SANDPOINT — Several Bonner County employees have established a garden to spruce up the grounds at the courthouse and benefit the Bonner Community Food Center.

The tired juniper bushes ringing the flagpole have been supplanted with red, white and blue petunias, in addition to various types of peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. The ground around the Tolerance monument now boasts white and purple cosmos, Oregon grape, lavender and roses.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Ann Phillips, a deputy clerk who is volunteering her green thumb to the effort. Volunteers hope to do additional plantings on a landscaping island near the main entrance to the building’s parking lot.

The garden was established through donated labor and donations from the Bonner County Employee Association, according to another garden volunteer, Jury Commissioner Chris Quayle.

Quayle said the idea for the courthouse garden idea took root when first lady Michelle Obama began digging up a patch of the south lawn at the White House to plant a vegetable garden to feed her family and highlight the importance of locally grown produce.

“We thought this would be a wonderful thing to do at our government office,” said Quayle.