The 2003 Left Field Garden Project ... a series about a fruitful endeavor

Arboretum Field Trip- June 11th

Now that the garden is planted and well on its way, the Left Field Gardeners took a week off for a social event, in particular, a trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was a beautiful balmy summer evening - perfect for a picnic and a walk through a gardener's paradise. Along with some of the more "decadent" picnic food, the menu actually included a selection of greens and fresh herbs from the St. Joan's Garden - the first fruits of the season.

The Arboretum, which includes more than 1,000 acres of public gardens, conducts horticultural research and offers educational opportunities to adults and children. With the short time available at the end of the evening, we could only see a small portion of what the Arboretum had to offer. At this time of the summer the peonies and irises were in full bloom, providing a dazzling display of colorful varieties.

Other Gardening News...

• The gardening ranks are growing. This spring 25 new people have expressed interest in joining the garden group, increasing the size to 40 volunteers.
• The group has also been asked to consider helping to maintain the landscape and other gardens on the St. Joan's property, for example, the natural grass garden in the gym courtyard by the St. Joan statue. This work is currently done by the Green Carpet Club, but with only a few regular volunteers, they have not been able to keep up with all the work that is needed. Discussions are under way as to how to assist with this effort.

As always, if you want to be placed on the garden e-mail list, contact Chris Oppegard at cmo52@yahoo.com.