Unique roadside garden catches the eyes of passers-by, local and otherwise

by B.J. Tomlinson

Ever wonder about the corn crib with the big parrot inside on Highway 9 west of Lansing? The wooden parrot and the tidy prolific garden surrounding it belong to Karen Batteen, an area transplant from Urbana.
“The corn crib was just sitting there empty,” she said, and she thought there should be something in it. She made the parrot herself, having obtained a pattern from a friend of a friend. Most of the other garden decorations were purchased from auctions and yard sales for very little money.
Her husband, Bob, made the stand for the “bottle tree”, one of her favorite objects in the entire garden. She adds flowers, plants and decorative objects whenever she finds something interesting, but only if it’s free and/or cheap.
There have been visitors to the garden, some locals and some just passing by in their travels. Most are first drawn in by the "caged" parrot they can view from Highway 9.
Many of the flowers and plants were propagated from Batteen’s garden back in Urbana, and she trades some with her sisters, who are all gardeners, too. Although she has no real horticultural credentials, she certainly has a green thumb. The hostas are huge and the other plants are very healthy looking and colorful. And she also works for Ion Exchange, a native wildflower and prairie plant farm in Harpers Ferry.   She mulches heavily to control weeds and tries to cut back the spreading perennials on a regular basis. So far, she has not had to use any fertilizer because the dirt is nutrient-rich pond soil.
Batteen is starting a wildflower garden down the road, which she says will probably look good in about five years. Until then, she will continue to create and enjoy her other little slice of heaven.