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Contents volume 1
Canada’s loCal Gardener
16
34
Issue 2, 2020
58
Welcome to Canada’s local Gardener ...........................................................................................4 seed catalogues ...............................................................................................................................6 Beautiful Gardens: alberta sweet, Calgary ..............................................................................................................10 Phyllis snow and Krystle snow, Winnipeg .............................................................................16 Joel Geleynse, Hamilton .............................................................................................................22 april and Chris dery, edmonton ..............................................................................................28 Willy Klassen, Portage la Prairie, manitoba ...........................................................................34 martha Bartels, Kingston, ontario..........................................................................................40 Katrina and Bryan Jackson, Graminia, Parkland County, alberta ......................................46 dennis rawluck, moosehorn, manitoba...................................................................................52 maggie and Julian sale, Guelph, ontario...................................................................................58 How to access bonus editorial features
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2020 • 3
Welcome to Canada’s Local Gardener Dear readers, It gives me tremendous pleasure to bring you this year’s issue of Beautiful Gardens. We haven’t done it in a few years, but it is back and it’s here to stay. For those of you who don’t know, Beautiful Gardens is our special all-gardens annual edition. It comes out in the winter, just when you are dying for something green. This year we’re including the added benefit of our seed catalogue reviews. It is the most complete list of Canadian seed catalogues you’re likely to find. Some are mom and pop shops and others are major enterprises. The number has climbed exponentially in the last few years, particularly in seeds for edibles. People are intimately concerned about the food we are eating, where it comes from and how it is grown. Vegetable gardening has become a regular part of life for so many Canadians. Over the summer, Dorothy Dobbie (our president and my mother) and I travelled across Manitoba and Alberta and I travelled around Ontario, meeting gardeners and taking pictures of their gardens. You could call the result is kind of garden pornography, but I like to think of it as so much more. In the following pages, you’ll find nine gardens from Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. There are country gardens and city gardens, with primary gardeners who are women and some who are men, and some who are younger and some older. Just about every last one of them conveyed something to me about watching plants come to life in the springtime that they absolutely love. People from all walks of life shared with us the one thing they all have in common: their fantastic joy in stewarding the plants in these beautiful gardens. And so, gentle readers, curl up on your favourite warm chair and prepare to be impressed. Sincerely,
Shauna Dobbie shauna@pegasuspublications.net
Canada’s
Local Gardener Follow us online at: localgardener.net Instagram:@local_gardener
Published by Pegasus Publications Inc. President/Publisher Dorothy Dobbie dorothy@pegasuspublications.net Design Cottonwood Publishing Services Editor Shauna Dobbie shauna@pegasuspublications.net Art Direction & Layout Karl Thomsen karl@pegasuspublications.net General Manager Ian Leatt ian.leatt@pegasuspublications.net Contributors Dorothy Dobbie, Shauna Dobbie Editorial Advisory Boards Ontario: Ben Cullen, David Hobson, Sean James, Tara Nolan
Manitoba: Michael Allen, Keith Lemkey, Jan Pedersen, Kevin Twomey Alberta: Stacey Mar, Cynthia Philp, Leona Staples Advertising Sales 1.888.680.2008 Subscriptions Write, email or call Canada’s Local Gardener, Suite 300 – 1600 Ness Ave. Winnipeg, MB R3J 3W7 Phone (204) 940-2700 Fax (204) 940-2727 Toll Free 1 (888) 680-2008 subscribe@localgardener.net One year (four issues): $29.95 Two years (eight issues): $58 Three years (twelve issues): $80 Single copy: $8.95; Beautiful Gardens: $12.95 150 years of Gardening in Canada copy: $12.95 Plus applicable taxes. Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Circulation Department Pegasus Publications Inc. Suite 300 – 1600 Ness Ave., Winnipeg MB R3J 3W7
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4 • 2020
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2020 • 5
Seed catalogues— ready, set, dream! All the seed catalogues in Canada that we could find. A’Bunadh Seeds abunadhseeds.com PO Box 127, Cherhill, Alberta T0E 0J0 780-785-2622 This little seed grower from Cherhill, Alberta, produces over 150 types of tomato seeds on her farm, as well as all the other vegetables, and a few. She specializes in Zone 2b growing. AgroHaitai Ltd. agrohaitai.com PO Box 45, Lynden, Ontario L0R 1T0 519-647-2880 Lynden, Ontario company specializing in Asian vegetable seeds. They sell edible loofa, hairy gourd, stem mustard and others. Annapolis Seeds annapolisseeds.com 8528 Hwy 201, Nictaux, NS B0S 1P0 Started by a high-school student, this Nova Scotia company now offers over 500 vegetables, herbs, flowers and grains, many of them uncommon. Atlantic Pepper Seeds pepperseeds.ca 311 Route 4, Harvey, NB E6K 1X1 506-366-3767 If you grow peppers this is a seed house you need to look at. Family owned and operated out of New Brunswick since 2001, they started with chilis and have grown from there to over 800 varieties per year. BC’s Wild Heritage Plants bcwildheritage.com 604-858-5141 All plants are native to BC; no cultivars and few traditional vegetables. Good place to look if you want a native plant, but it must be native to BC. 6 • 2020
Berton Seeds Company Ltd bertonseeds.ca 4260 Weston Road, Toronto, ON M9L 1W9 416-745-5655 An Italian seed company in Canada. Over 150 varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs, all imported from Italy. They do bird products, too. Bird and Bee birdandbee.ca 2391 Pepin Court, Ottawa, ON K1B 4Z3 613-601-9177 Mostly vegetable seeds collected from their farm near Ottawa. Brother Nature brothernature.ca 1159 Wychbury Ave, Victoria, BC V9A 5L1 250-661-2255 The website says, “When Brother Nature chose tools for his garden... Diversity was first on his list.” This follows through to the choices of species. Have you ever had (or seen) walking stick cabbage? Black Spanish radish? Giant orange Chinese amaranth? Brother Nature has them all, and the usual standbys as well. And they do germination testing on their seeds to ensure that you get the highest quality. All seeds are certified organic. Casey’s Heirloom Tomatoes caseysheirloomtomatoes.ca info@caseysheirloomtomatoes.ca Casey started growing a few tomatoes when he was teaching in Japan several years ago. His hobby became a bit of an obsession, and now he grows tomatoes (and a few peppers) in his back yard in Airdrie; he saves seeds and sells them online.
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Cochrane Family Seeds www.cochranefamilyfarm.com 5324 Hwy 289, Upper Stewiacke, NS 902-671-2378 Operated by Cochrane Family Farm in Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia. They have a selection of vegetables, herbs and a few flowers. Eagleridge Seeds eagleridgeseeds.com 219 Eagle Ridge Drive, Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2L1 250-537-5677 Eagleridge, on Salt Spring Island, has been producing rare and endangered heirloom seeds since 1995. They use sustainable gardening methods such as raised beds, water-saving techniques and companion planting. If you’ve never heard of earth chestnuts, well, you can get them here. They also have a special blue lupin sold as a fundraiser for the Copper Kettle, a charity for people in need on Salt Spring Island. Early’s Farm and Garden Centre earlysgarden.com 2615 Lorne Ave, Saskatoon, SK S7J 0S5 800-667-1159 This is the go-to garden centre in Saskatoon, and a fantastic resource if you aren’t. All their seeds are available by mail order, and they carry just about everything you could be looking for. And while you’re looking at all the seed possibilities, you can venture over to the other parts of the website to look at tools, animal feed, gloves... even Epsom salts, for after your gardening marathon on the May-two-four weekend! Eternal Seed eternalseed.ca 309 Zilinsky Road, Powell River, BC V9A 0N8 localgardener.net
604-487-1304 Growing organically for 15 years, this is a small operation offering many unusual varieties. Very responsive to customer needs.
workshops and educational tours. They do everything on the farm, including growing, harvesting, processing, germination testing, packaging and distribution.
