Loren Thompson Park in Baxter received a little boost Wednesday, Sept. 30, when Crow Wing Power hosted a volunteer event to plant 50 perennial plants — the final phase of a multi-year project to complete an educational pollinator garden in the park.
A few employees from Baxter Parks and Crow Wing Power worked with a couple of cooperative members, but a workforce of eight students from Brainerd Alternative Education’s sixth through eighth grade and two teachers, Jackie Foss-Janousek and McKinley Anderson, made quick work of the planting and mulch spreading.
The project began in the summer of 2016 with planning and removing of sod and designing the layout of the garden that would, over the next four years, include a walkway, benches, a bike rack, trash receptacles, shredded mulch and a variety of plants to attract and help butterflies, bees and pollinators. Each year, Crow Wing Power reported, additional plants were added and this year was the final phase of landscaping and planting.
