Mary Hilfiker points out the lush plants bursting from the gardens tended by the Friends of Upper Landing Park and Trail. Colorful buds promise bright flowers, hardy native plants stand tall and beautiful, pollinator-friendly vegetation throughout gives bees “something to munch on,” she says.
Along the trail, the 72 hanging baskets installed by the Friends are plump with colorful petunias that make the path feel friendlier and safer, Hilfiker says.
Friends of the Upper Landing, a group of about 30 volunteers, was named 2024 Stewardship Group of the Year by the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy and Saint Paul Parks and Recreation. The 11-year-old group looks after the gardens along a stretch of the Mississippi from the High Bridge to the Wabasha Bridge. The area is a regional segment of the National Park System.
Most of the volunteers in the group live in the riverfront apartments and condos along the water. They have donated hundreds of hours to the planting and maintenance, Hilfiker says, and 45 donors contributed more than $10,000 for the baskets and upkeep of the gardens.
Hilfiker has been with the Friends since the start. She’s lived in her Spring Street condo for 18 years – the second person to move in when the building was new, she says. She’s the head of the group, “But I don’t like the terms ‘president’ or ‘leader,’ ” she says. “Coordinator” is her preferred title.
“A lot of us have been here year after year and everybody knows what needs to be done,” Hilfiker says. When it’s time to work on the gardens, “I set the date, collect the tools and contact the city if we need mulch or supplies.”
The nonprofit group keeps the area clean (“Somebody is out there picking up litter virtually every day,” Hilfiker says) and also raises funds for the park. When flooding damaged the Upper Landing Park area several years ago but disaster relief money wouldn’t pay to replace flowers, the group raised money for plants – simply through donation-request letters to others who live in the area, Hilfiker says.
Hilfiker points out a section of garden that the Friends group planted that has a selection of plants that will blossom at intervals throughout the summer. The blooming cycle started with prairie smoke early in the spring and will end with asters, which can bloom into late fall.
Hilfiker says one of the joys of working in the gardens is meeting people on the path. When she and a friend were out volunteering for a monarch butterfly count project, they met a young boy who had studied butterflies in school, but had never seen a caterpillar or pupae. He and his mother were thrilled to get a live lesson.
Hilfiker in the garden
Though she rattles off names and characteristics of the plants in the Upper Landing gardens, Hilfiker didn’t do much gardening in most of her working years. Her varied career as a guidance counselor didn’t really allow for much mulching and watering.
While working with the Hopi in Arizona, she preferred to use her allotment of water for kids to play in rather than for a garden.
And gardening wasn’t possible in the years she worked in the schools with Alaska natives. Or later in a men’s prison in Alaska.
Then, there were four years counseling soldiers in the DMZ in South Korea. Not exactly a garden spot. “We lived in a 50-year-old Quonset hut with rats and roaches,” she says. “I still laugh about it. The soldiers lived in better conditions than we did.” Female soldiers were not allowed to serve in the DMZ.
She continued to work for the U.S. Army in Los Angeles and Minneapolis and retired from the Bureau of Indian Education and then the University of Madison-Wisconsin after coordinating education efforts between states, tribes and the federal government.
Before moving to St. Paul, Hilfiker returned home to Rice Lake, Wis., to help her elderly parents.
She has visited every national park and Minnesota state park. Not much time for gardening up until now, indeed.
About Friends of Upper Landing Park and Trail
The nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization works with the City of Saint Paul, Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa, Ramsey County, the National Park Service and Mississippi Connections and the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy.
The group has received awards for its work including:
- Great Places Award for the Chestnut Plaza
- Blooming Saint Paul Golden Steward Award
- National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat site
- Good Neighbor Award from ABC/KSTP
- Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Monarch Observation site
- Adopt a River Program
- Mississippi National Park and Recreation and Mississippi River Connections – Outstanding Group Service 2021
- City of Saint Paul City Council Resolution for Outstanding hard work and achievement effort for the Saint Paul Park system 2021.
Inspired? Volunteer in Saint Paul parks! From Wildlife Monitors to Park and Garden Stewards, there are ways to make a difference that connect you to nature. Learn more
Article and photos by Kathy Berdan.