Ferncliff Gardens www.ferncliffgardens.com 35344 McEwen Ave, Mission, BC V2V 6R4 604-826-2447 Celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2020! Located in Mission, BC, Ferncliff isn’t exactly a seed catalogue, it’s a dahlia tuber catalogue. And oh, what a wonder to behold. If you are a serious collector of dahlias, this is the place to go. If you are new to dahlias, consider one of their special collections; you’ll be hooked!
Heritage Harvest Seed heritageharvestseed.com PO Box 29, Fisher Branch, MB R0C 0Z0 204-372-6477 This Carmen, Manitoba company has some of the most unique vegetables imaginable. If you’ve never seen reisetomate tomatoes, look it up.
Florabunda Seeds florabundaseeds.com PO Box 38, Keene, ON K0L 2G0 705-295-6440 Marking 20 years, Florabunda has plenty of vegetables but really focuses on flowers. They also sell seeds for vines and ornamental grasses. Interesting info on each plant. Full Circle Seeds fullcircleseeds.com PO Box 807, Sooke, BC V9Z 1H8 205-642-3671 All organic, all grown at ALM Farm in Sooke, BC, which is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Greta’s Organic Gardens seeds-organic.com 399 River Road, Gloucester, ON K1V 1C9 613-521-8648 All organic, located in Ottawa. Halifax Seed Company halifaxseed.ca PO Box 8026, Halifax, NS B3K 5L8 902-454-7456 A modest selection of true heritage varieties from Westport, Ontario, near Ottawa. Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds hawthornfarm.ca RR 3, 5961 5th Line Minto, Palmerston, ON N0G 2P0 519-343-3375 Certified organic in 1996, this Central Ontario company has been producing seeds for vegetables, flowers, grains, grasses and herbs for almost 25 years. They work to support the seed community by hosting localgardener.net
Heritage Seeds heritagefarm.ca/heirloom-seeds nursery@heritagefarm.ca 613-273-2948 A modest selection of true heritage varieties. Hope Seeds and Perennials hopeseed.com hopeseed@eastlink.ca 902-286-4673 Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia seed-producing co-op. About 60% of their seeds come from their grower network. Howard Dill Enterprises howarddill.com RR#1 400 College Road, Windsor, NS BON 2T0 902-798-2728 The home of Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkins. If you want pumpkins, squash or gourds, definitely take a look. Incredible Seed Company incredibleseeds.ca 888-851-6620 A young family on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. In addition to the usual flowers, herbs and veggies, they offer tree and shrub seeds. Kitchen Table Seed House kitchentableseedhouse.ca info@kitchentableseedhouse.ca 613-3858569 Three people on Wolfe Island, Ontario, growing seeds on a total of two acres in three separate fields. They rotate their crops and work on managing soil fertility to offer the tastiest crops available. Certified by Eco Cert, organic certification specialists. They are looking to improve vegetables for productivity and flavour in Canada’s shorter growing season. Issue 2
La ferme cooperative Tourne-Sol fermetournesol.qc.ca 1025 Chemin St-Dominique, les Cèdres, QC J7T 1P5 450-452-4271 Certified organic seed company in Les Cedres, Quebec. They grow 70% of their seeds. La Finquita lafinquita.ca lafinquitans@gmail.com Looking for seeds for pigweed or chickweed or dandelion? They are available here. Coldhardy greens, medicinals, wild edibles and a few more common varieties. Lindenberg Seeds lindenbergseeds.ca Lindenberg Seeds Ltd., 803 Princess Avenue, Brandon, MB R7A 0P5 204-727-0575 This is one company who still do things the old-fashioned way. You can order their print catalogue of new and unusual varieties along with old favourites on their website. This Manitoba company started in 1935 with the philosophy that supplying quality seed at a fair price was the best value. They purchase their seeds from reliable growers and test and retest them to keep quality high. Manhattan Farms manhattanfarms.ca 5874 Hwy #6, Vernon, BC V1B 3E1 250-545-2811 Billing itself as “seeds for city farmers”, this Vernon, BC company is a good starting point for new gardeners or gifts for wannabe gardeners. And the packets are beautiful watercolour illustrations. Mapple Farm mapplefarm.com Mapple Farm, 129 Beech Hill Road, Weldon, NB E4H 4N5 506-734-3361 “A modest source of seed and plant stock, grown well off the beaten track.” This Weldon, New Brunswick company sells mostly tomatoes and squash with a few other things thrown in. And they sell sweet potato slips! Matchbox Garden Seed Company matchboxgarden.ca hanna@matchboxgarden.ca 2020 • 7
226-920-4974 Started in Toronto, now operating from a farm in Caledonia, Ontario, Matchbox is run by a trained chef. She sells a good variety of vegetables and a small selection of flowers. Metchosin Farm Seeds metchosinfarm.ca info@metchosinfarm.ca Organic seeds from the southern tip of Vancouver island. Mount Royal Seeds mountroyalseeds.com mountroyalseeds@gmail.com Mostly trees and shrubs, most of them native. Mountain Grove Seed Company mountaingroveseedcompany.com mountaingroveseed@gmail.com 613-876-8383 An off-the-grid seed producer located in Frontenac County, Ontario. Great selection of veggies with a handful of herbs and a good selection of flowers thrown in. Naramata Seed Company naramataseedco.ca naramataseedco@gmail.com 5865 North Naramata Road, Naramata, BC V0H 1N1 Okanagan Valley seed company. Good selection of veggies and a few flowers. Norton Naturals nortonnaturals.com nortonnaturals@gmail.com Small selection of native perennial vegetables. Jerusalem artichokes and ramps as well as hog peanuts and camassia quamash. Good place to visit if you’re starting a food forest. OSC oscseeds.com PO Box 7, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z6 519-886-0557 Ontario Seed Company is over 125 years old. They sell seed for everything from your home vegetable garden to major construction projects. Perfectly Perennial perfectlyperennial.ca PO Box 675, Pouch Cove, NL A0A 3L0 St. John’s, Newfoundland company selling seeds gathered from plants on their farm. 8 • 2020
Prairie Garden Seeds prseeds.ca PO Box 2758, Humboldt, SK S0K 2A0 306-682-1475 If you’re old-fashioned, you’ll love this company. You cannot order online; you look at their pdf catalogue online and print off a slip, which you fill in by hand and mail, with cheque or money order (no credit cards accepted) to Jim or Rachelle Ternier in Humboldt, Saskachewan. Refreshing! Rainbow Seeds rainbowseeds.ca 5763 King Street - rural route 114, RiversideAlbert, NB E4H-4A7 506-882-0913 New Brunswick company offering selection of veggies, flowers and bulk seeds. Ravensong ravensongseeds.com orders@ravensongseeds.com 250-652-2655 Artisan seed company near Victoria, BC. They’re conscientious about growing and selecting seeds for sale. Wide variety of herbs. Renee’s Garden reneesgarden.com 6060 Graham Hill Rd., Felton, CA, USA 95018 888-880-7228 The company with the really pretty, artistrendered seed packets. Easy to order, but do so in advance because it takes a couple of weeks to get to us in Canada. Richters Herbs richters.com 357 Highway 47, Goodwood, ON L0C 1A0 905-640-6677 If there’s a kind of herb you’re looking for and Richters doesn’t have it, you must have dreamed it. Located in Goodwood, Ontario, north of Toronto. Salt Spring Seeds saltspringseeds.com PO Box 444, Ganges PO, Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2W1 205-537-5269 One of the oldest Salt Spring Island seed growers, this company has been around for over 30 years. The focus is on sustainability and becoming self-reliant. Issue 2
