Victory Test Garden
As part of the Garden Center’s educational prong of its mission statement and in keeping with our concept of having a “Test Garden” in plot one of the Trial Gardens, a Victory Garden is going to be planted and evaluated over a couple seasons. The garden will demonstrate the feasibility of growing vegetables along with annuals and perennials to create an attractive and inviting garden that would be welcome in any landscape. This garden project is an adjunct to the informative presentation on Victory Gardens by Alaine Bush at our 2024 Awards Tea last September.
Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, Inc. is a wholesale container nursery growing mainly 1 gallon perennials including tender perennials, ferns, grasses, shrubs and vines. To view the types of plants offered, visit intrinsicperennialgardens.com
Our new Victory Test Garden will be installed in spring of 2025
In 1952 the Trial Gardens were commissioned by the Garden Center and used as testing gardens for local growers’ new annual and bulb varieties, to learn how they fared in our area. Over the years the gardens became more focused on design competitions among local garden clubs, which still continues today.
In 2021 we returned to our roots dedicating the largest plot as a true “trial” garden. The Garden Center partnered with local Midwest grower Brent Horvath, owner of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, testing some of their new plant introductions for over a 3-year period.
The garden is being transformed in the spring of 2025 into a Victory Garden, combining vegetables, annuals, and perennials in a creative design by Advanced Master Gardener Alaine Bush. Alaine’s garden plan will cleverly make the best use of this relatively small area using vertical and other space-saving planting techniques.
