Arboretum keeps sprouting

Seven years of working and waiting have been rewarded at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

A 70-acre restored prairie area recently was opened on the arboretum grounds on 179th Street just west of Antioch Road. The task began in July 2002.

And that’s not all.

A formal dedication is planned at 4:30 p.m. today, Sept. 23, for the arboretum’s new Cohen Iris Garden. That attraction originally was scheduled to debut in May, but delays in completion pushed the opening to next week.

The garden features more than 100 varieties of iris recently planted by the Kansas City Iris Society. Other features in the garden are permanent seating, a brook and a small pond.

Lead gift for the garden was provided by Mary Cohen from the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust. Other major donors were Ash Grove Charitable Foundation and Friends of the Arboretum.

Chuck Garrett, a former Overland Park resident who now lives in Eudora, led the team of volunteers that conducted the prairie restoration project.

“My wife, Sandy, and I lived in Overland Park for 32 years and felt it was time to pay back with a little bit of effort,” said Garrett, who decided to give his time when he learned about the prairie project.

Garrett had started a similar endeavor on land he owned.

While the work did not exactly involve carving a prairie out of wilderness, there was considerable carving to be done.

Arboretum director Karen Kerkhoff said the area had not previously been a prairie. Saws, clippers and some heavy machinery were used to remove trees, brush and non-native grasses so true prairie plant life could be introduced.

Garrett and the other workers had only enough tools to supply a crew of six people, so no more than that usually participated in clearing efforts at the same time. About 50 volunteers took turns trimming, whacking, burning and hauling over the years, Garrett said.

“For two years we worked by hand summer and winter, even if it was snowing,” he said.

A certain amount of waiting was required before native grasses and wildflowers could be planted on the newly cleared land. Garrett said a contractor applied a herbicide to make sure that any seeds or roots from removed plants were not left to spring back to life and threaten the desired prairie plant varieties during germination.

Brome grass that covered much of the property had to be killed with herbicides, Garrett said.

Once the new plantings were in place in mid 2004, they needed time to germinate, grow, survive and then thrive before the area could be opened to the public. Workers planted five varieties of native grasses and 10 kinds of wildflowers. Some of the grasses take up to three years to finally sprout.

The prairie land is served by a couple of trails, but they do not offer access to the entire section. Visitors are permitted to wander off the trails, but Garrett said they should be cautious in doing so. This is not your ordinary walk in the park.

“We wear long sleeves and pants and high boots when we’re out there,” he said.

That wardrobe choice is made for comfort and protection, not as a style statement.

“Some of those grasses are real sawtoothy,” Garrett said.

Wildlife lovers who do make the trek could be rewarded. Garrett said visitors have observed deer, coyote, quail, wild turkey, turkey buzzards and various snakes.

Arboretum officials said another 90 acres of ground are in the process of prairie restoration.

In addition to the physical labor, Garrett conducted research that led to the securing of a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for the project that paid 75 percent of the $25,000 in restoration costs. City funds covered the rest.

With the prairie and iris garden projects now largely completed, Arboretum officials are preparing to launch a major fundraising effort aimed at financing a train garden.

Teresa Stohs, executive director of the Arts and Recreation Foundation of Overland Park, said the goal is just over $750,000. That would fund both the construction and ongoing maintenance of the project.

The Kansas City Garden Railway Society, which provided the initial train layout at Union Station, is helping with the arboretum garden.

Featured will be G-scale model locomotives and cars traveling a route that will include mountain peaks of 8.5 to 9.5 feet in height.

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