Seeds for Food seedsforfood.net 222 route 112 Ouest, Bishopton, QC J0B 1G0 819-832-4969 Homestead-based enterprise in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. They offer a selection of seeds all from their own gardens. Seeds of Imbolc seedsofimbolc.ca 495 Anderson Street S, Fergus, ON N1M 1Z8 519-820-2806 Just a handful of varieties of veggies, a couple of flowers and one herb, but she is new. Located in Fergus, Ontario. Soggy Creek Seed Co. seeds.soggycreek.com seeds@soggycreek.com 705-724-1144 This is a homestay and vegan sanctuary for goats, ducks and turkeys in Nipissing Valley, Ontario. They offer a few varieties of seeds in funky packets. Solana Seeds solanaseeds.netfirms.com 17 Place Leger, Repentigny, QC J6A 5N7 More than 200 varieties of tomatoes are available from this Quebec company. Check out their “other” section for a variety of edibles you may never have heard of. Stokes Seeds stokeseeds.com/ca PO Box 10, Thorold ON L2V 5E9 800-396-9238 You’ve heard of this company, no doubt. The company goes as far back as 1878; it got the name Stokes Seed Farms in 1906. You can read all about it on their website. The company is currently located in the US, but the Canadian roots run deep. There is a Canadian side to the website with Canadian prices. Sunshine Farm sunshinefarm.net 2225 Saucier Road, Kelowna, BC V1W 4B8 250-448-1826 Sunshine Farm is both a seed company and a centre for vocational development for adults in the Community Living Sector. The farm provides a mixed setting for hands-on experience with a multitude of activities. They focus on respecting the rights of the individual and building self respect. Their seeds are certified organic in BC. localgardener.net
T&T Seeds ttseeds.com 7724 Roblin Blvd., Headingley, MB 204-895-9964 T&T has been open since 1946 and was run by the Twomey family until 2016. It’s now owned by the Davidsons, but the Twomeys are still there. It’s a good, reliable place to order seeds and plants from.
PO Box 9000, Charlottetown, PE C1A 8K6 800-363-7333 For 80 years this company has operated out of a farm on PEI. They have a wide selection of a wide variety of seeds plus bulbs, starter plants and gardening products. Plus they have a guarantee that says, if you aren’t satisfied, they’ll replace the product they sent you.
Tatiana’s Tomatobase tatianastomatobase.com “One of the largest privately owned and privately funded seed banks in North America.” They have over 4000 varieties of seed, mostly tomatoes. Located in Columbia Valley, BC.
West Coast Seeds westcoastseeds.com customerservice@westcoastseeds.com 604-952-8820 West Coast gets seeds from a variety of farms and ships them out. The company is certified organic, but not all of their farms are; it costs too much for some folks. You can get a wide variety of seeds from these guys.
Terra Edibles terraedibles.ca PO Box 164, Foxboro ON K0K 2B0 613-961-0654 Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! Separated by colour on the website. ‘Banana Legs’, ‘Osu Blue’ and ‘Lime Salad’, to name but a few; check out what the inside of a ‘Costoluto Genevese’ tomato looks like! Located in Foxborough, Ontario, Terra Edibles has been serving customers since 1993. They offer a few choices of other vegetables as well, and herbs and flowers. The Seed Company by EW Gaze theseedcompany.ca PO Box 640, St. John’s, NL A1C 5K8 709-722-4590 Located in downtown St. John’s, Newfoundland, this company started in 1925. Now operated by the great-grandson of the founder, they sell a variety of seed. Urban Harvest uharvest.ca/shop PO Box 176, Station ‘C’, Toronto, ON M6J 3M9 416-504-1653 Toronto company providing organic and heirloom seeds chosen for urban gardeners. Urban Tomato urbantomato.ca urbantomato@gmail.com Tomato and other seeds offered by a Peterborough urban farmer. Veseys Seeds veseys.com localgardener.net
WH Perron www.dominion-seed-house.com/en/ mail@whperron.com 800-723-9071 Formerly Dominion Seeds. WH Perron sells seeds for every kind of plant imaginable. Wild Rose Heritage Seed wildroseheritageseed.com PO Box 355, Station Main, Lethbridge, AB T1J 3Y7 403-380-0098 Lethbridge company offering heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs. William Dam Seeds damseeds.com 279 Hamilton Regional Rd 8,Hamilton, ON L9H 5E1 905-628-6641 Since the 1950s this company has operated out of Ancaster, Ontario. They were the first registered seed company in Canada to feature a line of certified organically grown seeds in 2000. Today they offer a few selections of all the vegetable, herbs, flowers, climbers, grasses and a few bulbs besides. i ••• We believe this list is up to date as we go to press. We aim to include every Englishspeaking seed order business in Canada. If we have missed any, or if any are no longer in business, please let us know. Email shauna@pegasuspublications.net. Issue 2
75th
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Call or go to our web site for a free Catalogue! Find us on facebook! 2020 • 9
One side of the vegetable patch.
Beautiful Gardens alberta sweet Calgary story and photo by shauna dobbie Alberta Sweet. 10 • 2020
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very year the neighbours an kids ask the same question: are you going to garden again this year? And she gives them the same answer: I most certainly am. She may be slowing down a bit with the vegetables and putting in more perennial flowers, but the family can count on a bountiful harvest of raspberries, cherries, potatoes and lettuce. All organic. Every year. Alberta Sweet keeps the garden going because she loves it. She grew up in Calgary with parents who gardened. Her husband Arthur, who passed a couple of years ago, grew up at the north end of Gull Lake, just north of Red Deer. His parents were farmers, so they gardened to keep themselves in vegetables throughout the year. When they got married in 1966, they lived here and there for a few years, but when localgardener.net
Window screens are placed to protect peas from Eastern grey squirrels and hares. In the early stages of growth, the screens can be covered with frost cloth to protect the seedlings from the sparrows that have developed a taste for young pea plants and tendrils.
