In 2012, Tracey Snyder, a nurse practitioner developing a wellness program in Park Falls, Wisconsin, approached UW-Madison Horticulture graduate student Michael Geiger seeking guidance on a greenhouse project, Just an idea. The greenhouse needed both funding and expertise.

So along with Horticulture professor Sara Patterson, the team applied for a Ira and Ineva Reilly Wisconsin Idea Endowment grant. The proposal was funded in summer 2013 and a team of local volunteers spent the fall of 2013 constructing the 25-by-50 foot vail-style greenhouse on vacant land donated by Flambeau River Papers.

Today, the Flambeau River Community Growing Center has become not just a source of fresh food but an important community classroom. Children from the Chequamegon School District as well as 4-H groups raise plants in and outside the greenhouse. Master Gardener classes as also held in the facility.

“It’s clearly a benefit to build a connection between UW–Madison and the community, for the community itself—people from ages 3 to 90—and for the local schools,” Patterson says.

CALS horticulturalists help sow seeds of community in northern Wisconsin