Greenhouse On The Hill
Imagine living in Iowa and going to work in the middle of winter to a tropical climate where you’re surrounded by an array of bright green foliage, trees, plants, ground covers, ornamental grasses and flower seedlings destined to produce colorful blooms in a few months.
Kevin Lingren has that job as the manager and caretaker of the Glenwood Resource Center Greenhouse. It’s a job he’s held for 37 years.
“I can’t even guess how many plants we have here in the greenhouse,” Lingren said. “It has to be thousands.”
Lingren gets assistance at the greenhouse throughout the year from six GRC client employees and some seasonal help in the spring and summer months from about a half-dozen staff members from other areas of the campus.
“None of these (plants) can be sold,” Lingren said. “This operation is a training site and work site. It exists exclusively for the clients at the Glenwood Resource Center.”
The clients who assist Lingren perform a variety of tasks, from seeding annual and perennial flowers and propagating ground covers during the winter to planting, mulching, watering, trimming, landscaping and weeding during the spring and summer months.
Most of the flowers, trees, grasses and plants nurtured at the greenhouse get planted outdoors on the GRC campus. Occasionally, Lingren and his crew have been asked to provide plantings for state parks in the region and other state-run facilities.
“We also have a lot of house plants,” Lingren said. “They’re put in client rooms, in the residential houses and even in some of the psychologists’ offices.”
In 2015, eight types of perennial flowers (including the Shasta daisy, black-eye Susan and purple coneflower) and seven annual flowers (including marigold, petunia and zinnia) are being seeded in the greenhouse for future planting around the campus, along with 12 varieties of deciduous shade trees (including red maple, Kentucky coffee, Ghinko, walnut, weeping willow and sycamore) and eight evergreens (including firs, spruces and pines).
“A vast majority of the trees we get from the state forestry service in Ames at a very-discounted price,” Lingren said.
The propagation of ground cover is a simple but unique process that entails greenhouse workers clipping a stem and starting a new plant by replanting the stem in a wet sandbox.
For environmental and client/worker health concerns, all of the planting and nurturing in the greenhouse is done without the use of spray chemicals.
“We don’t spray in here,” Lingren said. “If we have a problem, we destroy what is infected or cut back extensively on a plant. We also have to be careful of poisonous or toxic plants.”
The GRC greenhouse has been around for over 70 years. Lingren said in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, most state institutions in Iowa each had their own greenhouse and garden.
“They were there because they grew their own food,” he said. “Most of them got phased out in the ‘70s, but this one remained operational.”
Ironically, Lingren said, a change in policy during the 1980s started requiring all activities for clients at the GRC and similar facilities in the state to be age appropriate. The greenhouse was a perfect place for adult clients to enhance their skills and make a positive contribution to their community.
“A lot of (state greenhouse) facilities have tried to come back since the ‘80s,” Lingren said. “They’re trying to revamp.”
He admits he may be biased, but Lingren said the GRC greenhouse program has proven to be a valuable asset for the facility and the clients it serves.
“Hundreds of clients have come through this greenhouse over the past 37 years,” Lingren said. “It’s a very unique experience and opportunity for them.”