(calming music) - In my book, there are two kinds of traveling.

One is the destination kind, where you hop into the vehicle and go hard until you get to your destination.

For Tom and I, we like the journey kind of travel.

Depending on time, if we see an arboretum, an old church, or public garden, we often stop for a visit, which has led to some beautiful and unexpected places to enjoy.

Today I'm going to share one of those places we discovered so you can enjoy now and maybe visit too.

- [Narrator] Funding for Prairie Yard and Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of Truck Country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

North Dakota State University, through its Field to Fork Educational Program, providing research-based information on growing, preparing, and preserving fruits and vegetables.

Mark and Margaret Yael Julene in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by Friends of Prairie Yard and Garden, a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a Friend of Prairie Yard and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(calming music) - I always try to attend Hort Night at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris.

It is a great opportunity to go hear educational seminars, and visit with plant-loving friends.

Last year, there were some people from the Staples area who told me about the Living Legacy Gardens, and encouraged us to visit.

Tom and I later stopped in on the way back from a family gathering.

It was great, so I contacted Tammy Rick, and here we are.

Thanks, Tammy, for letting us come.

- I'm so glad you were able to make a visit to Living Legacy Gardens, Mary.

- Please tell me, what are the Living Legacy Gardens?

- Living Legacy Gardens is a public garden that was started 25 years ago.

You're located here on Central Lakes College's Ag and Energy Center, and this corner of the farm kind of sat unused, and the woman that was the secretary for the farm decided it would be a great place to have a garden established.

And so she went, she was a master gardener, and she went ahead and applied for a grant and was awarded that.

And so from there on, it started 25 years ago.

- So how did the gardens actually get started?

- [Mary] So this space laid kind of unused, like I said.

And so they hired a landscape architect, and they laid out the plans for it.

They also were able to get some really good infrastructure, like old street lights from the City of Staples.

And the pavers that you'll see on the brick pathways came from the Roundhouse at the Staples Railroad Station.

And so 25 years ago, it was started, and since then it's been just a public garden open 24/7.

- What are the goals or the achievements of the garden?

- The goal of the garden when it was started was to demonstrate and educate the public on zone three and four plants.

- So how big are the gardens now as compared to how they started?

They've actually stayed about the same size because the blueprint, the footprint kind of had to stay the same.

The garden that you see here is about five acres, but we consider Living Legacy Gardens to be about 10 acres in size, because to the south of us, there is a native prairie planting area that's about five acres also.

A little bit of walk across the yard, but for the garden here, it's five acres.

- So when did you come to the gardens and what is your role?

- I came in 2017, so this is my eighth season here, and I'm considered the garden manager.

So I get the fun of getting to plan, and weed, and plant, do garden tours, different things that are involved with managing a garden.

- [Mary] What are the different areas of the gardens?

- [Tammy] Well, we're standing what we consider the middle or the center of the garden.

And this has the nice grassy area.

It has the pond and the little stream there.

Off to the left of here to the west is the shade garden.

And then across the driveway is the herb garden, a fountain, and then on the other side is where we have the children's gardening program.

- [Mary] How do you decide what to plant each year?

- Well, that's the fun part.

I mean as a plant fanatic, I get to kind of plan throughout the winter and into the spring looking at other people's gardens, watching gardening shows, going to greenhouses, looking at gardening magazines.

And so I just get inspiration from that.

Of course, we're constrained a little bit by the zone three and four, we need to pay mind to that.

But yeah, it's fun.

It's a great, I mean when you're a plant fanatic, like could you get a better job than getting to do that?

No.

- I think when I came in, I saw a sign that said AAS.

Can you explain that?

- Yes, AAS stands for All America Selections.

And about five years ago, Living Legacy Gardens applied and was accepted as a display garden.

AAS is an independent testing organization.

So let's say there was 10 new varieties of broccoli that were developed.

A breeder could submit their seeds, AAS would grow them out in their trial gardens, and then they would pick what they thought were the best of the best.

