenic walk through a wetlands or one can take the tram to the Michigan Farm Garden where horticulturist Ana Bosma deals with the same kinds of problems in addition to pesky rabbits and deer.

“The biggest challenge is keeping the gardens looking presentable with all of the wild animals that we have here,” Bosma said. “We have a lot of rabbits, deer; trying to keep everything looking like it’s not getting chewed on even when it is does take a bit of time and expertise.”

The farm garden is planned to honor Frederik and Lena Meijers’ rural heritage – they grew up in a farming community. There is a 3/4-scale farmhouse replica of the one Lena grew up in, as well as the original windmill from the farm.

There’s also a small fruit orchard, ornamental gardens and vegetable patches around the house.

The majority of plants are heirlooms either in true variety or in type that would have been found growing in the 1930s, such as Mortgage Lifter Tomato, Bosma said. The produce from the farm gardens is used in the dishes served at the café.

Bosma said she enjoys “being able to talk to people about what they remember from growing gardens with their grandparents or parents, or getting to see the kids’ faces when they realize that’s what a tomato plant looks like, or that’s where beans come from, and you have to pull carrots out of the ground.”

For information phone 616-957-1580 or visit www.meijergardens.org

7/22/2009