Wausau Pilot & Review

Editor’s note: This sponsored weekly feature shares the stories of locally-owned and operated businesses and organizations in the Wausau area, highlighting the products and services they offer and the ways they contribute to the metro area’s unique flavor. Learn how to feature your business by emailing [email protected].

This week’s featured Wausau organization is Monk Botanical Gardens, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The Gardens, 1800 N. First Ave., was established in 2003 as a nonprofit when Robert W. Monk donated 21 acres of land to a group of committed volunteers to create his vision of a beautiful botanical garden focused on education. Free to the public, this is the only public botanical garden in North Central Wisconsin and now encompasses 30 acres of land, highlighting ornamental plants and connecting people with nature through educational engagement. This it the only organization offering environmental education services to the Wausau area in a 60-mile radius, and is home to the only nature-based preschool in the area. Preschool registration is now open.

Monk Botanical Gardens offers a flurry of special events for the public that highlight the beauty of nature. Wausau’s first-ever walking light snow, Blossom of Lights, will be held once again for a second straight year in the fall, an opportunity to stroll through the myriad of dramatic, artistic lights and sculptures gracing various spaces of the Gardens. Winter brings snowshoe luminary walks, while spring and summer features hands-on educational opportunities for children and adults including the Yuckapalooza and Aquapalooza Summer Camps, garden tours, theater in the gardens and more. A yurt, planned for 2024, will house additional programs and allow for an indoor space to teach small groups.

In its early years, Monk Botanical Gardens was known as “Wausau’s Best Kept Secret.” But Executive Director Darcie Howard said the Gardens’ increasing popularity means that label no longer applies.

“The days of being a hidden gem are gone, as the word is getting out that we are a flourishing garden space everyone can enjoy,” Howard said.

Now, Howard said, the dream devised in 2003 is about to come to fruition, thanks to the support and vision of the community. Monk Botanical Gardens will soon implement the first in a three-phase plan that begins with garden advancements and will culminate in a visitor and education center in the future.

“Be on the lookout for additions, renovations, and changes,” she said.

Monk Botanical Gardens can also be rented for weddings or other special events. With the addition of an English garden designed to host 100 people, the site provides a gorgeous, unique background for a wedding. The kitchen potager can also be rented for corporate events, graduation parties and meetings. See below for contact information.

Howard, along with Events and Education Manager Elise Schuler are working with their staff and board to ensure that anyone who wants to present a program or event at the Gardens can do so, even if there are financial challenges. Financial assistance is available.

“This garden is being developed for our entire community and we want it to be accessible to everyone,” she said.

Watch for information on Monk Botanical Gardens’ upcoming 20-year celebration week at this link, and read Darcie Howard’s answers to our questions about the organization and its mission below.

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  • Sprouts Garden Preschool. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Children’s programming at Monk Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Kitchen Potager and Garden. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Hands-on plants. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Blossom of Lights. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Booze and Botany event at Monk Botanical Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Meditation Garden. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Peter Pan in the Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Scarecrows on Parade at Blossom of Lights. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Sprouts Garden Preschool. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Summer Camp. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Theatre in the Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Volunteers pose for a photo. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Snowshoeing at Monk Botanical Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens
  • Yoga at Monk Botanical Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens

Give us a little history. How has Monk Botanical Gardens grown over the years, and why is a botanical garden an important resource for Wausau?

From 2003 to 2018, volunteers, with the support of the community and local foundations, created 10 acres of designed gardens and hosted thousands of visitors. The Gardens hired its first full-time employee, an executive director, in 2017. With that investment, the Gardens has flourished quickly in the past five and a half years. As of 2022, the Gardens has seven full-time and three part-time staff members, added a hosta/shade garden, purchased an additional 9 acres of land and implemented the only nature-based preschool in the area, along with environmental education programming for the entire community. In 2022 the Gardens hosted 64,000 visitors, 4,000 children and 7,000 adults through programming and events. As the ONLY botanical garden in north central Wisconsin, we serve multiplel Wisconsin counties. Launched in 2022, Blossom of Lights hosted 5,400 attendees from over 95 Wisconsin zip codes and 15 states. The Gardens itself is in the top five attractions for visitors to Wausau.

We have established seven themed garden areas, serving hundreds of thousands of community members in the past 20 years. The Gardens is committed to accomplishing Robert W. Monk’s vision of a botanical garden that will provide the Wausau community with a beautiful and serene green space, connect people with plants and nature through educational engagement, and celebrate our connection with the natural environment.

What’s the economic impact for Wausau?