And so maybe you've sometimes seen that little symbol, AAS, in a seed catalog or in a nursery.

And that just helps you discern between all the different ones that are there.

So for Living Legacy Gardens in the fall of the year, we get sent a beautiful box of seeds, and they're all AAS varieties.

Some are the new ones from that year, and some are from the previous years.

And then we also get a couple flats of plugs in the spring too.

So that really helps with the cost of planting, as we know, annuals are expensive.

We do get some vegetable varieties too that we'll use in the children's garden, but most of them are annuals.

- [Mary] Then do you have to report back on how the plants do or does somebody come out and evaluate?

- [Tammy] They don't do that here because we're a display, not a trial garden.

But we are required to send them a photograph of at least one bed that has several of their varieties in it, and then they send us these very nice signs that we put on stakes, and then we can identify for the public what those are.

Because if a person comes and sees a plant and they think it's great, we wanna be able to have them know what variety that is so they could try it in their own garden.

- [Mary] Do you start a lot of the plants yourself or where do you get them from?

- [Tammy] We do both.

We don't have a greenhouse per se in our office or anywhere here.

So we have just a plain old three shelf rack with shop lights on it, and I start almost all the annuals that you see in pots in our office in the spring.

And it's a lot of work, but man, it's worth it when you get the varieties that you want, and it's a huge money savings for the garden also.

But then we also shop everywhere, like we go to some nurseries, but then we go to places like Home Depot, Menards because I think it's important if we're gonna demonstrate to the public, we wanna have those plants accessible to people too.

And so people shop at those places, so let's pick places that they'd be able to find the same varieties.

- What are the criteria for the perennials that you have here?

- Yeah, so of course the biggest constrainer is the zone that we're in and our cold winter.

So we recently transitioned to a zone four, although I personally still think we're a lot zone three.

And so if you really wanna have a guarantee, you better still stick with the zone three plants.

However, I think as a demonstration education garden, it's nice to try some things that are outside the realm.

For instance, we have a rose garden that's only two years old, and we tried some zone five roses, and they made it, surprisingly.

But we did cover 'em with a slab of straw.

But they didn't come up until July.

Now if I'd been like not quite as busy, I probably would've dug them up and thrown 'em away thinking they weren't coming, but they did come.

So anyway, I think for the most part, we stick within our zone.

But I also think it's fun to try some other things, 'cause if you're an experienced gardener, right, you wanna try some new things or experiment in some different areas that maybe you haven't before.

- So how do you label everything?

- Yeah, that's when I came here eight years ago, there was a lot of old plant signs, and many of them were cracked, but many of them weren't, because plants move on, plants die, plants get moved.

And so that was one of my goals was to label as much as we can.

It's still a work in progress, but we were able to get a a plant sign that, of course, showed the common and the scientific name, and then also has a QR code.

And so if you scan that QR code with your phone, it will pull up information I've entered, that's photos, planting information in case you wanna put that into your own garden.

- This area is beautiful, but can we see another area too?

- Yes, yes.

Where would you like to go next?

(Mary laughing) (calming music) - Did anyone ever tell you to eat your vegetables?

That's a good thing.

Most of us don't eat enough vegetables or fruits in our diet.

But another unfortunate thing is that fruits and vegetables in some cases have been linked to foodborne illness outbreaks.

But there are some things that we can do to help lower our risk of foodborne illness.

Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds.

You can sing Happy Birthday a couple of times.

Rinse fresh produce in plenty of cool running water, but don't use soap.

If the package says ready to eat or triple rinsed, it's safe to consume out of the bag.

Avoid cross-contamination by dedicating a cutting board to fresh produce, wash it thoroughly, and sanitize it between uses.

Today we're making a delicious fruit, cheese, and nut salad.

We begin with three cups of mixed greens, some thinly sliced apples.

I have one apple, you can choose your favorite apple.

And I've also dipped them in orange juice, but you could use a dilute lemon juice if you'd like.

The more color you add to the diet, the better.

A half a cup of sliced grapes, you can use green or red if you'd like.

