Garden Lake Blog

News from the Northland

Garden Lake Resort Gardens

Posted by: Garden Lake Resort

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Hanging baskets at Garden Lake ResortAt Garden Lake Resort, we are surrounded by natural beauty. But we like to add to it, too!

Dianna believes something about gardens make a place. She devotes hours tending to the eight annual beds around the cabins and on the piers and a big perennial garden next to the house and office. Perennials around the resort include hostas, old-fashioned bleeding hearts and fern leaf bleeding hearts, bluebells, peonies, lilies, irises, and day lilies. Hanging baskets and potted annuals--geraniums, canna lilies, begonias, petunias and more--can be found all around the resort.


Green Clean

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Sunrise on Garden LakeMinnesota resort vacations are relaxing, rejuvenating, and refreshing. No doubt, a week or two up north in a Minnesota cabin can renew your soul. At Garden Lake Resort, a week or two at our Ely MN lodging is good for your body, too--in more ways than one. Since December 2007, we've gone green!

Green

The term green is used to describe efforts and actions that are safe and beneficial to our environment. For us at Garden Lake Resort, green means using natural, non-toxic cleaning products and energy efficient appliances. Green means being aware of our habits and inviting our guests to be aware of theirs, too. Green means doing our part to ensure the pristine wilderness environment we love remains preserved for generations to come.


Campfires at Garden Lake Resort

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Sitting around the campfire ring at Garden Lake ResortOne of the things our guests like best about staying at our Ely Minnesota resort is our nightly campfires.

It's our ritual. As day gives way to night, we gather around the fire ring that's centrally located behind our cabins. There is a time and place for serious conversation, but it's not when we're sitting around the campfire! Then it's a time for stories and sometimes skits and almost always s'mores. On occasion, Mark and friends will bring out the guitars and the singing begins.  


Later afternoon fishing on our chain lake, White Iron"Anglers fishing the lakes in the Ely vicinity and within the Boundary Waters have been rewarded with some of the best early season fishing in years!"

These words, posted on a Minnesota fishing reports site, are echoed by our Garden Lake Resort guests and others who have been out on Garden Lake and our chain lakes, White Iron, Farm and South Farm.

Spring fishing is at its best.


Head to the Lake!

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One of the first things guests do when they arrive at Garden Lake Resort--sometimes even before they check-in at the office--is head to the lake.

They may stand on the dock, sigh deeply, and scan the tea-colored water, making their plans. Or--especially if they're young--they may lie flat on their stomachs on the dock and run their fingers through the water. Sometimes, no matter their age, they kick off their shoes or sandals and stick in a toe. They look beyond their reflections on the water's surface, searching for minnows or pan fish, or crayfish or turtles swimming below. They may skip a rock or two from the shore of our sand beach. Or, they may grab a stick, trying to gauge the depth of the water or pretending to cast.


Sweet Spring

Posted by: Garden Lake Resort

Tagged in: Season Reports

 

For we who love to fish, thoughts of spring begin before Opener and even before March 21. They begin in mid February, or sometimes late January, when we begin to inventory our tackle boxes and dog-ear pages of Cabela's and other sports equipment catalogs. Long before ice is out, we spend hours trolling through In-Fisherman articles for tips and contemplating rigs and jigs.

Then Opener comes. . .


Spring Ice Fishing

Posted by: Garden Lake Resort

Tagged in: Fishing Reports

It is finally feeling like spring in Ely MN. This year's long cold winter has prolonged the melting of ice on Garden Lake and has given fisherman the opportunity to catch big black crappie in the west arm of Garden Lake. This is my favorite part of the lake due to virtually no homes or development. The land surrounding this beautiful bay is primarily thick pines and ledge rock.

My friend Wade and I ventured out this morning to see if we could catch enough crappie for a fish fry. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and the temperatures rose from around 28 to 55 degrees by mid day. The lack of snow on the ice made it easy for us to quickly drill several holes and start fishing.