GRAND FORKS – Karon Miller came prepared to work in the rock garden that spans a large portion of the southwest corner of University Park on Thursday.
But she was in for a big surprise.
She became the focus of an informal ceremony to dedicate the expansive garden in her honor. Her son Mike conspired with others to get her there on the pretext that she was needed to help with planting a new conifer.
“I wore my gardening gloves,” Miller said, holding up a pair of the well-worn staple of horticulturists, after the event. “I was ready to work.”
Mike Miller commented that, as he was getting ready to bring her, “She said, ‘We should bring a shovel.’ I said, ‘Sure.’”
The sign for the Karon Miller Rock Garden was unveiled at the event which drew a group of nearly 20 Grand Forks Horticultural Society members and other well-wishers.
“That is so cool,” Miller said the moment the sign was unveiled.
It reads: “University Park, Karon Miller Rock Garden, Grand Forks Horticultural Society,” with the Grand Forks Park District logo in the lower right corner.
After the ceremony, Miller said, “I’m speechless. This is so unexpected. It’s a nice honor.”
Miller’s childhood experience, growing up on a farm near Milton, North Dakota, influenced her interest in horticulture, she said. “We always had a garden. …
“When I was younger, I wanted to plant every plant in the world. I wanted to see how they grew.”
Miller has a long history – more than 40 years – of working on this and other public gardens throughout the community, said Cindy Filler, president of the Grand Forks Horticultural Society.
In the early 1980s, Miller said she and another resident, Carolyn Anderson, started a group, Perennial Planners, whose members were interested in beautifying University Park with flower beds.
“And it evolved into this,” she said at Thursday’s event. “So many people helped to get this done. It was wonderful.”
Her involvement in other groups, with a similar mission, followed.
Miller’s impact on the city’s parks and other public spaces has been “massive,” Filler said. “She had her finger involved from the beginning, before those (planning) groups were ever formed.
“She petitioned the park district to add flower beds to University Park,” Filler added.
Miller was elected to head various groups dedicated to beautifying the city with plantings.
“Every single step had Karon’s hand in it,” she said.
Miller, along with Marlene Maxon, helped to incorporate the Grand Forks Horticultural Society in 1991, Filler said, and Miller still serves on its board as past president.
Cindy Filler, president of the Grand Forks Horticultural Society, and Nelson Rosit (left), a society board member, talk about Karon Miller’s dedication to the gardens in University Park and throughout the city during Thursday’s ceremony to dedicate the rock garden in her honor.
Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Katy Cavanaugh, horticulturist with the Grand Forks Park District, said, “(Miller) has been instrumental in all of the beds in University Park.”
A certified Master Gardener, Miller was also involved with the gardeners’ group that worked on projects such as Kannowski Park on South Fourth Street and Seventh Avenue, the Civil War statue site on Belmont Road, and the Gateway Drive triangle – also known as Skidmore Park – on North Fifth Street.
“If not for her, and the organizations she was with, these wouldn’t be here,” Cavanaugh said, pointing to the University Park gardens, “and I wouldn’t have a job.”
Miller became involved in helping the city and the Grand Forks Park District plan, design and install gardens city-wide in the early 1980s.
In 1982, the Park Board asked the then-named Perennial Flower Garden Committee for recommendations on establishing perennial gardens in the community, Filler said. Miller served as a committee member and was elected chairperson in 1983.
The Park Board certified the committee as an ongoing advisory group, which reported to the board in the spring and fall and provided updates throughout the year. Committee members offered advice on new beds and plantings as well as redesigns for existing beds and assistance in acquiring donations and public relations.
The group also acted as a resource to other civic organizations in city beautification efforts.
Miller and members of a Prairie Planners Committee, formed in 1983, developed a plan to add flower beds to University Park. Miller served as its chairperson.
The group’s first project focused on the Reeves triangle in the ‘80s, followed by plantings in Kannowski Park, the Sertoma Arboretum and other areas.
The group developed a two-year project at University Park to replace old shrubs and trees with flowering plants and create a terrace and walking path.
Another group Miller headed, People for the Parks, recommended that a rock garden be developed at University Park.
Rock gardens are a specialty, Filler said, and not everyone knows how to design them.
In 1986, the group contacted Betty Ann Mech of Minneapolis, a nationally known rock garden designer, to design and implement the garden at University Park. “She spent a week placing rocks in the garden,” Filler said.
The group decided that the rock garden should also feature perennials, shrubs and trees. John Staley, the city forester, asked Don Kinzler to design a perennial garden; Kinzler’s design was approved and implemented in 1984, she said.
Dedication of this area of University Park to Miller represents a collaboration between the Park District and the Grand Forks Horticultural Society, said Nelson Rosit, a member of the society’s board.
The sign denoting the Karon Miller Rock Garden is made of tropical hardwood, bordered with a steel band and anchored in the ground with 40-inch metal rods that are secured in a concrete base, Rosit said.
“The city was concerned about vandalism. This is basically vandal-proof,” he said. “Nothing short of a bulldozer will move it.”
The signage “is as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar,” he said, citing Northern Expressions and Boss Signs, local companies, for their work to create it and the city for covering the cost.
“It’s a pedestrian sign to welcome people into the garden,” Rosit said. The sign is not readily apparent when driving by, but with UND’s softball field and the five-story, multi-use building being so close, “there’s going to be a lot of pedestrian activity here.”
During the program, citing Miller’s work, he said, “Forty years, Karon. That’s quite a sustained effort in civic engagement. Our hidden gem is no longer a hidden gem.”
Miller’s efforts prove that an individual, in isolation, may not have much impact, he said, “but if you join with like-minded people, you can get things done.”
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