On a late-November afternoon, St. Anthony Park Garden Club members quickly changed the concrete facade at the Como Avenue U.S. Post Office into a winter garden. Using fruits, seeds and other parts of woody plants, grasses, sedges, ferns, forbs and perennial flowers, they designed a display that will attract songbirds throughout the winter months. The Post Office staff has said many customers are also attracted to the “winter garden.”
The garden club is also sponsoring a contest to encourage neighbors to learn more about plants. Beginning Feb. 1, you can pick up a contest form at the Como Avenue Post Office. The form will ask you to give the common or Latin name of the plants in the winter garden.
Participants are encouraged to use books from the nearby St. Anthony Park Branch Library to help with the contest.
Careful, there are some “trick” plants. While most of the material in the garden came from nearby yards, some of the pods were donated by a garden club member who was visiting in the southern United States. So there are plants in the winter garden that are not native to Minnesota.
Participants in each age category who correctly name the most plants in the winter garden will receive a prize. Prizes may include a one-year membership in the St. Anthony Park Garden Club, gift certificates from local nurseries or garden centers and businesses, consultations with local gardeners and garden designers, garden ornaments and more.
The contest is open to all, except members of the St. Anthony Park Garden Club. We will have more details in the February issue of the Bugle, which comes out in late January.
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