Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-12-30
|Butte's First
Garden 21
Years Ago

n UTE today is accorded first place
among the cities of the state in
- the number and beauty OF its gar
dens. The Rocky Mountain Gar
den club Is an outstanding organization
OF the Northwest devoted to city beauti-
flying. yet it Is only 81 years since the
first flower garden was planted about q
Butte home. There had been greenhouses
for a number OF years and valiant work
had been done under the direction of the
late Jess r. Wharton at Columbia Gar
dens. b u the public. as a whole, had
participated in these efforts to make
Butte like Others cities only to the ex-
tent OF buying an occasional dollhouse
plant for their window Lodges.
Nothing will grow In Butte had been
repeated so often that 1t was accepted
without question. and Butte had finally
grown proud Of its reputation as a tree
less. CRASHES. fowerless town.
Appropriately enough, to q Butte girl
belongs the distinction OF having first
demonstrated that things would grow in
Butte soil. Her name Is Mrs. A.. M. Mich
olson, nee Kepler. who was born of a
pioneer family at the little settlement Of
Gregory. about three miles from Wickes.
Mrs. Nicholson and her husband were
living at 40 South Emmett street, in
1906, when she conceived the idea Of
having q garden. Although a resident of
Butte since she was four years of age.
she refused to be impressed by the &C
cepted theory regarding the non-produc-
tivity Of Butte soil n the inhospitable
character OF the Butte climate.
Had No Tools
The Butte stores didn't handle garden
tools in those days. Mrs. Nicholson was
forced to cultivate and care for her
plants with q fire shovel. a hatchet, a
piece of hose and a water pail. the bot
tom OF which had been punched full of
holes. She tried an outside cold frame
the first year and got results. The sec
ond year she planted the seeds in the
house and transferred the cold frame"
and obtained better results.
ANIMALS were the chief plants-canary
vine, peoples. bachelor buttons and the
like. 6he also planted the first sun
flowers In a Butte back yard. She had
success. One sunfower meas
ured l7h inches, though not fully de-
veloped. This plant was stolen before 1t
had reached Its maturity. Each year she
added to her garden until 1t became a
source OF delight not only to the Nichol-
son family, but to the entire neighbor-
hood.
There are 10000 gardens in Butte to-
day, 1t is estimated, and the pioneer Of
them all was the little plot at 20 South
Emmett street. Mrs. Nicholson described
her experiences as follows: THE first
year / planted my hotbed about March
is. The third night afterward there was
a heavy frost M 1t was frozen hard. l
think that was the most unhappy night
/ ever spent.
Several days afterward / planted more
seed and about 10 days afterward all the
seed began to sprout; the frost nae don
no damage.
About the middle OF May I planted
canary bird vine. The garden that year
was the prettiest that / had seen. 1t
contained about every kind of lower of
l had been able to procure seeds.
I'VE added to the list of flowers each
year. with the result that q few years
ago, Just before we moved out of town,
took first prize for q backyard garden
the Rocky mountain awards.
w also raised vegetables, carrots, tur-
nips. lettuce n radishes. as well as fine
rhubarb. During the war / raised 100
Of potatoes in the parking strip
In front of our home, at 90 South EN-
nett street."
Mrs. Nicholson used fertilizer literally
on her ground and gave her plants con-
slant attention. Although & young wom-
an and Buttes floral cultivation has
a point that amazed exhibitors
from other towns at the state fair, Mrs.
is able to boast that she plant
the first garden in that city.