I hope you can get out and just enjoy the season for all the beauty it brings.”

Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Director Zac Dockter

The 14th Annual Green Garden Awards are in. Presented July 16 at the Cottage Grove City Council meeting, categories for the 14th Annual Green Garden Awards included Residential and Sustainability, with nominated gardens visited by staff early in July.
Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Director Zac Dockter introduced City Horticulturist and Public Service Worker Cole Holmes along with two new interns to review the nominations and make the Awards, the awards made to Jan Liedle (residential) and Steven Rudberg (sustainability).
“Thank you mayor and council, it certainly is gardening season,” Dockter said Wednesday. “As you can see that looking out the window here in Cottage Grove. I hope you can get out and just enjoy the season for all the beauty it brings. This year is going to be our 14th year of the Green Gardening Awards, where we receive nominations and then reward or award some of our more outstanding resident gardeners.
“This is also a great time to introduce you to our horticulturist Cole Holmes, who I don’t believe you’ve met yet,” Dockter said. “He oversees the planting, mulching, weeding, watering, and care for over 400 public gardens and thousands of trees in Cottage Grove.” Appearing along with Holmes were city interns Theresa Dierberger and Chris Maaske, who presented the 14th Annual Green Garden Award nominations. Maaske led out the presentation.
“For residential we graded it based on appearance, plant variety, uniqueness, creativity, and the upkeep of it.“ he said of the Green Garden Awards. “And for sustainability we graded it based on native planting, prairie areas, water conservation, and pollinator areas.”
Dierberger then announced the award nominees, starting with Barb Hare and Karen Snow.
“They created this garden this year, it looks pretty good for just creating the whole space this year,” Theresa said.
“They worked really hard to make it an enjoyable place for residents to just sit down and relax, and they had a fun variety of annuals and perennials as you can see, with petunias and flowers like lavender, iris, and cosmos.”
The second nomination was Megan Zachman for residential and sustainability.
“Right off the bat you can see she created a really peaceful and serene feeling in her backyard,” Chris said. “The landscaping work was really well done and thought out…we really liked the water feature with the bridge. We also liked the plant variety and how it seemed very natural but everything had a place for it.”
“The next residential one is Melody (Schneider),” Dierberger said. “She had a really beautiful fountain in the middle of it, and she also had a bench along the side so you could sit and enjoy the view. You can see that she included monardo, which is beebalm, the red flowers. Those are really good for pollinators. She also had day lilies and flax and a couple other things that are awesome.”
The fourth residential nomination went to Jennie Dockendorf.
“So for our fourth one we have Jennie Dockendorf,” Chris said. “Jennie’s garden shows up just how much can be packed into a residential yard.” Dockendorf’s entry included a front floral garden with petunias, a pollinator garden with native plants, and a vegetable garden in the back.
Fifth for residential garden nominations was the category winner, Jan Liedle.
“This one was Jan’s garden,” Dierberger said for the residential category winner. “So because she has a lot of trees in her garden there is a lot of shade, but she didn’t let that limit her variety. So she has a lot of hostas. So if you look closely she labeled each hosta. There’s Fire and Ice, Gold Standard, Blue Umbrella, and a lot more. She also has some coral bells and astilbe growing, and you can see the mosaic steps leading through her garden is really peaceful, and invites people into her garden. And she also has annual pots, which is a great addition.”
Last but not least the sustainability garden winner Steven Rudberg, presented by Maaske.
“All right, for our last one we have Steven Rudberg,” Maaske said. “Steven’s garden is a great example of a sustainable garden. It’s just a full wildflower with minimal maintenance and care. He doesn’t mow it…he trims it but he doesn’t use any insecticides or pesticides or anything like that. He just basically planted wildflower seeds and let it grow, besides the path he has there,” Maaske said referencing the screen. “This is just a great example for pollinators. It attracts a lot of pollinators. We were seeing a lot of bees and other insects while we were out there. Additionally it has the bird feeder, which attracts a lot of other animals as well.”
The Parks and Recreation Department then stood with Liedle and City Council members for a photo. Mayor Myron Bailey thanked both the city interns and Pine Ridge Garden Club (present on site) for their work
“First of all I just want to say thank you to our interns I would say and thank you for your efforts. We do appreciate our neighbors and of course the Pine Ridge Garden Club. Especially out here, I love what you do out front here. I love the area down by East Point Douglas there. And I’m sure there’s others there but those are the two I recognize the most. It just does a lot to beautify our community,” he said, finishing with a thank you and round of applause for Liedle.
Rudberg was not present on Wednesday, with Dockter saying the city would deliver the award to Rudberg’s home.
Following the Green Garden Awards, Dockter returned to the podium for another announcement: Cottage Grove had won two excellence awards from the Minnesota Recreation and Parks Association (MRPA), one for the construction of the Glacial Valley Park building and another for creating a recreational pickle ball program. Dockter turned things over to Nichole Greenwell of the MRPA to make the presentation.
“Thank you Zac,” she said. “It’s an honor to be here and to present a Minnesota Recreation and Parks Awards of Excellence—two of them to be exact.” Created to recognize agencies and their staff for excellence in seven different categories, the MRPA Awards program were an annual program, the ones at hand nominated for projects in 2024.
“So, on behalf of the MRPA, it is my pleasure to award excellence awards to the city of Cottage Grove, for its winning park facility and program. The park facility was Glacial Valley and the program was pickle ball,” she said to applause.
Glacial Valley was chosen as a a standout, remarkable achievement that was both modern and contained eco-friendly design elements building a strong indoor/outdoor connection. The park building had made use of community engagement to be successful.
As for pickle ball, it had grown from a group of 30 volunteers to more than 230 engaged players “in just one year.” The program had blossomed with an increase from 49 league teams in 2024 to 119 in 2025. The program had added youth and adult lessons and held a successful spring tournament, boosting use of the Glacial Valley park facility and making it the most requested city building in 2025. Having all but revitalized city recreations, this was worth an award.
Also taking place at the July 16 Council meeting, meanwhile, the city issued two proclamations, one on the August 5 Night to Unite and another declaring July as Parks and Recreation Month in Cottage Grove, read by David Thiede and Justin Olsen respectively. Those city residents wishing to host a Night to Unite party can sign up for this on the city website through Tuesday, July 29 at www.cottagegrovemn.gov, with search phrase “Night to Unite.”
As for recognitions, the city recognized fireworks sponsorships and memorial bench donations Wednesday. Fireworks sponsorships were acknowledged from Tennis Sanitation ($5,000), Northpoint ($5,000), 3M ($5,000), HyVee ($5,000), Van Meter ($1,000), and Whiskey Creek BBQ ($1,000), the latter donation made directly to the Cottage Grove Lions Club. Memorial bench donations were made by Jane Chatterton ($2,500) and the Cottage Grove Athletic Association ($2,500).
Also from Wednesday, the city heard but did not act on a variance request for a property on Hadley Avenue, city council members cautious due to conditions not being met that would allow for the variance.
“I believe the term is arbitrary and capricious,” Olsen said after the council had heard the request. “When we grant a benefit to one and not others.” The possibility of revisiting the matter as law develops was also held forth.
As for those seeking largely untrammeled nature spaces this summer (both maintained and natural) in Cottage Grove, the opportunities are many. Among them are Ravine Regional Park off Keats Avenue, Camel’s Hump near Highway 61, the Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area located off Hadley Avenue, as well as Mississippi Dunes Preserve and Hazen Mooers Park, both located off Grey Cloud Trail South.
Kayak rental is available at Hazen Mooers Park, with Settler’s Island awaiting the truly adventurous.