A weasel, sculpted from the old stump of a spruce by Alberta’s son and his friend with a chainsaw. It used to be a meeting spot for neighbourhood children and their parents when they went to the park; the kids would run ahead but had to wait at the weasel for their parents before heading to the main road to cross to the playground. Household metal baskets to keep the critters from digging up the lupins. localgardener.net
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they moved into this Calgary house seven years later, there was no question that they would start a garden. The question was more, what had the previous owners been thinking? There were balled-and-burlapped spruce trees all over the lot, only some of them heeled in. It was winter, so they waited until spring to get started. They planted some of the spruce and gave away the rest. They poisoned the dandelions in the front yard their first year (it was 1974) and then quit. They thought about having kids running on the lawn with bare feet. After that they handdug dandelions with a dandelion tool. For general pest control, they’ve used wood ash, eggshells, coffee grounds, cinnamon and a mixture of ammonia and water (one part ammonia to four parts water) in a spray bottle for slugs. “We started out in this yard with barely an inch of topsoil underlaid by clay. Through the years we have built the depth of topsoil to greater than the depth of a spade in most areas. We simply dug in all the leaves we could gather from friends, neighbors and a company that raked leaves from the office where my husband worked. We added household compost as well. The result is an organic and edible yard,” she says. Alberta and Arthur’s passion for gardening has been taken up by two of the three children. They have smaller yards, though, so Alberta planted potatoes for everyone last year. And they all have potatoes to last the winter. Their daughter and her husband bought a greenhouse this year to augment the variety of produce they can grow— early cucumbers, eggplants and peppers mainly. Alberta has had an excellent harvest this year, particularly of raspberries. Last summer, her daughter and some friends did the first big picking of raspberries with 18 ice-cream gallon pails 2/3 full. Later the family picked 10 pails 2/3 full followed by many individual pickings of one or two pails before the season closed out. Cherries were another big producer. There were several pails of sour cherries, which Alberta juiced and froze, giving her the opportunity to drink cherry juice for breakfast. The fruit that grows at the borders of the property is available to anyone who would like to pick it. Fruit inside the yard, though, is Alberta’s. A few years ago, she saw a young girl in
Phlox.
Double poppies bloom in a riot of red.
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Calendula as bright as late afternoon sun.
A beautiful yellow rose. localgardener.net
Yarrow. Issue 2
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Violas grow in a few places in the garden.
Apples taking form.
the yard picking raspberries; she told Alberta that her mother said she had to get four cupsful, enough for a pie. Alberta helped her pick the berries and told her she could come back in the spring and get some plants to grow her own raspberry patch. The family did not take her up on her offer, but many other people have acquired their raspberry plants, rhubarb and Nanking and sour cherry trees as offspring of Alberta’s stock. One of Alberta’s great joys is watching her grandchildren in the garden. All seven of them look for berries, 14 • 2020
Bleeding hearts dance among the lights.
mainly Nanking cherry, sour cherry, saskatoon or raspberries. One really enjoys the red currant berries. “It is a pretty nice way to live—nothing better than seeing the grandchildren picking apples or berries.” In addition to the flowers and vegetables, Alberta has a bird corner. Here the birds enjoy the crabapples high up in the trees. From November to April, she does a bird count for Project FeederWatch, operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. It’s a good situation; she uses the crabapples lower down on the tree Issue 2
for jelly, and those at the top are left for the birds and squirrels through the winter. Alberta says that, overall, she is content, watching and working in her garden through the year. “Each kind of two-week progression brings on different things. I love to see that I’ve had germination. I love to see the tomatoes ripening on the vine. I love to see in the fall, when you’ve got sunflowers in bloom and you’ve got the blue jays waiting for the sunflower seeds…. I guess I just have to say I love all of it.” i localgardener.net
Trees stand tall under an Alberta sky.
Garlic scapes loop around deliciously. localgardener.net
Chokecherries without a hint of colour yet. Issue 2
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The bed at the entrance to the front yard.
A vibrant mix of colours and textures.
Beautiful Gardens Phyllis snow and Krystle snow Winnipeg story and photos by shauna dobbie
Lennard, Krystle, Phyllis and Jack. 16 • 2020
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Aphrodite in the front garden.
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hyllis Snow and Krystle Snow are a mother and her grown daughter. They live together in the same house, a big old heritage house on Cunnington Avenue in Winnipeg, along with Jack, Krystle’s father, and Lennard Taylor, her husband. The four bought the house together four years ago when Phyllis and Jack moved to Winnipeg from Brandon. It all sounds like it could be claustrophobic, but Phyllis and Krystle are close and their husbands good natured, so it works. Phyllis is a plantsman by birth, though it took some time for this feature to develop. Her mother owned a greenhouse in Ochre River, Manitoba, and gave Phyllis and her five siblings chores in it. Phyllis didn’t care for the work growing up, but now that her daughter has made it a hobby, she’s come to love it too. She can be found for six or eight hours a day in the yard in the summer, when she’s not at her job as a nurse at Head-
localgardener.net
ingley Correctional Centre. (She retired before she and Jack left Brandon, but some people just can’t stay retired.) Krystle is an actress, mostly doing stunts for films, and a server at Earl’s, along with various other jobs. She manages to carve out a good deal of time for gardening too. They’ve been to Victoria and visited Butchart Gardens, an old quarry made over into 55 acres of garden, several times. “That was our biggest inspiration when we moved into this house and finally had a big yard and all this beautiful soil,” Krystle says. “Then someone was walking by our house one day and pointing out how much they like walking by and said, ‘it’s like Butchart Gardens’!” Krystle and Phyllis were tickled. This garden gets a lot of love. It is watered almost exclusively with rainwater, except in very dry years. The ladies have a kind of a system, with a wagon and waterIssue 2
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A couple of ladies watch the impatiens grow and spread.
Closeup on parts of the planting at the
ing cans. They fill up the cans with water at the rain barrel, then go about the garden, sprinkling the pots and plants. “It’s not work when you love it,” Phyllis says. “It’s so much easier if there’s two of you doing something.” The two start many of their plants from seed. They dream of having a greenhouse, but for now, the plants get started in a living room upstairs in their home. They have grow lights and seed about 75 tomato plants as well as peppers and other annuals in late winter. They also start gladiolus and dahlia bulbs. They use these plants and more from the nursery to fill the yard with colour.
Mask of a jolly man. 18 • 2020
A beautiful mix of pink petunias and lavender scaveola. Issue 2
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front entrance.
Although their home is urban, they get lots of visitors from nature. In fact, Phyllis saw deer the other day. She loves seeing them and welcomes the animals, though they don’t always agree with her on what makes for good eating. Last spring, Phyllis and Krystle tried to grow hollyhocks to attract hummingbirds, but the hares ate the hollyhocks. “We try to give them alternate food sources, so they don’t love our garden so much. But I think, they were here first and they can’t help it if the houses have been built,” Phyllis says. They’ll try hollyhocks again this spring and maybe sprinkle some grated Irish Spring soap around them to ward off bunnies.
Monkshood.
Sweet alyssum, impatients and dianthus mix it up. localgardener.net
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2020 • 19
Peonies lazing about.
A spray of mock orange.
