Willow gardeners chip in for Katrina

Frontiersman

The small community of Willow is having a big impact on a community thousands of miles away.

Gardeners in the Willow are have helped raise more than $2,400 for the New Orleans Botanical Garden, which was destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina at this time last year. The Willow Garden Club has donated $1,000 to the New Orleans garden, and Les Brake, legendary gardener and owner of Coyote Garden, has helped raise the rest through garden tours and soliciting donations.

&#8220I never dreamed Alaskans would be this generous. It seems like people really want to help any way they can,” Brake said. &#8220It's amazing how generous people are for something so far away, on the other side of the country.”

In July, Brake opened up his garden - which has been featured numerous times in national and international gardening publications - as a fund-raiser for the Willow Garden Club. He also put out donation jars for the New Orleans garden, and the response was overwhelming. In early August, Brake opened up the garden again, this time solely for the New Orleans garden.

Through those two efforts, as well as through mailed donations, the events raised $1,423. The Willow Garden Club recently voted to donate $1,000, bringing to total from the Willow area to $2,423.

The New Orleans Botanical Garden got hit several times in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

First, the winds tore down most of the old oaks on the property, then the flood killed most of the plants that sat under water for weeks. Finally, the loss of electricity meant temperatures couldn't be regulated, and the temperatures soared to 140 degrees in the glasshouses, killing all of the plants.

The garden has been rebuilding, and Brake said &#8220substantial progress” has been made in getting the garden back into shape.

&#8220A wounded city needs a beautiful garden as a place to seek comfort,” Brake wrote in an e-mail to the local gardening community.