WSU Skagit County Master Gardeners Discovery Garden's 30th anniversary to be celebrated
The 30th anniversary of the Washington State University Skagit County Master Gardeners Discovery Garden will be celebrated during an open house Saturday, June 27.
The Discovery Garden sits on 1.5 acres next to the WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center west of Mount Vernon.
The garden is part of the extension and is maintained by volunteers who have completed or are completing WSU's Master Gardener program, which began in Skagit County in 1977.
The garden was created with education and accessibility in mind.
Signs throughout the garden identify the species being grown, and master gardeners are always willing to speak with visitors who are welcome to enter the garden for free.
"People drop by, they know it's a nice place to visit, and they're going to be inspired or learn something new," said master gardener Kari Ranten. "They'll see a plant, ask what the name of that plant is, and I mean I learn something every time I walk through here."
The Discovery Garden is divided into 33 smaller gardens, known as rooms, each with its own theme. However, the garden did not start out as the thriving natural space it is today.
Master gardeners Diana Wisen, Judy Callahan and Herta Kurp joined the program in the 1990s before the Discovery Garden's groundbreaking in 1996.
The three, along with class of 2024 master gardener Ranten, sat down for a group interview with the Skagit Valley Herald and reminisced about the garden's past 30 years.
Work to create the garden began in 1994, when plans took shape and master gardeners began reaching out to potential donors and volunteers.
"It was bare ground, nothing," Callahan said about the land prior to the garden's groundbreaking.
Initially, the group was met with skepticism by the Research and Extension Center's director at the time, Andy Anderson, who worried the master gardeners would give up on project after a year, leaving a mess on the land.
For that reason, permanent structures, as well as concrete and gravel, were initially not allowed in the garden.
Instead, the master gardeners used semi-permanent solutions such as bricks. Once the structures were in place and the master gardeners were seen as serious, Anderson praised the group and allowed the use of permanent structures and materials.
"It forced us to be careful, deliberate and do good planning," Kurp said about the initial restrictions.
In addition to being a master gardener, Kurp is an architect. She helped design the garden and build the structures within it, including the welcome arches, the pavilion and the shed.
Early volunteers brought their own tools, and community members donated plants.
As years went by, fundraising efforts such as the Skagit County Master Gardener Plant Fair helped the master gardeners maintain tools and the plants, and fund infrastructure upkeep.
The master gardeners said the garden's community-building aspect has been a major driver of retention for the master gardener program.
"It's a part of the culture that we have cultivated as a sense of family among the master gardeners. That's to me the strongest part," Wisen said. "That's why we can keep it so nice: we have people willing to give anywhere from four to 12 hours a week out here. Some people come on weekends to work and build a strong connection to the garden that they're in charge of."
Throughout the decades, the garden has adapted to climate change and new ideas.
"We are right up front there with our ideas of rejuvenating the earth and taking care of the earth," Kurp said. "This is a wonderful sample. I think that's why people respond to it. Tthey see how it could be, how our neighborhoods could be, how people could be working together, that we can promote peace and cooperation."
The Discovery Garden's free open house will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 27.
The event will include educational opportunities, plants for sale, information on how to become a master gardener and booths from the Skagit County Noxious Weed Program, the Skagit County Clean Water Program and the Skagit Conservation District.
The Salal Native Plant Garden and NW Fruit Garden, both located next to the Discovery Garden, will also be open, with volunteers available to provide information.
"It doesn't matter the language you speak, everybody speaks garden," Callahan said.
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