LAKE MINNETONKA
LAKE MINNETONKA
COMMUNITY GUIDE 2025
A group of‘ uncommon’ green thumbs
The members of the Uncommon Gardeners, who reside in Excelsior and neighboring South Lake Minnetonka cities, are all hardworking and persistent in their pursuit of good gardening and maintenance throughout the city. All are local volunteers, both men and women who assist with caring for the garden beds and plantings in the Commons Park in Excelsior and beyond.
All serve with a simple mission: to beautify the area with greenery.
They do a little bit of everything. Weeding, planting, raking, mulching and watering. They are gardeners of all trades. But above all, they oversee their work and maintain it even after the fact.
Colleen Lockovitch, a horticulturist and the group’ s lead gardener, as well as resident Judy Swanson, were the two who started the venture back in 2019. During the first year of the Uncommon Gardeners, it was just the two of them. Slowly, but steadily, it has grown to become an arsenal of 15-20 garden-loving folk in the Lake Minnetonka area.
While the group does not solely use native plants, they do specialize in incorporating native plants. Some of the Uncommon Gardeners pro bono work has also revolved around weed removal outside of the park. In fact, in resident yards near the Commons, the group has offered to pull weeds in the
54 | LAKE MINNETONKA | COMMUNITY GUIDE | 2025 past. The three major weeds that the group wants Excelsior to pay more attention to preventing are creeping bellflower with its intense root systems, garlic mustard with its wide spread and ragweed with its seeds that go everywhere.
They have also kept themselves busy over the years partnering with the Community for the Commons group, a nonprofit park conservancy dedicated to the improvement and enhancement of the Commons Park. It’ s where they got their name. In fact, three years ago, the group created a trail garden along a portion of the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail. The city of Excelsior sponsored it and the Uncommon Gardeners helped plant and care for it.
They expanded their vision for a trail garden across Water Street, over by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum’ s ticket office with a new, redesigned garden. In recognition of the group’ s hard work on the trolley garden, the Minnesota Street Museum offered them a free ride on one of their streetcars, No. 78 from Duluth, one of the oldest operating streetcars in the country.
The group is always looking for more volunteers to join their gardening crew, and they welcome gardeners of all experience levels. They are also hoping to form a subgroup of people that will help control the three invasive plants they want to eradicate.