Spring is the favourite time of year for both. “Every day you get up in the morning and go outside to see if a new flower is out or to see how your garden is spreading,” Krystle says. They keep very busy, planting then weeding and pulling elm seedlings out of the grass. “We live in Elm Park, so every tree is an elm,” she admits, noting that they use a shop vac on the garden to get the seeds as soon as they fall. (See sidebar.) “In mid August, when everything is good and there’s no more weeds to pull, it’s a little bit like, ‘what do we do now?’” Krystle says. She and Phyllis thrive on their labours. But not to worry; in late summer they’ll get a call from a friend at one of the nurseries on St. Mary’s Road to tell them everything is on sale. “We try not to think about what our budget is in the summer!” Phyllis says. At harvest time, they make salsa, pickles, tomato sauce and applesauce. These go into the pantry to feed the family’s souls through the winter. When they moved in, Krystle and Lennard were going to build a kitchen upstairs for themselves, but now the two women cook together and the family eat together. It is an idyllic way to live. i 20 • 2020
A pink zonal geranium rises above the scattered petals of a mock orange.
Shop vac in the garden? Absolutely! A shop vac is perfect for sucking up all those bits and pieces from the lawn, including tree seeds and petals. If you’re from Manitoba, maybe you already knew this. On the Manitoba Gardeners Facebook group, this is a well-known fact. On the rest of the Internet? Not so much. So, for the rest of Canada, here’s the secret. A shop vac isn’t particular and it will suck up anything that isn’t firmly set in your lawn and garden, but a bit of dirt in the vac’s container won’t hurt it. As for any small critters that get sucked away with the dead plant matter… well, you make your choices. On one hand, a few spiders might die for your pursuit of a perfect lawn. On the other hand, they may survive the sucking and go on to live somewhere else.
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Baskets of colour Baskets of annuals spread colour everywhere in the garden. mix in some tropicals like the palm fronds for an exotic look.
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2020 • 21
An overview of the long narrow back garden, with a greenhouse in the back created with reclaimed materials.
Beautiful Gardens Joel Geleynse Hamilton story and photos by shauna dobbie 22 • 2020
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his is not your typical garden. Joel Geleynse (rhymes with McKenzie) bought the house about 10 years ago in downtown Hamilton and just started a garden in the 17-foot wide by 120-foot deep lot. He had no experience and his neighbours told him not much would grow under the big black walnut in the back corner; he took their warnings as a challenge. Aside from the black walnut, the yard was a mess, open to the lane behind it. It was full of junk and the junk went deep; old gravel and rusted out metal would come up wherever he put in a shovel. “It felt really industrial and not cared for in many years,” he recalls. Joel was a student and didn’t have much money to spare, so he started collecting others’ cast-offs to use. For his first try, he laid down pallets and put soil over and in them. That year he had lush green vegetation Issue 2
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Just outside the greenhouse strawberries grow with abandon.
So many flowers and vegetables in the raised garden by the greenhouse.
Vegetable garden with scattered onions and chard and masses of carrots. localgardener.net
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2020 • 23
Ferns, hostas and sedum all together.
An old wood stove is a replacement for campfires, which aren’t allowed on this small city lot. 24 • 2020
but no vegetables because the roots couldn’t get deep enough. The next year, he used old bricks to build a raised bed, which proved fruitful. Since then he’s continued to expand the garden and add to it every year with whatever he could scrounge. “I decided to make, literally, a flower bed out of an old bed,” he says. You get an idea of his innate intelligence and sense of humour. The flower bed lasted a couple of years, then the rotted wood was thrown on the fire heap. That fire heap, by the way, is now for a woodstove in the backyard. The stove is a compromise after the fire department told him no more campfires. The woodstove gives the idea of a campfire with the delicious smell, keeps Joel safe from bylaw officers and keeps his neighbours safe from worry. A collection of windows eventually became a greenhouse, which he built under the black walnut, where little would grow. He would go out every morning with his coffee and pick up the droppings from the black walnut. “I kept thinking, if I just put enough new material on top, I should be able to outrun whatever contamination is going on.” So far, so good. The result is an unconventional garden. Most gardeners like spring the best but Joel prefers the fall, when he can move things around and replant. He pulls out some of the spent material (other spent material stays where it is to rot and feed the soil) and composts it. Then, working like a painter as he describes it, he puts a bit of something in this spot and another bit of something in that other spot. He finds spring less inspiring, Issue 2
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A chair for reading inside the greenhouse on chilly days.
A bunch of batchelor buttons grow in front of a planted up rain gutter attached to the fence.
Sweet alyssum. localgardener.net
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2020 • 25
The bloom of an onion breaking through.
Self-sown annuals compete for attention from the sun.
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Joel has fashioned a wind chime from pieces of old sunflower stems.
with a blank slate, preferring to have all his colours on the canvas, he says. Planting in rows is something people do for themselves, because it’s easier, Joel tells me. “Plants get to compete with each other and that biodiversity, that variety, is so aesthetically pleasing.” Sometimes the yield takes a hit, but that’s okay. If his onions are small, that’s no big deal because he got to leave some alyssum to grow bigger, and it was beautiful and provided nectar for the birds and bees. “I love leaving space for the natural process. Until you have to remove something for practical reasons, just let it be.” He appreciates the look of plants that are dead and will leave them standing where they are. Great tall sunflowers don’t lose their beauty or their purpose after they die, not for Joel; they continue to feed animals and keep an amazing structure. Some he takes them down and cuts them up to make wind chimes, which have more of a chunky, earthy sound than a tinkle. He plants where spaces are and leaves garden volunteers if they’re attractive and feed butterflies and bees. He’s not fussy about what is native, but most things that require too much cultivation won’t find a space in his garden because they won’t grow from seed. He and his partner, Bradley Ingham, also own 27 acres in Ancaster. Here they are experimenting with growing and animal husbandry. They now have 15 horses. They piled horse manure next to the barn and localgardener.net
Vines, lights and a rod for hanging plants.
after a couple of months decided to start a garden there. Resources say that you should wait three months to a year for horse manure to decompose, but they were impatient. And… it worked. “Just absolutely double anything I would have got in my backyard in Hamilton,” Joel enthuses. He doesn’t intend to take his gardening further and become a market gardener, though. He likes working as a psychologist, for one thing; for another, he doesn’t want his hobby to become work. When people are paid to do something, he notes, they won’t do it if they are not paid. He found this happened with yoga: he used to do it all the time, but now that he’s been certified to teach, he doesn’t do it unless he’s leading a class. Gardening goes through aesthetic phases. When I started writing about gardens some 20 years ago, few people were vegetable gardening, or the vegetable gardens were in a back corner somewhere. Mixed borders of perennials, annuals and shrubs were all the rage, and great effort was expended to have things blooming throughout the gardening season. It’s still true to a certain extent, but I believe the future of gardening is closer to what Joel is doing than anything else. “I guess I don’t come with any ideology at all, other than that biodiversity is a good thing, and taking care of the soil, and I don’t think anything is wrong with hybrids unless they’re displacing anything.” i Issue 2
2020 • 27
The overall picture of the front patio haven.
Beautiful Gardens april and Chris dery Edmonton
story by dorothy dobbie, photos by dorothy dobbie and shauna dobbie 28 • 2020
W
hen this pretty young woman from Edmonton landed in Quebec City to study French at Laval, she had no idea that she would fall hopelessly in love with a francophone ski patroller who could barely speak English. It turned out the attraction was reciprocal. Chris tells of how it was meant to be and of all the improbable things that happened to bring them together in spite of the odds. School was done. April was working as a waitress at a local ski hill hangout. Chris’s ski patrol had boycotted the place because of its unreliable hours. In an unlikely move, Chris approached the bar owners and said, if they would accommodate the patrol schedule, the boys would come back. The bar did, the ski patrol did, and the couple met. “It was love at first sight for both of us,” says April. All these years later, the spark still burns hard and bright between them. They speak without speaking; their eyes never stray far from one another.
