MISSOULA COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS
A group of volunteers spent a sunny, hot Friday morning and afternoon recently re-planting scores of native plants rescued from a Missoula-area development site.
The new home for the flowers and grasses, all adapted to Montana’s climate, is the Rocky Mountain Gardens at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.
“So this is our native prairie, modeled somewhat after what, you know, used to be here at the Fairgrounds before development,” explained Molly Anton, the Rocky Mountain Gardens coordinator with the Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension. “So there used to be a bunchgrass prairie here. It was a really important bitterroot collecting grounds. And so these grasses, yesterday we went up and saved them from a site that’s to be developed in the future.”
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A group went out with picks and shovels, dug up the flowers and grasses, and moved them to the site behind the new Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium. When it’s ready this fall, it will be open to the public and people can enjoy seeing a small slice of the original Missoula Valley ecosystem.
“So we have bluebunch wheat grass, we have Idaho fescue, we have a few other species of bunchgrasses and wildflowers we dug up,” Anton said. “And this is a really amazing way to get an instant prairie because some of these bunchgrasses are decades old. And so they’re already really well established. And with that, we’re also bringing some of the soil which has some of the seed bank, it has some of the microbiome, fungi. So it’s just a really great way to restore a prairie.”
She said insects, birds and mammals will utilize the area.
“I already have a fox in here,” she said. “We have killdeer nesting. This project as a whole, we have a lot of focus on ecology and this garden (nearby) is a pollinator garden. So we are definitely thinking about gardening holistically.”
Bill Caras, the owner of Caras Nursery and Landscape in Missoula, said he donated lots of the plants for the pollinator and ornamental gardens nearby, and he brought some of his staff down to volunteer as well.
Anton said she’s hoping the gardens will be open to the public for a grand opening in September.
Sara McComas was volunteering with a friend because she’s interested in horticultural therapy.
“That’s what got me kind of interested in trying to figure out what we have here in Missoula for opportunities where we might be able to do some horticultural therapy,” she said.
Aimee Kelley, the owner of Great Bear Native Plants in Hamilton, said it’s important for people to remember that even native grasses and wildflowers need a lot of water for the first couple years if they’re planted in people’s yards for landscaping.
According to the county’s website, there will be “over 20 distinct growing areas” at Rocky Mountain Gardens, including rose, pollinator, medicinal herb, native prairie, sensory, forest, vegetable, ornamental, and waterwise garden beds as well as a fruit tree and berry orchard.
“The garden will provide areas for teaching, learning, and growing,” the website says. “There will be an outdoor classroom, flowering pollinator lawn and drought tolerant lawn areas that will serve as gathering spaces. The gardens will also feature a four-season greenhouse, hoop house for season extension crops and shaded areas for classes.”
David Erickson is the business reporter for the Missoulian.