Next up, I have a fourth of a cup of nuts.

I'm using walnuts, but you can use your favorite nut, or leave them out if there are nut allergies.

And we'll top it off with an eighth of a cup of feta.

Feta cheese adds calcium and a little extra flavor.

I will toss this delicious salad together.

Your guests are gonna love this.

You can add your salad dressing at this point, or you can allow your guests or family to add as much as they'd like.

And here's a delicious, beautiful salad with four major food groups.

This is Dr.

Julie bringing you from field to fork.

Until next time.

(calming music) - Well, Mary, we have made our way over to the east side of the garden.

This is the herb dial.

And you can look around and see there's several different varieties of herbs we grow.

Some of them are annuals, some are perennials, and it's really a favorite spot.

When we're doing garden tours, we kind of end our tour over on this side of the garden and people love to sample them.

Sometimes I hide the signs and have them taste them and say, "What do you think that tastes like?"

And then we'll talk about some of their uses.

Some of the more interesting ones, we're standing here next to the marshmallow, or mallow, that's in the Hollyhock family.

And interesting, the roots when they're dried up and ground, that's originally how they were able to make marshmallows years ago.

Another interesting one, there's tarragon that tastes like anise or black licorice, and either you love that or hate that depending on your taste.

Next to that is comfrey, which is a new herb to me.

But I've watched some people grow it, and it goes by the common name of knitbone.

It was used in previous years to help mend broken bones.

They made a poultice of it and laid it on the broken bone.

Nowadays, a lot of people will grow it as a mulch because the plant has a tap root that's like seven feet deep, and so it pulls up minerals and nutrients that other plants can't get.

So you grow it, it gets quite tall, then you can chop it down and lay it around like your fruit trees or other ornamentals that you wanna give some extra nutrients to.

Looking around the herb dial, another favorite one for people is the chocolate mint, and people love to taste that one.

People might use it in drinks.

One of our favorite things to do is if you're making brownies, it's to strip the leaves off, chop it up, and then you can have an Andes Mint brownie.

It's quite delicious.

- So how do you decide which herbs to grow?

- Yeah, you know, it's kind of, once again, we've heard interesting things about, you know we'll grow in our area, maybe you wanna try it.

We do have some lavender that we've been able to overwinter, there is a variety of lavender that makes it in our zone.

It's called munstead lavender.

And so that large lavender right there actually, overwintered and so it's kind of fun to have something.

'Cause usually most of 'em will die back and you won't get 'em to come back again.

- [Mary] Do you mulch it?

- [Tammy] We just have a little bit of bark mulch on it, but I don't mulch it deeper, cover it, or anything like that.

It kind of just sits the way it is for the winter.

- [Mary] Do you harvest and use some of the herbs?

- [Tammy] A lot of the people that work here will do that.

I personally like to do that.

We harvest it and dry it for teas, or some tinctures and things like that.

And sometimes people from the community will call and ask if they can come in and harvest, and we let them do that.

- [Mary] So when is that done throughout the season?

- Throughout the season, I mean a lot of it is throughout the summer.

Some of it you wanna wait till it's a little more mature, but then some of it you don't want to 'cause it starts to form a seed head and then it doesn't give quite as good properties as when it was younger.

- Do the herbs tend to spread?

- Well, a lot of them do.

And anything that's in the mint family of course, really does.

The nice thing about this location is there's pavers that kind of constrict it, so it's an easy way to define the edge of that bed, and we just cut it off or dig the roots up if they've started to go where we don't want 'em to.

The other way to control it is by chopping off the seed heads.

The marshmallow is notorious.

We have one of our volunteers that always reminds me, you need to deadhead that, because pretty soon it's gonna send its seeds everywhere.

Of course, things like chives that we have along the driveway, if you don't deadhead that, you'll have chives everywhere in the garden.

We love to grow herbs in the garden.

They're fun for people to taste and sample when they're on a tour, but also they're a great source of pollen for the pollinators.

You can see that the marshmallows and the chocolate mint are covered with bees right now.