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The house from the street.
The core samples are also used as stepping stones. The concrete core samples, laid on their ends, create a patio. localgardener.net
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2020 • 29
April and Chris at the front table.
Peony poppies against the brick wainscoting on the garage.
They come from such different backgrounds, but their hearts speak the same language and they quickly discovered they had many delights in common. One of these is gardening. He is the builder; she is the artist. Chris is a finishing carpenter. April is a substitute teacher. A love for perfection seems to define them both. When they bought this house in Edmonton, a couple of years after they moved here, the front yard was the site of straggly grass and fairy rings. This set off a sense of mission and they got right down to it. Chris soaked piles of cardboard. He laid it, wet, on the puny green, then topped that with two truckloads 30 • 2020
The back yard is a work in progress. You can see the
Closeup of ninebark flowers.
of compost. Over all, he laid a heavy layer of thick plastic, weighted down with some concrete core samples he begged from a local engineer. A year later, he removed the plastic to reveal a perfect base of soil on top of which he added another six inches of wood chip mulch. Now, they were ready to plant. The result is some of the happiest vegetation you will see anywhere. Wine coloured barberries, purple salvia and a ‘Little Devil’ ninebark surround centre stage which is dominated by healthy clumps of daylily and creeping juniper. April seems to love the tried and true perennials interrupted by annuals, such as cosmos, and she plants large Issue 2
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half-moon vegetable garden here.
Dictamnus sets a pretty picture in front of the shed.
Pink veronica.
swaths and sweeps of luxurious colour with a lavish hand. Next, April tackled the foundation, where a narrow border had supported some weak plants. She industriously went to the local liquor store and collected cardboard boxes. She dug out two feet of hard pan clay which she put in the boxes, sealed them, and set them at the curb for collection by the garbage man. Then she replaced this with good soil and planted drought tolerant flowers along the foundation, which Chris had refinished, as per April’s instructions, in lovingly placed, uneven, gray stone bricks. In the spring time, elegant localgardener.net
Persicaria in front of golden lady’s mantle and hostas.
peony poppies, with their lovely fan-shaped blue-green, ruffled leaves and double blossoms reside in perfect pink and warm gray accord. Those scavenged core samples, now stood on their ends and artistically arranged, form a patio and steppingstones into the garden. Chris surrounded the stone cores with a cleverly designed circular wooden deck, nestling both within the wood chips. They found a picnic table and curved benches at a garage sale. They refinished them and the wood deck so that they look as though they were designed together. The result is a warm inviting arrangement, sheltered from the street Issue 2
2020 • 31
A big, fat iris.
Lady’s mantle in full bloom.
by a large blue spruce. Masses of lady’s mantle adorn one side while on the other is a cloud of pink coral bells which, together with tall stands of ‘Karl Forester’ grasses, guard a lush bed of purple thyme. Cranesbill, with its magenta flowers, sprawls in one corner. Red fleece flower (Persicaria amplexicaulis) sends up showy spikes. The back yard is a work in process, but even here, you can see their careful touches. A small vegetable plot at one end harbours dewy green peas while a half-moon-
shaped bed has been prepared for other delectables. The garage has been treated to the same lovely brick wainscoting, set off by sister poppies. Ferns and hostas and more lady’s mantle create a green foil for a vigorous gas plant clump (Dictamnus alba). Everything about the garden speaks of the mutuality of two people who were lucky enough to find one another in spite of all the odds. That and a garden, and who needs anything else. i
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Swaths of colour in the garden
A luxurious bed of thyme where April hopes to install a sleeping woman made of thyme.
Pinks, aptly named for the way their petals are cut at the edges.
April and Chris have planted swaths of colour in the front yard.
Petunias.
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Cransebill (geranium).
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2020 • 33
Willy loves building decks.
Beautiful U Gardens Willy Klassen
Portage la Prairie, manitoba Willy Klassen. 34 • 2020
story by dorothy dobbie, photos by dorothy dobbie and shauna dobbie Issue 2
nder the shade of a very old silver maple tree and behind a traditional two-storey Portage la Prairie home lies the hidden garden of Willy Klassen. Originally from Charleswood, Willy moved to Portage to work for Simplot where he helps make french fries for McDonald’s. From the street, the view is of a shady corner hugging a boardwalk behind a hedge. An Adirondack chair overlooks a garden filled with hostas and shade-happy daylilies, the scene decorated with carefully chosen rock under the canopy of another mature tree. There are various rustic artifacts begging for a closer look. Nice, you think, admiring the effort localgardener.net
Looking through a tangle of flax and daisies.
The shady front yard.
Every part of the garden offers a different view. localgardener.net
The garden shed at the end of a manicured lawn. Issue 2
2020 • 35
One corner of the garden.
A spot to sit at the front and admire the bird of paradise
and preparing for more of the same in the backyard, so you are not ready for what is suddenly revealed: a complete garden world with decks and boardwalks leading the eye from destination to destination. It’s intriguing and exciting. The layout begs for exploration: what’s behind that big blue spruce? Oh, there’s a pond! And a dry stream bed… and behind that, there’s an interesting garden shed. Willy, tall and tan with a wealth of long blonde hair, is the garden’s creator. He has an eye for meticulous detail that belies the apparent random placing of objects and plants. Closer examination of the tidy beds and trimmed lawns points to a gardener who is very much in control of this environment. This is Willy’s world, created by him according to a plan held fully realized in his artistic inner eye. The farmyard antiques and artifacts, and there are many of them, have been chosen deliberately. He is such a good customer of Junk for Joy, a local antiques dealer, that the owner looks for things especially for him. A weathered birdhouse atop an old post speaks of love and it is clear that the bird occupants agreed; the remnants of their home can be seen on the bird doorstep. Willy focusses his bird dwellings on attracting the busy little wrens that he admires so much. This year, he had two families, which pleased him greatly. Willy loves wood, fallen logs that have begun their return to earth, and beautifully laid planks that form the walkways throughout the garden. In the springtime, he heads out to
Purple bellflower and fattening-up sedum.
The brilliant red keys of Tatarian maple. 36 • 2020
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Young trees grow among the rocks.
plant.
Someone gave up their travels at these signs. localgardener.net
Weathered logs and wood are scavenged from the Portage Diversion. Issue 2
2020 • 37
A handful of perennial bachelor buttons.
Lilies bloom in bright colours.
