The Serenity Garden at the entrance to Edgewater Haven was developed in 2005 to enhance the environment of patients, families, and staff. Sensory gardens have proven to be therapeutic as they provide opportunities for physical and speech therapies as well as reminiscing and relaxation.
A colorful variety of annuals, perennials, grasses, and shrubs with their scents and textures provide sensory stimulation and four season interest. Wide sidewalks and five raised flower beds enable residents with all kinds of disabilities to see, touch, smell, and enjoy. Some residents also enjoy working in the garden themselves, sharing their gardening experiences in their younger years with our Master Gardener volunteers. Two shaded patios, benches, and a bubbling fountain provide a serene place to de-stress or socialize for residents and caregivers alike.
Originally conceived by WCMGV Edie Behm and developed with the assistance of other MG volunteers, this beautiful urban garden is fascinating with so much to see. For information about the garden or volunteer opportunities contact project leader Judy Miller.
Citizens and visitors of the city of Nekoosa have enjoyed a new urban landscape with the addition of flowers planted and tended by MGVs Jim and Diane Nickel. Twenty one planters decorate Market Street and continue to Nekoosa Senior Center. The project is a cooperative effort of WCMGVA and City of Nekoosa Public Works. Nekoosa provides the flowers and horticultural supplies while Jim and Diane provide the creativity, expertise, and “sweat equity” to design and maintain the gardens. As they work at weeding and watering, people often stop in the middle of the street to thank them for the beautiful planters that add pride to the City of Nekoosa.
Jim and Diane consider many factors in planning these containers gardens, which differ in size and shape. Plant decisions are made based on scale, drought tolerance, root needs, texture, plant availability, and hardiness to withstand variation in the weather. Of course, the design standard of incorporating a “chiller, thriller, and spiller” is used. They garnered much success and praise from the public over the last two years with their use of tall, structural Papyrus plants in the center of the planter, pared with the color impact of large-flowered wave petunias in a pink or florescent yellow, depending on color palette of the year. Purple gomphrena provide a complimentary color to the petunias and papyrus, while purple Sweet Potato vine add interesting texture and form. They re-evaluate their color scheme every year to keep the public interested. Of course, the deer also love their planters, especially those on the west side of town, which are closer to the woods.
In the spring, planting soil is amended with compost, slow release fertilizer and nitrogen. They found a monthly application of 17-17-17 fertilizer, a three times a week watering schedule, and mulch really made their containers happy. Because it is an urban setting, their weekly weed and watering sessions also include littler removal while scanning for insects. In the fall, if Mother Nature has been kind, their creations may still be in bloom during the city’s annual Pumpkin Fest. An addition of pumpkins is sometimes added to the planters in line with the festivities.
Lester Public Library of Rome 1157 Rome Center Dr. Nekoosa
The Rome-area MGVs work with recently retired MGVs to maintain the garden areas at the Lester Public Library of Rome. These areas include a butterfly garden, prairie gardens filled with native plants, a rain garden, and many other landscaped areas. We also maintain an herb garden for library patrons to use and a children’s garden filled with vegetables for patrons to harvest. Recent projects included placing pavers to form a walkway to encourage visitors to visit our new patio area and explore the areas behind the library. We also started setting out composting bins near the building to generate interest in composting, and displayed straw-bale gardening in the children’s garden.
In 2022, we worked together to form a Rome Area Garden Club open to all members of the public. We offer monthly garden chats that cover a wide variety of topics. Topics this year ranged from tree planting, composting and vermiculture, creating a wildlife oasis in one’s own yard to collecting seeds from native plants. We meet monthly from March to October, and attendees participate fully in discussions and activities.
We enjoy welcoming new gardeners to join us and are happy to answer any questions about our project!
This prairie garden is located behind the library, and it’s been fascinating to watch its transition throughout the course of the summer and over the span of the past few years.
We have transitioned two of our larger planting beds into prairie gardens. In addition to being lower maintenance, they are pollinator friendly, drought tolerant and deer resistant. Our prairie gardens include native plants, such as rudbeckia, liatris, Joe Pye weed, false indigo, cup plant, ox-eye daisies, brown-eyed Susans, asters, a wide variety of native grasses and many other plants.
Our fenced-in children’s garden is used for planting vegetables. New this year was a straw-bale gardening display. The cherry tomatoes grown in the straw bales were extra sweet-tasting! At the end of the growing season, we added the straw bales to our compost pile.
The butterfly garden is always filled with bees and butterflies! We use a mix of perennials and annuals to attract pollinators from early in the spring to late in the fall. Early bloomers include hyacinths and daffodils, while the irises, day lilies, liatris, rudbeckia, verbena and daisies bloom later in the spring through much of the summer. Late-blooming perennials include asters, brown-eyed Susans and goldenrod.
The elevated herb garden was made by stacking the boards as shown in the photo to allow easier access for planting and weeding the herbs, along with snipping the herbs as needed. This design also allows gardeners to grow a variety of herbs in a small space. A mailbox on the back side of the herb garden holds a pair of scissors for snipping herbs, along with information sheets on how to use herbs.
Included in the raised garden bed are chard, peppers, radishes, spinach, and different types of lettuce. The covering over the bed was made by bending underground sprinkler hoses a size smaller than the PVC pipe into which they’ll be inserted. The hoses are then covered with bird netting to protect the plants from wildlife damage.
Wood County Master Gardeners 
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