Personality in the plants

Ran on Saturday, August 4, 2007

Personality in the plants
Speaker's creative streak reflected in his gardens

By Keighla Schmidt
Leader-Telegram staff

Karma: What goes around comes back around.
Mike McKinley of Eau Claire is bringing karma to the land by planting trees in an area about one mile south of Eau Claire where early European settlers converted forest to farmland.
Twenty-five acres of land used to grow crops a dozen years ago is now GEM Gardens, an expanse of rolling hills, raspberry plants and trees that is open to the public.
And it started over a bottle of wine with his late wife, Nancy.
"We wanted an interesting place for ourselves," McKinley said. "We wanted to have something different that people would want to come to and bring their friends."
The absence of a parking or admission fee shows McKinley's earnest desire to share nature and the gardens he created.
The multiple gardens and large amounts of foliage make him charitable, at least according to one old friend.
Retired Eau Claire physician Phil Happe has known McKinley for about 30 years and said he is a special guy.
"He's very generous," Happe said. "He's pleasant."
Placed around the 25 acres are small gardens of flowers and bushes arranged in different shapes - a star, rectangle, triangle and pine tree.
"A garden reflects the person," he said. He described himself as nontraditional, highly creative and risk-taking person, as reflected in his gardens.
McKinley has been landscaping since he was 17 and likes to use to use scraps from his father's junk pile to construct garden features such as fountains and garden characters.
"It's a really fun experience," he said. "I just like to see how things happen."
Copper pipes formed into a functioning water fountain near the parking lot give first-time visitors a preview of the garden's intricacies.
Each year a different floral scheme is chosen for the annuals. Along with raspberries, visitors can take fresh bouquets of flowers home, depending on what is in bloom. Payment is on the honor system.
A gazebo, pagoda and seven water features are strewn across the lawn.
Water is a commodity for the 25-acre oasis. Rain is collected into a 10,000-gallon tank and is used on the plants so underground water tanks don't run dry.
Mulch is used around the trees and gardens to trap the water and slow weed growth.
McKinley earns his living by speaking with businesses across the U.S. about best practices. He also recently sold the educational publishing company he started. The author of five books, he has more on his mind than just gardening.
Always working, McKinley enjoys intertwining his two passions.
"I create the best speeches when I'm gardening," he said. "I create the best gardens when I'm creating my speeches."
The gardens require constant attention and frequent maintenance. McKinley said the equivalent of 2 1/2 full-time employees work the grounds.
Manicuring the grounds takes about 30 hours of mowing and lots of weed pulling when the grass gets long.
Though GEM Gardens took lots of planning, McKinley said it also required some trial and error.
"Usually more error," McKinley said. "The strategy is usually, 'OK, this would be good to do.' "
His advice for gardening - and life - is: "If it doesn't look right, pull it out."
Berries abound
Thousands of raspberry plants bring visitors to the garden to pay $10 so they can fill a bucket with berries. Berries also are sold on the honor system.
Enjoying retirement, Happe, who worked for Luther-Midelfort, goes to the gardens about six times a year to pick raspberries.
He enjoys the nostalgic sentiment in picking. Happe said it brings him back to his childhood days of picking strawberries in the summertime near Minneapolis. Now he brings his visiting grandchildren to GEM Gardens to pass on the memories.
"It's such a beautiful setting," Happe said. "I love to pick berries. It's a great setting, it's relaxing and a good time to meditate."
Each year McKinley plants about 300 new raspberry plants in GEM Gardens. By mid-June they are in bloom; the picking season continues until the first frost.
There are a few berry patches within the garden. The oldest bushes are near his home on the property. They were planted about 25 years ago and still bear fruit. Another section, known as "The Strips," has row upon row of berries.
"People like it because it's easy to walk on either side of the plants and find the berries," he said. "Sometimes I have to teach them how to pick. ... The best berries aren't at the top, they're under the leaves."
The newest raspberry patch is atop a hill where five circles of the crop are growing and ready to be picked.
"It wasn't for anything other than looks," McKinley said of the design.
He chose the crop because it requires little attention and maintenance.
Near the new patch is a maze of Japanese larch pine trees. Eight years ago McKinley planted 2-foot-tall trees, which now stand about 7 feet tall. If left untrimmed, the 530 trees would grow to be about 50 feet tall, McKinley said.
A raised platform emerges from the middle of the maze to provide a view of the garden expanse.
The past few years have been filled with construction and designing new features. McKinley hopes to calm some of the commotion after his wedding this August to Deb Grabrain in the garden.
Believing there is "more to life" for retirees, the 64-year-old thinks fish fries and bingo games are limiting and plans to continue speaking and gardening.
"I started this to see if you can take nothing and build it into something," he said. "There's always another year to do it in."