A clump of lilies ready to bloom. 38 • 2020
Some pale-yellow snapdragons around the corner from a blue spruce. Issue 2
the Portage Diversion to find likely specimen wood, weathered and waterlogged to just the right stage of decay and transformation. His dad was a house builder, he says, so wood was part of his culture. Willy loves to build things, too: the boardwalks attest to that. “Do you know the show, Decked Out?” he asks wistfully. “I wish I could be him.” The show is on HGTV and is hosted by Paul Lafrance, a contractor who owns Cutting Edge Construction and Design in Pickering, Ontario. Dad was also a vegetable gardener and Willy learned to love gardening early in life. It is not quite summer, but the plants he has chosen live side by side in harmony. Warm yellows, cheery oranges, set off by cooling mauve flowers that pop out here and there. White daisies with sunny centres show well against Lysimachia punctata, the one called ‘Alexander’, with its showy green and white variegated leaves. The violet spikes of Veronica spicata cluster around a patch of big shiny-leafed bergenia, their cool hues picked up by blue perennial bachelor buttons and the occasional flowers of tradescantia. Lovely lemony rudbeckia is just opening her petals. Willy loves trees and young ones are dotted throughout the garden: small beauties such as Tatarian maple and mountain ash. In one secluded corner, a sour cherry is weighed down with fruit. Chubby blue spruce stands out among the greenery. He prizes an Ohio buckeye. Dwarf cedar decorates weathered stone in a dry gulch. Around the garden, Willy has spotted surprise viewpoints that he devised in his inner view finder and he likes to take you to each particular angle to enjoy the scene. It is amazing how well-developed these views are in a six-year old garden. That’s not all he does. He has been gaining a reputation as a garden designer and has been working with a friend, Kim Emberley, for the past couple of years, constructing her landscape. It is a big job that apparently includes boulders and big logs—and a boardwalk! He’s thankful for his wife Nicole: “The brains around here,” he says. Why does he do this? The answer is quite simple. “I like to come home after a hard day’s work, sit back with a drink and dream about what to do next,” he says. Every gardener will understand. i localgardener.net
Some specimens in Willy’s world
Phlox.
Daisies.
Ligularia dentata.
Lilies.
Monarda.
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Veronica.
Rudbeckia.
Tradescantia.
Lupin.
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2020 • 39
A view of the front yard bed.
Beautiful Gardens Martha Bartels Kingston, ontario story and photos by shauna dobbie
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Martha Bartels.
40 • 2020
he just started out with a little strip of a garden in this house and the whole thing grew from there. Martha Bartels’ garden has been shaped over the years to become an award-winning showplace of colour and bloom for the neighbourhood. Her father helped her a lot in the early days. The family was from Holland—Martha was eight years old Issue 2
when they moved to Canada—and her father was a gardening devotee. Aside from loving flowers, she found it therapeutic. “I had problems in my marriage and when I separated, so I just would go out and start digging in the garden,” she says, adding that she finds it as therapeutic now as she did then. She spends four or five hours per localgardener.net
A full view of the back yard.
A cheery way to draw your eye from a rain barrel.
day in the garden, making things impeccable. Her favourite activities are transplanting and moving things around: “I’m always fiddling around in the garden making things look just perfect,” she says. She is less fond of raking in the fall. It’s hard on her back. But she cannot understand the current trend of folks not raking their yards: “They’re going localgardener.net
Chinese globeflower.
to have no grass by next year!” This past fall she had bit of a scare when she collapsed behind her barber’s chair in her hairdressing studio downstairs. Doctors put stents in and she decided to finally retire from hairdressing, but she still got the leaves raked into bags for the city to pick up. The garden is decorated with ornaments from years of visiting garage Issue 2
sales and enjoying birthday gifts. “I just think that’ll look nice here and that’ll look nice there,” she explains. Her favourite is the Dutch couple, given to her by her children when they were small. Favourite flowers are harder to choose. “I have a lot of different plants, so when certain ones are at their best, I’ll say, yeah, that’s my favourite. In 2020 • 41
A fairy garden for larger fairies.
Is the owl guarding the hostas or are they guarding him?
the next month, another will be my favorite. I can’t really say that there’s one certain flower,” she says. Spring is her favourite time of year. “I love to see things coming alive and going out there every day and see things popping up. The daffodils first thing. It’s just amazing to see things actually come through the snow and the frozen earth, and things come alive again through the soil.” i
To rake or not to rake Should you rake the leaves from your lawn? That depends. There are arguments both for and against. The arguments for leaving the leaves are that beneficial insects use the leaves for winter homes and food. Leaving the leaves is more natural and takes no time or effort. And if there are only a few, they will break down over the winter and feed your lawn. The arguments for raking the leaves are that non-beneficial insects, mice and voles will use the leaves for winter homes and food. If you have many deciduous trees, the leaves can form a thick mat over the lawn, preventing sunlight from reaching it in the fall and spring. Fallen leaves can clog drains and they are a slipping hazard when wet. They can also encourage snow mold. As with everything in gardening, you have to make your choices.
A corner of the garden before it bursts into bloom.
This cream and green hosta needs no flowers to make a statement. 42 • 2020
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Garden ornaments
novelties among the flowers make a garden come alive in a different, more enchanted way.
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2020 • 43
Beautiful flowers of Martha’s garden
Yellow sedum.
Lavender bearded iris.
Heuchera ‘Caramel’. 44 • 2020
Campanula.
Clematis ‘The Countess of Wessex’.
Clustered bellflower.
Hosta ‘Tracy’s Emerald Cup’. Issue 2
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2020 • 45
Katrina and Bryan Jackson.
Beautiful Gardens Katrina and Bryan Jackson Graminia, Parkland County, alberta story and photos by dorothy dobbie and shauna dobbie
T
hree years ago, this house on a beautiful acreage just a hop from Edmonton, was falling into disrepair. It had been built with loving care by the owners, but they were getting older. Katrina and Bryan Jackson saw the potential and bought it, and in those three years, have transformed it, helped by Bryan’s father, Reed. The borders flow around the side and the back of the house. Lupines have been allowed to proliferate in one corner, their colourful, peashaped spikes proclaiming sovereign-
The pond and waterfall. 46 • 2020
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Various sedums spill over the rocks.
Pink fleabane.
A teepee, just beyond a firepit with Adirondack chairs.
Red poppies, blue bachelor buttons and white feverfew. localgardener.net
Caught from behind, this boy overlooking the pond. Issue 2
2020 • 47
ty over this patch of garden, but there are clumps of sweet William, purple fleabane, poppies and dianthus. At the back, a large verandah hangs over a shaded patio, flanked by gardens. It overlooks the vast backyard that rolls down through a farm gate, past a well-kept vegetable plot to a creek on Crown Land, just beyond the bottom of the garden; in design, it is reminiscent of an English landscape. A couple of things seize immediate attention: a pond and waterfall that form a centre focal point and a giant net-covered teepee—not the commercial kind, but a genuine, handmade creation fashioned from cut poles that have clearly come from the property. The teepee, standing in front of another garden filled with shrubs and peonies, was constructed as a play house for the Jackson’s kids, sixyear-old Benjamin and four-year-old Ruth, but it makes a clear statement on the landscape that is surrounded by mature trees and lush lawn. This is a family home where life is lived in earnest. Not far beyond the teepee, hidden a bit by some tall trees, is a play structure complete with swings and a slide. The pond is really the centre of attention, though. Native stones reflected in the still water resemble loaves of bread set in bread pans as water trickles lazily down a built waterfall. Magenta and pink peonies and a giant fleeceflower add subdued colour, but spent allium seed heads and the sword-like leaves of bloomed iris tell a tale of well-planned seasonable bloom. Along the edge, sedums and other succulents soften the concrete structure. At one side, a group of Adirondack chairs overlook a fire pit, a stack of wood ready to light nearby. This is the place to gather on a warm summer evening after a busy day spent tending the vegetable patch or harvesting the saskatoons that flank the edge of the property, their sweet and almond-y fruit full of prairie promise. Through the gate and beyond the fence, a large garden building provides support for the water collection system: a set of five great reservoirs that save rain water for
The overhang at the back of the house.
