Noelridge Volunteering News

2024 Volunteering - We’d love to see you!

The 2024 volunteering season will soon be underway. Come join our friendly group of volunteers anytime of the year. Check this website often to find out current projects and times. Or, fill out the volunteer page on this site and we will be in touch with you. You do not need to be a Master Gardener or even have a green thumb - you only need to have a love of plants and be ready to have fun. Guidance and training is provided. No need to register, sign up, or commit to certain days. Join us as your schedule permits!

March - May: Continue transplanting, chipping, potting indoors. Take Spring bulbs out of cooler. Get creative and design and plant Fairy Gardens and baskets. Assist with plant sales and open houses held during Easter and Mother’s Day weekends, when the greenhouse also shows off the permanent collections in the conservatory and the plants being readied for planting in the city flower beds. Start helping with special projects, including fundraising ideas, the Children’s Garden and the All-American Selection Garden project

May 12th: Mother’s Day Open House, Showcase and plant sale

Late May - June: Begin assisting the City Greenhouse staff with planting and mulching the various flower, vegetable and herb beds, the children’s garden, etc. Begin weeding and deadheading as needed in the gardens. Anyone is able to ‘adopt’ a garden bed for free, and come join us or bring friends to help keep that specific area maintained and beautiful throughout the growing season. We do ask that you coordinate with Greenhouse staff or volunteers so that we can track your time and provide instructions on caring for the plants.

June - Aug: Continue weeding and deadheading in the flower beds around the park. Help in the monarch tent rearing monarch butterflies from caterpillars all the way to tagging and releasing them. Volunteers may assist in the garden on their own schedule for many of these activities, or partner up with friends to complete tasks in a favorite garden.

Sept - Oct: Work has moved back inside as we begin taking cuttings from the gardens and starting propagation of all varieties of plants and flowers for next year’s growing season. Bulbs for the spring showcases will also be planted in pots and put in the coolers to force blooming. This is a great time to join our fun group of volunteers and see how the beginnings of next year’s gardens start out. You can then follow progress in the greenhouse all year, as the new plants grow and are transplanted and/or further cuttings are taken.

Nov: Early in the month, volunteering is on an as-needed basis. Bulbs for the spring showcases will also be planted in pots and put in the coolers to force blooming. Cutting back plant material in the greenhouse will be ongoing. Later in the month, volunteers assist in creating Holiday Garden decor for sale at the Holiday Lights & Blooms Open house, and decorating the Greenhouse for the event, as well as helping at the event itself.

Dec: Assist with Hosting Holiday Open House. Dates are December 5th and 6th, from 5:00pm - 8:00pm each night.

If you are interested in learning about our volunteer program, please contact 319-286-5762 (lori) or use this link.

Updates to the Children’s Garden

Summer of 2023 - Volunteers worked to paint and decorate pallets used to extend the fencing around the Children’s garden, and spruced up the old fence with new paint and colorful designs. A new ‘tire’ caterpiller was created and installed, with ‘legs’ consisting of planted children’s shoes. Kids participated in helping to design the caterpillar legs by choosing their own shoe and picking their favorite plant to add. ABC Stepping Stones were painted and lettered as a path through the garden, and Scarecrow Gene received an updated wardrobe!

New Garden Bench

The Friends of Noelridge had a new Granite Garden Bench installed the last week of May 2022 on the sight where the old wooden FON bench stood. The old bench was removed last year after incurring unrepairable derecho damage. We think the new one looks great! While you are in the park, wander over and have a seat to enjoy lunch, take in the flowers and gardens, or just people watch.

New Trellises and Arbors in the Gardens

Ryan Companies generously donated materials, labor and their time to design, build, and install 10 new replacement trellises and 2 new arbors in the Noelridge Gardens the week of June 6, 2022. We are grateful for their contribution to the Park Gardens and to the community. Please take a minute while you visit the gardens to view these beautiful new structures and watch for the flowers to grow on them as the summer progresses. And please thank Ryan Companies and their employees for their participation and realization of the value and pleasure that these attractive new additions will bring to the park and the public who enjoy them!

Noelridge Greenhouse 50 year Anniversary

The 50th year event was held on August 12, 2022! The weather was fabulous and there was an awesome turnout from the public of over 2000 people. The greenhouse entrance mural dedication took place at 4pm, kicked off by words from the Cedar Rapids Mayor and the Parks and Recreation Director. The Friends of Noelridge were so happy to be able to gift the gorgeous mural to the city, painted by mural artist Jordyn Brennan.

Children and adults alike enjoyed the mural unveiling, participated in a scavenger hunt, a plant giveaway, various games, rock painting, and were able to see Monarchs ready to be released.

We are so grateful to the following major sponsors for supporting this event. Please plan to support them and say thanks!

Ryan Companies

Linn Area Credit Union

Randy Kuehl Honda

Fleet Farm

Good Earth Garden Club

Cedar River Garden Center

Revive Family Chiropractic

Blairs Ferry Pet Hospital

Family of Jim Venneman

Mary Moore

Sona Christensen

Flutterby Acres

For several years we have been supporting out local Monarch Research Station by hosting a Monarch tent near the Noelridge greenhouse. Karla McGrail and Caitlyn Feddersen led a team of volunteers who will grre the milkweed and monitored the health of the caterpillars obtained through the Monarch Research Station. Keeping the tent clean and watching for disease and predators is key to successful hatching of the Monarchs.

Watching as the caterpillars devour the milkweed and turning into the chrysalis is an experience in anticipation. If you have not witnessed the development of the butterfly and the pure joy of finding butterflies attached to the sides and roof of the tent you are in for a true moment of joy.

More than beautiful, Monarch butterflies contribute to the health of our planet. While feeding on nectar, they pollinate many types of wild flowers and hence are a very important part of our ecosystem.  Monarch butterflies need milkweed plants to lay their eggs.   But did you know that in the past two decades the midwestern population of this iconic butterfly has decreased by more than 90%?  Adverse weather conditions and loss of habitat have severely stressed the monarch’s intricate life cycle which depends on the seemingly frail monarch completing a 2,000 mile southern migration each year.

The Monarch Research Project is headquartered in Marion Iowa.  Their mission is to add native pollinator habitat & reestablish the monarch population in Linn County, establishing a model for the whole country.  In their effort to increase the monarch population they have developed “Monarch Zones” in cities, counties and homes that are committed to their goal of repopulating the butterfly population.  Noelridge is proud to be one of the Monarch Zone sites in Cedar Rapids.

Early this summer tiny caterpillars from the MRP were added to the Noelridge Monarch Zone. The Monarchs undergo complete metamorphosis, in which there are four distinct stages: Egg, Larva (caterpillar), Pupa & Adult.  Monarch development from Egg to Adult is completed in about 30 days.  Once the tiny “cats” were added to the tent, a team of volunteers provided daily checks of the tent monitoring  the condition of the milkweed, watching for predator’s & potential disease and maintaining the overall health of the Monarch’s.

Monarch rearing for the 2022 season at Noelridge came to an end in mid-August with the final release of adult monarchs. Activities will pick up next year in early June with tent preparation and ‘cat’ release.

This project relies on the support of several volunteers.  If you are interested in helping with this monarch experience and learning more about all stages that are observed at the Noelridge Monarch zone, please fill out the volunteer form on the Volunteer tab of this website, or contact Diane at mamadi319@aol.com.

Free Little Library at Noelridge Park

You are invited to “check out” books this summer at Noelridge Park. Our library will stock both youth and adult books, and we hope our park visitors will enjoy taking, returning, and adding to the collection.