- [Mary] So then how do you control the weeds in these gardens?

- [Tammy] Yeah, for the most part it's done by hand weeding.

The vast majority of weeding is on your hands and knees with a Japanese weeding tool.

That's how most of us weed.

Of course, bigger beds in the spring of the year, we can run a rototiller through them.

If it's an annual bed, we'll clean it up that way.

Some of it's upright with a hoe on your, you know, stand on your feet.

But most of it's on your hands and knees weeding.

That's really the most effective way.

We do two times a year spray herbicide on the brick pads, just because there's no way to really control all those weeds that get in the cracks and things like that.

- [Mary] Do you do all that weeding yourself?

- [Tammy] I do it with my volunteers and our staff, and we have just an incredible group of volunteers.

Many of that have been here for 25 years since the garden started.

And Tuesday mornings they come out, and work away from May into October depending on how the fall is going.

And we also have some summer interns that join us, usually college age students that come and work, and they work not only here in the garden but in the research projects that are also out on the farm.

- Do you do classes here in the herb garden?

- We do classes sponsored through Living Legacy Gardens.

A few of the more recent ones have been vermaculture or worms making compost, making soil.

We've done that class.

We did fruit tree grafting earlier this spring.

And then every November, we have a wreath making class, where people get to make their own evergreen wreath and then decorate it.

- [Mary] Then do you have classes for adults or for all ages?

- [Tammy] For those classes, it was kind of open.

It probably those tended to be more for adults.

The thing we offer for children is our Children's Gardening Program, and we offer that through community education.

And the children come in in June of the year, and they plant the garden, and then each week they come and we'll weed it, and then they'll harvest as it goes throughout the summer.

And then each week, there's a topic that's kind of garden-related, everything from making paver stones, to learning about pollinators, to learning about how chickens could be worked in your garden.

So there's different topics that they'll come, and then they'll make a craft every week when they come.

- [Mary] So where is that children's garden area?

- [Tammy] The children's garden is right behind the silver maples over here, and they have their own spot.

And so they get to work in those beds.

- Then do you have to provide the equipment or do they have to bring their own?

- We provide all the equipment, we provide all the seeds and plants.

A lot of the vegetable plants come from the AAS program, and then some we get from elsewhere.

We'll start some things in the office in the wintertime.

- [Mary] So how many children do you usually get?

- [Tammy] Probably this summer probably averages about 30 children each Wednesday, so.

- [Mary] And who does those classes?

- [Tammy] Myself and another, the research assistant.

And then we have other people that kind of plug in on the days that are busy, and of course, the interns help out with that too.

For a children's garden, the children can sign up for one week, or they can sign up for the entire summer.

So it's very flexible if they can come for part of it but not all of it, they can still join in.

- So do they sign up way ahead of time or can they come even that day?

- So they sign up through community education, and it's, you know, comes out in like May of the year.

And so some families sign up then, but we do have actually walk-ins can come and join us too, so we kind of plan a few extra for that day in case.

- So what are some of the other areas here that's so beautiful here?

- Yeah, so over to this, in this direction, you can see there's a fairy garden.

That's always a favorite, not only with children but with adults too.

It's fun to have just little figures to look for in there, and mushrooms and all that kind of fun stuff.

Over on this side, you can see there's several small raised beds, and we try to demonstrate a different type of flower each summer.

A couple years ago, we demonstrated all different varieties of cosmos.

This year we're demonstrating zinnias, everything from the normal big ones that we're used to, to tiny little lilliput ones.

And so it's just a nice way for people to, you know, you can't go wrong with zinnias, but there's so many different varieties that we don't always think of.

So I think it's just fun to demonstrate different options.

- [Mary] Do you use and cut some of the flowers for special events?

- [Tammy] We do, in fact.

In fact this afternoon, we have in-service starting at Central Lakes College, and so they've asked us to provide centerpieces for the table.

So that's what we'll be working on after lunch is getting some centerpieces cut to bring over.

And then we have other events that they'll ask us to bring flowers to.

