I once saw a poster that showed a beautiful little plant, with a delicate pink flower, growing through a crack in the asphalt; the caption said “beautiful things are seldom easy”. We know that as gardeners, don’t we! Perhaps that’s why it is so amazing to us when “gardens” triumph in the most unlikely places!
A few years ago, Keith and I visited the beautiful “city by the bay”, San Francisco. We went to see the famous Japanese Tea Garden, rode the cable cars “half-way to the stars”, and also went to see Alcatraz. While we followed the tour guide through that infamous prison where some of the most notorious criminals were incarcerated, who knew that the Alcatraz Gardens lay just beyond the prison walls?
When the island of Alcatraz was a military prison in 1861, someone had the brilliant idea that the windswept island in the middle of the bay might be more hospitable if there were some plants. Since there was only a thin scratching of soil on the island, soil was brought in. By the 1920’s, horticulture on the island had turned into a full-blown garden project when the military teamed up with the California Spring Blossom and Wildflower Association to make the island more beautiful. Can you imagine hardened criminals, perhaps like Al Capone, planting trees and shrubs around the prison? Maybe it helped their overall dispositions! They did a good job, because some of the plants and garden designs are still there today. By 1933, when the Federal Bureau of Prisons was in charge of Alcatraz, the garden work was firmly in place. In fact, by 1941, one of the inmates, Elliot Michener was so involved with the gardening that he was allowed to order seeds and bulbs and is recorded as saying that working in the gardens gave him a “lasting experience in creativity”.
The prison closed in 1963, and the gardens were abandoned and neglected. By 1972, the island became part of the National Park Service’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We can imagine how quickly the gardens fell into ruin without care; tender plants were overtaken by more aggressive species, and garden structures and walls fell into decay. But thankfully someone realized the historic potential of these gardens, and by 2003, the Garden Conservancy, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and National Park Service began to do research and restore the gardens to their former glory. Volunteers now work to keep these special gardens alive and thriving!
Don’t forget, the Prairie Sun Seed Festival is coming up on March 14. This one day festival is jam-packed with activity, including assorted informational booths, people selling various gardening products, and great speakers, including our own Glen Tymiak speaking about “Gardening 101”. The Horticultural Society will have a table at this event, so if you’d like to find out more about us, stop by and say hello!
The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society has a full year of great events planned for 2015. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street, and our special guest speaker will be Frank Woloschuk talking to us about how to plant up beautiful, lush planters! Frank is an amazing gardener, and I know we will all be inspired with ideas for our own planters! He’ll also tell us “what’s new” for the gardening season ahead!
The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society send out our sympathy to Glen and Lena Tymiak on the passing of Glen’s Mom, Olga. We know you have lost someone very special; she will now stroll through heavenly gardens. Vichnaya Pamiat.