The mission of the Gardens is to cultivate well-being in people, communities and the environment through experiences that engage, educate and inspire. Our goal is to develop long-term relationships and make the Gardens a permanent part of the fabric of the Wausau and North Central Wisconsin community. Green space for the community to learn, engage, and renew is a valuable commodity. The Life in Marathon County publication calls for local organizations to support healthy living, which will improve the mental and physical health of the community, especially youth. One asset identified in the report is access to natural areas and outdoor activities. The Gardens provide programs and green space which support healthy living and the need for outdoor space and activities.

Children’s programming at Monk Gardens. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens

Monk Botanical Gardens is the only botanical garden north of Madison and west of Green Bay, making it a tourist attraction that also enhances the aesthetic and value of the greater Wausau community. This brings tourists and day-trippers from outside the region to spend significant dollars within the broader community. Every major city has a botanical garden. Wausau has a botanical garden. Botanical gardens and the experiences and programming they provide attract people to the Wausau area to live and work. This provides a high-quality and diverse workforce for area businesses. People want to live in a city with various outdoor amenities, and Monk Botanical Gardens is a key attraction.

Botanical gardens are timeless attractions across the U.S., valued as delightful places to visit and for enriching a city’s reputation as a great place to live, work, and recreate. The Gardens also hosts community events such as Blossom of Lights, which is an attraction that brings thousands of people to Wausau. We provide private rentals for weddings, corporate outings and family events. From spring to fall, we offer public tours and host two plant sales selling native perennials working with local nurseries.

Tell us about the youth educational opportunities you have including Sprouts Garden Preschool. Why are these programs crucial to the community?

In a future where fewer and fewer youth are spending time in the natural world, where opportunities to learn, play, and explore are tactile, opportunities for connections to place and the development of community and stewardship must be made. Hands-on environmental education for children, which the Gardens provides, is essential in confronting youths’ gravitation toward sedentary and electronically-oriented indoor activities. All the developed programs are place-based environmental education. This means students are immersed in what they are learning. Many of the programs that are held onsite include a stewardship project. Exposing children to community service helps motivate adults to give back to their community. Increasing community involvement, volunteerism and service learning creates stronger communities and provides volunteers with many benefits: outdoor skill development, improved interpersonal skills and increased self-esteem.

Photo from Sprouts Garden Preschool, courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens

Since 2018, the participation numbers for environmental education programs have exponentially grown each year. In 2022, we served over 4,000 through our free after school program, summer camp, spring break camp, Tots in the Gardens (a parent and preschool child program), school and scout field trips, partnerships with Wausau Boys and Girls Club, Wausau School district’s Community Connections and Growing Great Minds program, and Marathon County Head Start to name a few.
Sprouts Garden Preschool opened in September 2021 with 28 registered children. With a proven need for preschool programs in Marathon County, this preschool is based on high-quality early childhood education and environmental education practices. It helps lay a foundation for environmental literacy. This program directly served 28 students in its first year and is full, with 44 students registered for the 2022-2023 school year.

This year we will expand the program to provide a full-day session for 4- and 5-year-olds. Providing a full-day program in conjunction with before and after care will allow working families to send their preschoolers, an previously unavailable option.

How does your organization connect with local school districts to enhance outdoor learning through field trips?

School districts from this county and surrounding counties take advantage of our field trip programs.  All of the 4K classrooms from Wausau attend each year.  We also worked with Head Start for the past  three years to offer six field trips every year for all 10 of their classrooms, free of charge.  

What about adult educational programs? How do you work to reach the entire community through these offerings?

We offer Hands-on Plants workshops in the Spring and Summer for adults, a variety of events such as Theater in the Gardens, Booze and Botany, Blossom of Lights and Luminary walks.  We offer programming to our neighbors, Our House. Each week during the growing season we use the accessible raised beds we built for them to get their hands in the dirt.  We are hoping to offer more workshops and lectures in 2024 with the addition of a yurt.   

Hands-on plants. Photo courtesy of Monk Botanical Gardens

You are referred to as “Wausau’s happy place.” What does that mean, exactly, and why is a connection to nature so joyful for so many?

I dare you to walk into the Gardens and not feel a sense of happiness.  That is what it means.  As soon as you step through those gates you are surrounding by beauty, serenity, and a place that all are welcomed. Spending 20 minutes outside in nature increases ones’ attention span, decreases depression and anxiety and aids in your immune system.   Placing your hands in the dirt has been clinically proven to also reduce anxiety and depression giving one a sense of connection and wholeness.  Wausau’s Happy Place provides the space for one to reconnect with themselves, nature and improve their overall health. 

Connect with Monk Botanical Gardens

Hours:

  • March through September: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • October through February: 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  • Open 7 days a week including holidays