- [Mary] This area is so interesting and beautiful, but can we see some of the other parts of the garden?

- [Tammy] Yes, Mary, I'd love to show you the shade garden.

So we'll make our way across through the patio area and through the courtyard and get over to the shade garden.

(calming music) - I have a question.

Can perennial hibiscus now be growing in the upper Midwest?

- Yes, yes, you can.

It's actually a hardy perennial in Minnesota.

It is a zone four cold hardiness perennial.

And if you look at the size of the flower, it looks very tropical, and people are astounded that this can survive a Minnesota winter.

However, there are some steps you need to take to make sure it is hardy over a long winter.

For example, at the arboretum, we add a layer of straw mulch to the base, about four inches around the root zone of the plant, and that protects the root zone from extreme temperature changes, and it provides an insulating blanket for temperature control.

However, when you do take away the straw mulch, you will see that it is very slow to emerge in the spring.

So don't give up hope if you don't see it right away, sprouting up.

It will come back.

Don't be afraid to plant the perennial hibiscus in Minnesota.

It'll quickly become an accent piece in your garden, similarly to an earring or a jazzy tie, or a fun hat that you have in your wardrobe.

- Well Mary, we made our way across the garden.

We're on the west side of Living Legacy Gardens now, and we're in what's called the shade garden.

And you can see it's filled with just a wide variety of a lot of hostas and ferns, and it's just kind of a nice respite from the sunny part of the garden if it's ever a hot day and you're visiting the garden.

There is a line of old willow trees that have been here since the family farm used to be located right in the middle of the garden.

So this line of willows provides really nice shade for this part of the garden.

One of my favorite plants in this garden is called False Solomon's Seal, and it provides a long arching leaf with small leaflets, and it has beautiful red berries on it if the birds don't get it.

But it just provides a nice contrast to all the hostas and ferns in the garden.

- [Mary] When does that come up?

- [Tammy] In the spring.

Yep, it's cut down to the ground, so it completely comes up in the spring.

- [Mary] What are some of the other plants that you have in addition to the hostas, and that you have here in this area?

- [Tammy] Well, another shade loving plant that we have here is called Korean Angelica, and it's one of my favorites.

It's a tall plant about my height, and it has a purple umble head on it, and the pollinators just love it.

Right now, it's just covered with bumblebees and honeybees, and it's a biennial and it likes to be in the shade.

- [Mary] So do you have trouble with slugs or other pests here in your shade garden?

- [Tammy] Surprisingly, we don't.

And I think the big reason is that we don't mulch.

A lot of the beds over on this side of the garden are mulch, but these ones are not.

And slugs love mulch, and so one of the volunteers that's in charge of this very clearly has said, let's not mulch these beds.

And we never have issues with slugs over here.

- Okay, how about other critters like deer?

- Well, surprisingly we never have problem with deer.

Maybe in the winter there's a few shrubs that they'll pick at, but the big problem for us is rabbits.

And we're on a college campus, so we can't take care of things like normally we might.

We do try to live trap some, and that's somewhat effective and somewhat not.

But rabbits seem to be the big issue for us.

- [Mary] What are some of the other features here in your garden?

- [Tammy] Well, there's lots of fun places where you can take a break.

The courtyard has benches and chairs, has a small fountain, it's shaded, so a lot of people like to stop in there and have their lunch, or come there for a visit with their cup of coffee.

There is the area, we maybe notice that when you walk through, that we call the gazebo, even though the gazebo currently isn't there.

It was torn down a couple weeks ago.

It was 20 years old and needed to be replaced, and so it's gonna be reconstructed on that same footprint in just a couple weeks.

So we're looking forward to that.

Other features of the garden that people love particularly is the pond.

The pond has a stream, and a little bridge that goes across it, and also has some goldfish in it.

So it's always a favorite for the kids to come and see the goldfish.

The goldfish spend the winter here in Staples, and then in the winter months, they go over to Brainerd and stay in some of the tanks over at Central Lakes College over there.

- Are these gardens handicap accessible?

