Main Street Director Jen Tune tows a wheelbarrow at the Heritage Park Gardens on May 3. Work is progressing on the gardens' renovation.
Update: Organizers have revised their estimates for opening the Heritage Park Gardens to Memorial Day, at least.Â
Thirty-seven beds would be sufficient for a small hotel, but it also happens to be the number of planting beds that went up for rent on Thursday at Heritage Park Gardens.
While the beds aren’t quite ready for guests, people can rent them by visiting www.mainstreetgardnerville.org/heritage-park-gardens/online, according to Chairperson Donna Werner.
Organizers hope to have most of the renovation work on the gardens done in time for Mother’s Day, Werner said.
“We are working vigorously to get everything up and going,” she told a crowd at last weekend’s Spring Forum and Garden Expo.
Snow and rain on April 26 moved the event to Gardnerville Station, after organizers hoped to have it at the parks themselves for the first time.
“It’s going to be beautiful and worth the wait,” Werner said. “It’s going to be so awesome with a new rose garden and a native pollinator garden,” she said.
The new cedar beds will be irrigated and stocked with Full Circle Compost’s soil.
“Nothing but the very best,” Werner said.
Main Street Executive Director Jen Tune said the work on the gardens has been a cause for firms around the county, with donations of rocks, trees from Enviroscape, Knox Excavation. Electrical works is being donated by Minden Electric. Western Nevada Supply donated the irrigation work.
“I think we have well over $30,000 in donations, so far,” Tune said.
Minden Rotary is preparing to install a pavilion as part of their 100th anniversary, and the gardens themselves celebrate 15 years next year since they were first created in 2011.
Landscape architect Brian Kington took a break from work to talk about the gardens.
“I really love projects like this,” said Kington, whose work mostly focuses on golf courses. “I’m a big proponent of community spaces. I know everyone is anxious to get planting, but it is snowing out.”
Also at the Expo was Cooperative Extension Outreach Coordinator Jessica Gardner.
The next month will see several plant sales and events, both at the gardens and elsewhere.
The Master Gardeners in Douglas County are hosting the Master Gardener Native Plant Sale 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. May 17 at Nature Conservancy’s River Fork Ranch, 381 Genoa Lane.
Proceeds benefit Master Gardener programs in Douglas County.
A pre-sale talk was Tuesday, to discuss colors, combinations and companions, which should help buyers plan how to successfully use the plants available at the sale.
The Heritage Park Gardens annual plant sale is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 31.