Little town big on beauty

-The pride of a community garden shows as you take a walk in the Comstock Garden. As an outsider, it looks like it was always the town square, but the area came open when a fire destroyed the entire block in 1993. The red brick path that leads to the gazebo encourages all to take a walk down memory lane and be a part of history by purchasing a brick with their name or a loved one’s name on it to help off set the expenses of the garden.

A pride of the gardeners who tend and care for the Comstock Garden is the classification of a Certified Butterfly Garden. Keeping the garden all organic is the key. The Comstock Garden has been an example for numerous other communities to also receive the classification.

Divided up into ten basic sections you will see bushes and trees bearing fruit while wild flowers, roses, peonies, ornamental grasses, herbs and other vegetation fill the sections. Area artists have donated iron works to make a bottle tree and windmill designs. Generous donors have given a bronze sculpture and fountain.

Apricot, pear, blackberries and elderberry are only a small sampling for the fruit that grows in the garden. Of course, the fruit is picked and put to good use by the volunteers.

The original organizers of the garden named their group C.A.R. E. (Comstock

Ain’t Ready to Expire) How many communities with a population of approximately 89 can say they have close to two acres of a garden in the middle of their town where it is all cared and funded by volunteers of the community? A generous donation came in 1999 so automatic sprinklers could be put in to water the areas.

The Friendship Patio in the garden is salvaged from the old power plant and is used for parties and relaxing with friends. Leading you into the Friendship Patio is a rock formation of Nebraska and its rivers, which shows just another imaginative concept of the garden to entice its use.

You know how much time it takes to keep weeds down, bloomed flowers cut back and overall tending to your own yard and garden. Now imagine having the dedication of the C.A.R.E volunteers who spend numerous hours to keep the Comstock Garden going.

You don’t have to be from the area to help out or donate to the garden. Gather you picnic basket or get some friends to take a drive to this wonderful Custer County community in Comstock.

Donnis Hueftle-Bullock Above left, one of five varities of lilies planted in the garden, show a vibrant orange against rich green. Above right, the state of Nebraska is outlined in rocks next to the entrance of the Friendship Patio created from what’s left of the walls of the old power plant in Comstock

Donnis Hueftle-Bullock Above, delphinuims planted nerar a path made with bricks carved with names leads the way to the gazebo in the Comstock Community Garden. Above right, one of several roses planted in the garden. At right, Pam Chambers, one of the dedicated volunteers who works tirelessly on the Comstock Community Garden.