Edward McCarty, 73, a blooming success

It was the dinner-plate dahlias that drew Edward McCarty into the sensory feast that is gardening.

Captivated by the delight those showy flowers inspired after planting them on his Roseville property in the 1950s, the young businessman went on to plant acres of flowers and vegetables each year to share with family and friends.

McCarty, a smiling, jovial man who became a certified master gardener five years ago, died June 10 after being overcome by a stroke while sitting beneath a canopy of grapevines outside his home in Chisago City. He was 73.

Born in St. Paul, he graduated from Murray High School and worked for several years as a crane operator and CEO of his family business, Midwest Erectors, until retiring in the 1990s, said his daughter Trisha Luedke of Denver.

He "could put sugar into your cup of coffee using that crane," Luedke quoted her aunt as saying at his funeral.

In 1956, at age 21, McCarty became the youngest member of the St. Paul Men's Garden Club. Luedke said that he would work hard on the job, then rush home to change into shorts and boots to work in his gardens.

At his Roseville property, which bordered Langton Lake, McCarty "planted every kind of vegetable and flower you could imagine," Luedke said. "He doted on it all, including cabbage he'd use to make sauerkraut, which stunk to high heaven. But it was terrific sauerkraut."

He also canned tomatoes and pickles, made a killer salsa, baked his own bread and was an fine all-around cook, she said.

Along with other neighbors, McCarty successfully lobbied to preserve Langton Lake when development threatened. He sold his property there to the city of Roseville when the family home was destroyed just before Christmas 1992 by a fire that started in a chimney thick with creosote.

No one was hurt in the fire, and the property now is a trail-laced park on County Road C2 between Fairview and Cleveland Avenues, Luedke said.

In Roseville and later in Chisago City, where McCarty and his wife built a new home after the fire, he planted fields of flowers and vegetables amid innovative landscaping that visitors flocked to see. He also raised fruit trees, including a peach tree that he coaxed into yielding bushels for several years, "nothing short of a miracle this far north," his daughter said.

This spring, McCarty planted 85 tomato plants, six kinds of peppers, lettuce, kohlrabi, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash and herbs, Luedke said. As the summer unfolds, McCarty's children will harvest the fruits of his labor, she said.

In addition to Luedke, McCarty is survived by his wife of 54 years, Judy; sons Michael of Lakewood, Colo., and Kerry of Mounds View; another daughter, Marileah of Chisago City; sisters Patricia Ostrander of Brainerd, Minn., and Kathleen Jensen of Nisswa, Minn., and a grandson. Services have been held.

Pamela Miller • 612-673-4290 • pmiller@startribune.com