'Gardening Fool' Volunteers To Spruce Up Neligh Senior Center

Brilliant blooms of pink, red, purple, white and yellow paint a welcome sight to all who enter the Neligh Senior Citizens Center.

The fresh new landscaping is thanks to a local volunteer who is a self-proclaimed “gardening fool.”

Mike Walker of Neligh said he enjoys growing big flower gardens, but is a plumber by trade. Walker has retired, but still works part-time for Volkman Plumbing and Heating. He started sprucing up the front of the local senior center a few years ago.

“It was three years ago in the spring,” Walker said. “You know, I had just retired. I just seen such a mess there. They had a scroungy raspberry plant growing there and it was just awful. And I’m a gardening fool. I said, ‘I’ll put some stuff out there,’ and so that’s how it started.”

He said he slowly enhanced the soil and added to the existing chrysanthemums and lilies.

“Now, there’s probably 100 different plants out there,” Walker said. “I’ve got a green thumb,”

And he starts them from seed at his home.

“I start them myself,” Walker said. “I’ve got a nice, sunny front porch that I start them on. Started every one of these on my porch, well, except for the existing perennials.”

Since he took over caring for the Neligh Senior Center’s flowers, the cheery area is bursting with bold, beautiful flowers.

“There’s petunias, trailing type petunias, profusion zinnias, different salvias, ornamental millet, and the thing I grew allergic to, amaranthus,” he said. “And I don’t know what those red things are, I bought them over at the greenhouse one day. And there are annual phlox and rudbeckias. My favorite is the prairie sun rudbeckia, absolutely. It’s a nice plant.”

One of the tall amaranthus fell over after a wind storm, so Walker decided to pull it out. He later had some type of allergic reaction to it and his hands were covered with red blisters.

“That day, I was yanking and yanking on it,” he said. “I’m not touching it again. I’ll guarantee you that much. It caused all these blisters.”

Even though his hands haven’t completely recovered, it won’t stop him from caring for the flowers.

“The secret is that you have to take care of it,” Walker said. “If you say, ‘What’s your secret?’ You just gotta take care of stuff. And I pay very close attention to the needs of the roots. If you take care of the roots, the rest of the plant will do fine, providing you’ve got it in the right spot. And you don’t have bugs. You just gotta tend it. Like I water every other day, unless it rains. And believe me, I’m a fertilizing fool too.”

He said he plants all the flowers in the spring, typically within one week’s time.

“I might put the petunias in one day. The salvias in another day,” Walker said.

He said the flower garden looked its very best at the end of July.

“That’s the way my annuals are, at the end of July, that’s when they’re at their peak,” Walker said. “I’m an annual growing fool. I don’t really mess with perennials that much. In my yard, I have a few, but I just grow a lot of annuals.”

In addition to his love of gardening, he said he tends the flowers at the Neligh Senior Center because the senior citizens appreciate his service.

“These folks appreciate it,” Walker said. “Lots of people say, ‘Oh your plants are so nice.’ Basically the reason is because people appreciate it. And even going up the street they notice.”

Even though fall has just begun, he is already thinking about the next flower garden.

“Next year, it’ll be even nicer,” Walker said. “I go for what you call curb appeal.”

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