THE GARDEN STORY

Retail Construction Services, Inc. is dedicated to giving back.

We give back not only to those in need within our community, but also the future generations of this wonderful community. What started out as a great idea has grown exponentially and became an amazing reality. Here at the RCS Giving Garden, school groups, master gardeners, corporate volunteers, and our own employees work together for the common good of teaching children the art of gardening and the importance of healthy eating. Click Here for Full Story.

LOCATION:
Retail Construction Services, Inc.
11343 39th Street N.
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

From HWY 36 - go south on Lake Elmo Ave, turn left onto 39th Street, garden is at corner of 39th and Laverne.
From HWY 5- going west from Stillwater take right onto Laverne (near Fury dealership) garden is on the right at corner of Laverne and 39th street.

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The RCS Giving Garden

The RCS Giving Garden

5/10/10

Spring Has Sprung in the North Country - It was Strawberry Day!

10 May, 2010 - (More photos at the bottom of this article)

Spring has sprung in the North Country, and there is a whirl of activity in and around the RCS Giving Garden. After a great deal of deliberation, debate, and procrastination, we decided not to spray an herbicide on the garden to kill the weeds. We tapped into the most renewable form of energy, manpower. We pulled some, ignored some, and had our friendly neighbor Farmers, Neal and Deb Krueger, from Krueger's Christmas Tree Farm come and turn everything over for us.

John Vrieze of Future Farms in Baldwin, Wisconsin donated a couple of truckloads of manure; Buell’s Landscape Center generously delivered and dumped, and a couple of brave souls from the office did a little manual spreading to cover our Garden with nature’s nutrients, or as Joni terms it; spread the love.

The Kruegers returned to mix everything up, and we had Ameilia, Izzy, Josh and Grayson from the Lake Elmo Elementary Adventure Club over this morning to provide the renewable energy to plant our strawberry patch. The 110 strawberry plants were donated by our own Curt Kiesow, and Curt spent time with the Adventure Club kids instructing and educating. Curt grew up on a farm in Central Wisconsin, and felt right at home.

The District 834 Alternative Learning Center students, led by Tom Wendt, will begin construction of our Garden Shed on May 24th. The group has been collecting building materials from any and all resources, and is intent on constructing the Shed with all recycled and donated materials.

So, the Garden sits and waits until the next flurry of activity:

- We will be having our bigger planting day on Tues., May 18th, with a rain date of Thurs. May 20th.
We will be:
- mounding all of the rows, even those waiting for plants
- planting all the seed crops
- laying landscape fabric
- laying straw in the aisles
- connecting the irrigation system

Who is here to help that day?
- RCS Volunteers
- Stillwater ALC High School (they are here all day to help with everything)
- UPS volunteers

FOX 9 News may be out here that day or later in the month to cover the ALC building the garden shed.

Thanks to all who help in whatever small way. Your contributions are part of a network that strengthens our community in many ways.

- Gim Middleton