Springtime Rituals: The Trek to Zim
A greenhouse worth the drive in Northern Minnesota
For almost 30 years, the trek to Zim, Minnesota has been part of my annual springtime ritual. A decade ago I wrote about the reason I found myself driving almost an hour every year to a family-owned greenhouse. This multi-generational operation continues to cultivate an atmosphere that is like no other – warm and welcoming, with an abundance of color and new growth at a time Minnesota is just starting to stretch and yawn after the long, gray days of winter.
(And, yes, the ceramic heads still dot the greenhouse landscape, as does one in my garden at home, thanks to that impulse buy a decade ago!)
Over the years, the stalwart greeter Peat has gotten a little grayer, and his hearing more selective. I made sure to spend extra time chatting with him this year, knowing that one of these springs, I will miss his presence.
As I have watched Peat age, somehow current owner/operator Deb Byrns Erickson and I have not … at least not in our minds, where we appear the same as we did during those early years when we were just starting our families, and I first started making my way out to this still unassuming spot near the Sax-Zim Bog in northeastern Minnesota.
Byrns Greenhouse introduces new varieties of old favorites from time to time – hostas, petunias, geraniums, begonias, and a rotating variety of northern-hardy perennials and shrubs. But what doesn’t change is the “why” behind it all. As I wrote a decade ago:
Why travel afar to pick up the petunias? Because I am buying family, I am buying small business, I am buying local. I am buying lovingly cultivated plants and creatively crafted planters.
“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ~ Rachel Carson
Byrns supports our need to fill the senses, to help nurture new growth, and to participate fully in that recurrent rotation of seasons. Wandering the dirt-covered aisles, leaving the metal cart at the end as you shimmy through the narrow walkways overflowing with greenery and blossoms, you can’t help but feel hope and optimism. I line my cardboard box with an array of herbs to fill a container – lemongrass, rosemary, oregano and mint -- and dangle cascading baskets of blooms off the edge of the cart.
I discover hardy varieties of blueberry bushes ideal for the cabin (where hopefully we will enjoy their fruit before the bears do), and select one eclectic mixed planter pot to grace our front step. After meandering throughout the various hooped buildings, and giving the polydactyl cat a bit of attention, I make my way back to the center building where grey-muzzled Peat patiently waits for my return.
As I look to next year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my first trip to this special spot off a rural northern Minnesota highway, I encourage you to make the trek out to Zim this growing season, too. If you’re not in the northern Minnesota area, then find your own Byrns wherever you happen to live. Support the small growers, the family-owned businesses, the people who recognize you when you return year after year. Cultivate community as you cultivate your garden.
~ Kat B.
For hours and driving directions to Byrns Greenhouse:
This is assuring and hopeful, as is spring, no matter how dark the horizon. Thank you for a dose of Sunday morning peace.