- For the most part.

All the paths that are in the middle part of the garden and the east side of the garden are brick or concrete pathways.

Here in the shade garden, it's kind of crushed concrete, but it's very hard packed.

So depending on the type of wheelchair, I would think most people would be able to get through this path also.

- [Mary] Who built these beautiful pathways?

- [Tammy] That was all done with volunteer labor back 25 years ago.

- [Mary] Oh my gosh.

And then is there a cost to come and enjoy your gardens?

- [Tammy] Nope, the garden is open to the public 24/7, and it's free to come and walk through whenever you would like to.

- [Mary] Is there a certain season that the garden is open?

- [Tammy] It's open year round.

The only caveat to that is that in the winter months, depending on how much snow we get, sometimes they don't plow the driveway coming in over there or the parking area.

But it's never closed.

- [Mary] So are the plants left in the fall so people can enjoy 'em over the winter?

- [Tammy] Yeah, we don't do our cleanup, our big cleanup until the spring.

For two reasons.

Partly because I think a lot of the plants add winter interest, so even if you wanna come in the fall or in the winter, if there's not too much snow, there's still beautiful things to see.

But even more important, I think a lot of the plant materials provide nesting habitat for insects, and so we like to leave it for that reason.

And I do think that the plant material provides a little bit of winter protection for some of the plants.

- Tammy, are there other features that aren't just right here at this location?

- Yes, there are.

In addition to the garden itself, Living Legacy Gardens oversees some food crops on the farm that we manage and distribute to the public.

There's a vineyard, there's apple orchards, there's, you pick blueberries, and there's sweet corn, and all those products we manage, and then either people come in and pick them themselves, or we harvest and then offer them for sale to the public.

- Tammy, when do you find time to do all this?

- It does get busy.

We're really thankful that we have interns and other staff that can pitch in, but it's a busy season.

Certain times are very, very busy at the farm.

- Do you have students from the college that help you too?

- We really don't in the sense of that they come on a continual basis.

The CLC Horticulture Program in Brainerd in the fall comes for a farm tour and a garden tour, and then they volunteer to do a project in the garden.

And so each year we kind of come up with kind of a big intensive project.

They're only here for a few hours, but boy, many hands make for light work, and they get a big job done usually.

- Do you have special events held here?

- We do.

The big event for Living Legacy Gardens is always the last Friday in August, we hold what's called Field Day.

And it's kind of where the whole farm is featured, The Ag and Energy Center is featured.

There's crop tours, there's local food walks through the different things on the farm.

There's a children's program where they can dig potatoes and take home a bouquet of flowers.

There's free lunch in the machine shed.

And then we kind of end the day with live music and an ice cream social here in the garden.

- [Mary] Do you offer tours here of the garden?

- [Tammy] We do offer tours to the garden.

Anybody who's interested can give me a call, and we can arrange a time and a date for that.

And the garden certainly would not be possible without all the work of our dedicated group of volunteers.

We have about eight volunteers that have been coming faithfully to the garden, for many of them, 20 to 25 years.

And they come every Tuesday morning during the growing season and work for a couple hours.

And the amount of work and the amount of weeds that are removed from this garden during that time is quite phenomenal.

We have volunteers that are 93 years old, that still come out and weed, and so, and we have men and women that come.

We have people that build wooden structures in the garden.

So it's not just people who have gardening skills, but people who have other skills, people who are promoters of the garden.

And so there's a place for everybody.

We're always looking for new volunteers.

- [Mary] Well, thanks so much for showing us your beautiful gardens.

- [Tammy] Thank you, Mary.

I'm so glad you were able to come.

(calming music) - [Narrator] Funding for Prairie Yard and Garden is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of Truck Country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

North Dakota State University, through its Field to Fork Educational Program, providing research-based information on growing, preparing, and preserving fruits and vegetables.

Mark and Margaret Yael Julene in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by Friends of Prairie Yard and Garden, a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of this series.

To become a friend of Prairie Yard and Garden, visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(calming music)