September brings the return of school bells, shorter days and crisp evening air. Colorful leaves signal the end of summer and the time for Park City Gardens to reflect on this year’s accomplishments.

We enjoyed the beauty of over 25 lovely flower locations and strolling through the featured flower gardens in the July Garden Walk. This would not be possible without the many volunteers.

The Park City Gardens board of directors sincerely thanks everyone who contributed their time, talent and treasure to make Merrill a special place to live and to visit. The group looks forward to next year’s challenges and rewards and invites everyone to join in their efforts.

“It’s really amazing that we have all these flower beds and it’s all done by volunteers and donations,” said Park City Gardens board member Ginny Drew.

The city of Merrill assists both Park City Gardens and the Hanging Flower Basket project with watering.

“The city helped with watering and we really appreciated it,” Drew said.

This summer’s garden walk, held by the Master Gardeners, featured two of Park City Garden’s volunteers; Marge & Randy Schulz and Addonica Eggebrecht.

Park City Gardeners and gardens are a value to the community. Not only is it a real visual treat for the residents of Merrill to enjoy, but it creates a strong first impression to visitors that come to Merrill.

This project will encourage community pride with the beautiful flower locations throughout town. Citizens will realize their home is a special place to live made more comforting by the colors and aesthetic restorative powers a garden of flowers can provide.

A pre-season organizational meeting is held annual in May. At that time community volunteers are encouraged to participate in the summer gardening season individually or in groups to assist in the development, planting and maintenance of one or more of the 26 community flower sites located throughout the city of Merrill. Care of the gardens continues throughout the summer growing season as well as into the off season months, keeping in touch with people, developing plans for new garden sites.

This is a community service project for the city of Merrill, a social activity for volunteers enjoying working together and an educational display for people living in Merrill or driving through town.

Park City Gardens locations include Stange’s Park