In reference to Joni Mitchell’s song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” the Jacobetti Home for Veterans, 425 Fisher St., is planning construction of a nature-based plaza on the south side of the facility in the spring.

Steve Finley, a Jacobetti employee who works on the grounds and the building and who has lent his time to the facility’s greenhouse, said volunteers have been planting large sunflowers around the site.

Also, the veterans — called members — who live at Jacobetti maintain raised beds near the greenhouse where they also pot their own flowers and vegetables.

Since gardening and a natural setting plays such an important role in the Jacobetti lifestyle, having a larger space for such activities could enrich it even more.

The greenhouse at the Jacobetti Home for Veterans is an important part of the facility now, but will become integrated in plans for a new plaza. The project includes more green space among other features. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

“It’s going to be all green,” Finley said in regard to the area by the greenhouse.

Perennial beds, grass and ornamental trees such as sugar maples will be planted, said Finley, who noted there also will be fencing and walkways.

“All of this will be open to the members,” Finley said.

The majority of the funding came from a man who used to live at the home, with that donor’s name and the project’s cost to be kept anonymous to the public, he said.

The parking currently on the south side of the home will be moved to the area along Fifth Street.

The current beds and greenhouse, though, will stay in their current spots.

“This is much more fun because now the greenhouse is integrated into the whole design rather than isolated,” Finley said.

GEI Consultants Inc., based in Marquette, is involved in planning the project.

Native landscaping will be part of the project in another way.

Finley said families came up with $800 to buy seed, which will be turned into a wildflower patch. Also, the Superior Watershed Partnership is assisting with this part of the project.

“They took the $800 and turned it into a $10,000 grant,” Finley said, “so we have plenty of wildflowers to put in here.”

Emily Leach, program manager of the SWP’s Great Lakes Conservation Corps, said in an email the garden will be open to the public, and visible from U.S. 41.

“The gardens will benefit the veterans by providing more activities on site,” Leach said.

Leach noted there will be Americans With Disabilities Act-accessible trails through the native pollinator plants, tall raised beds that will be wheelchair-accessible as well as a wheelchair-accessible picnic table to prepare plants, and sit and enjoy the garden.

“It will be a therapeutic way to stimulate all the senses and benefit the natural habitat,” she said. “More birds and pollinators will visit the area, which to this point has been a mowed hillside. Residents will be able to enjoy the garden from the many windows facing south in the building, or be immersed in the garden outside.”

Two SWP programs, the GLCC and the Lake Superior Volunteer Corps, as well as school groups through SWP’s K-12 education programming will help install and maintain the gardens, she said. The SWP received grant funding through the Regional Prosperity Initiative Prosperous Places Program to fund native seeds and plants, materials, GLCC labor and a wheelchair-accessible picnic table.

“Many Jacobetti residents currently participate in activities related to the home’s recently updated greenhouse, and we look forward to the potential this project is bringing to the community through multi-generational collaboration,” Leach said.

Finley said the plaza will provide a welcoming spot for members to visit with their families since it will have features such as a walkway underneath shade trees.

“The design of it is such a way that there’s areas where families can go, and they’re not back to back,” Finley said.

The area still can be used for other purposes.

“They’re setting this up with movable planter boxes, movable furniture, so they can still use for this for car shows,” Finley said.

If such events continue to happen at Jacobetti, they will happen with greener surroundings.

“Things are going to happen significantly,” Finley said.

Ryan Engle, administrator at Jacobetti, is excited about the project.

“At Jacobetti, the team here is always looking and striving to create new ways to enhance and improve not only our member’s quality of care, but also their quality of life,” he said in an email. “As we look at the potential for such a future outdoor courtyard, with the included gardens, trees, sidewalks and green space, it’s exciting the impact such a project could have on our veterans’ quality of life here at the Jake.

“It’s the U.P. We want our members to be able to be outside and enjoy Pure Michigan in a supportive environment.”