Gahr Farm

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By Rob Tracey - Library's native plant garden, long labor of love Published: May 22, 2004 McMinnville News Register The library's native plant garden has now become well established. But have you ever wondered how it came to be in the first place and just what it attempts to demonstrate? The sign in front indicates it is a gift to the community from the Native Plant Coalition. But what is that and how did it come to be? The garden we see now is a far cry from its humble beginning more than 20 years ago. In 1983, Rose Marie Caughran, then library director, was troubled by the lack of plants in the concrete planters within the atrium between the library and Carnegie Room. So she and a friend who had property along Baker Creek spent a day digging and transplanting native plants -Êwild rose, red flowering currant, Oregon grape, twinberry and mock orange - into the planters. She maintained the beds until her retirement more than 10 years later. The large, healthy shrubs that anchor the plantings in these beds stand as testimony to the dedication and perseverance she can demonstrate when she wants to get something done. Following Rose Marie's retirement, Anne Van Sickle became library director and soon recognized the potential educational value in an expanded native plant garden. She asked the Yamhill County Master Gardeners to take responsibility for maintaining and expanding the garden. They began organizing and making plans. Over the next two years, they added wild ginger, salal, oxalis, tall Oregon grape and others. They also began a maintenance program that ensured the beds were attractive and cleaned at regular intervals. In 1996, the five raised beds officially were dedicated as the McMinnville Library Native Plant Garden. When the library was required to undergo a seismic retrofitting in 1998, construction substantially impacted the landscaping nearest Adams Street and the fountain. It required almost complete replacement of the landscaping, but also provided an opportunity for the native plant garden to expand. The Master Gardeners recognized they had just about all they could reasonably maintain with the five raised beds and approached the recently formed local chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, which readily agreed to participate. In October 1998, the Master Gardeners, the NPSO chapter and the library formed the Native Plant Garden Coalition, specifically to "design, plant and maintain the expanded garden." The coalition then formed a committee to design the garden. The library asked only that the architectural features of the Carnegie room not be obscured by the plantings and that the area low on the east wall of the building, which had been patched following the seismic work, be obscured. The design committee conducted a number of meetings while attempting to determine the form and scope of the garden. Many suggestions and ideas of what "native" means and what shape the garden should take were considered. After numerous discussions, it was agreed any species native to the Willamette Valley and up to 400-feet elevation in either the Cascades or Coast Range would be eligible.

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