The play structure on the left and the teepee on the right.
Crown Land, just beyond the Jacksons’ property. 48 • 2020
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A colourful mix of flowers and a white picket fence.
Pink peonies behind a mass of spent anemones.
Spires of blue delphinium just inside the fence to the vegetable garden.
Pale peony just coming into bloom. localgardener.net
A clump of rosy dianthus. Issue 2
2020 • 49
A bunch of fleabane.
A little sparrow house.
the vegetables which grow in neat, parallel rows on either side of a wide grassed path. The vegetable garden is where Reed spends much of his time in the summer when he isn’t pruning trees. With such a large garden so close to Crown Land, it is a full-time
job keeping the weeds at bay. The entrance to the vegetable garden is guarded by seven large spruce trees that provide just the right amount of shade. Little groves of trees are an important feature of this yard, both front and back, giving
it a safe and secluded feeling. At the end of the garden is the wilderness area, a place of wide grass and natural trees surrounding a prairie creek. Wildlife loves this place, helping to balance the man made and nature made environments. i
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Reimer Soils 204•237•6668
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The vegetable patch at the back of Jackson’s property is a massive vegetable plot, where Katrina and reed grow just about every kind of edible you can imagine.
Lineup of containers with collected rainwater.
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Call us for your free in-yard consultation and evaluation. 204 790 5234 | greendrop.com trees@greendrop.com
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The home of Dennis Rawluck.
Beautiful Gardens
dennis rawluck
moosehorn, manitoba story by dorothy dobbie, photos by shauna dobbie and dorothy dobbie
D
ennis Rawluk is an artist. He sees beauty in everything around him. He paints these pictures in his mind, recording the nuances that make an indelible impression that later appear imprinted by him on some other surface or through another transformation of his environment. Dennis uses plants the way he uses his paint brush—or his knitting needle or his crochet hook or his carpenter tools. If it can
The wedding pathway. 52 • 2020
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A cluster of pots on and around a stump.
Dennis Rawluck.
Dennis’s barn front, built for his son’s wedding.
Cluster of calla lilies, healthy in their pot. localgardener.net
At the edge of the “barn yard”. Issue 2
2020 • 53
be done with the hands, Dennis has a way of channeling what he sees from mind’s eyes to the physical world. For much of his life, though, Dennis farmed around Moosehorn after working a short time in the city. He eventually took a job managing a local hardware store to help pay the bills and create a future for his family on the farm. He knew there was something missing, but he was too busy to mourn. In 2009, Dennis sold the farm to his oldest son and began a life free from the demands of raising cattle and growing grain. He bought a small house in town and made it a home by decorating it to his taste. One corner of a living room wall is painted with a winter birch, setting the scene for the signs of his creativity scattered through the rooms. One of these rooms is devoted to winter pass times of creating toques and baby blankets or painting on wood, the way he loves to do. He teaches his technique to others. Dennis did all sorts of interesting things to make a living over the years. Eventually, after moving to Moosehorn, he saved enough to buy the little property across the street from his new home. There, he found scrap metal and old bit of motors which he sold for more money than he had paid for the property! Gradually, his life became bigger. His children grew up and suddenly it was time for one of them to marry. Thus began the grand project of creating a dream place for his son to have a wedding. This was no small undertaking. The dream included horses and barns. The horses were easy enough to come by, but the barn would have to be constructed from the ground up. Nothing daunted, Dennis began to plan a recreation of a farmyard, replete with a rustic arbour and a wooden walkway to host the bride and groom on their wedding march. They married in 2017 with 150 guests enjoying the setting. What he constructed is now a local tourist draw which was featured in a two-page spread in the Winnipeg Free Press. Curious cars often drive slowly by to take a look. What they see is a garden with an arbour and outdoor dining space with the long winding wooden boardwalk leading
An assembly of pots in front of the house to celebrate Canada Day.
A collection of farming stuff to decorate.
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Makes a unique Christmas gift! Go to localgardener.net 54 • 2020
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The deep pink of one of the newer hydrangeas.
Clustered bellflowers surround a table and chairs.
Clustered bellflower up close.
Freshly opened squash flower. localgardener.net
A host of hostas. Issue 2
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A collection of saddles.
to a classic barn—but wait… the barn is two-dimensional, something the casual observer would never guess. Dennis cut and painted a convincing façade worthy of a Hollywood movie. His own personal garden is something of a wonder, too, an experiment designed to attract birds and wild critters. It is also a museum, a collection of farm memorabilia that adorns his garden shed walls on one side while the other supports a couple of farm murals depicting another barn and some contented cows, grazing on a green field. Dennis loves plants and looks for
the latest hybrids to fill his planters and window boxes, which spill over with brilliant, magenta petunias. Everyone in town knows Dennis. One of his other enterprises is to take consignments to grow and create wedding bouquets for eager brides. On the odd day he takes off from his work managing the hardware store, he is clearly missed. He is warmly welcomed at the local restaurant. Life is full for this remarkable man. There can be no doubt that Dennis has come home to life. And there is even less doubt that life loves him. i
Garden indoors with Nullam
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nullam.ca 56 • 2020
1-204-899-9425 Issue 2
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Dennis Rawluck’s artwork dennis brings craft to his paintings, which are dotted in the trees and throughout his garden. His artistry also shows in paving stones and, for winter, his work with yarn and textiles.
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2020 • 57
A wide view of the front yard, with the old crab apple in the middle of it all, like an old man who knows this garden.
Beautiful Gardens Maggie and Julian sale Guelph, ontario story and photos by shauna dobbie The moss covered branches of the old crab apple tree. 58 • 2020
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M
ost garden stories could start out: “The garden was a blank slate when the couple moved in twenty years ago.” This isn’t one of those stories. When Maggie and Julian Sale bought their house in Guelph 10 years ago, the seller asked: “Do you like to garden?” Maggie said she’d like to do more of it. More is what she got with this beautiful property. She’d done some gardening in the past. At the house in Toronto, where they raised their three kids, she maintained the garden. They lived in Montreal for a period, where she kept a rose garden looking good. In their last house, a townhouse they bought in Toronto, she developed a garden for the first time on the postage stamp lot. ‘Coming here to this bigger garden—and having an interest localgardener.net
A narrow walkway to the front yard.
A combination of hostas and ferns. The spotted plant is pulmonaria.
Hakonechloa grass planted en masse makes a statement. localgardener.net
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2020 • 59
A birdbath among the hostas.
A pretty planter next to the arbour.
This mixed planter on an upper terrace brings plants high off the ground. 60 • 2020
Red daylily. Issue 2
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An engaging scene with twisting driftwood, a little hedgehog and big red poppy flower stake.
in gardening but never having the time or opportunity to do a lot— changed when we came here, which has been nice.” The gardens were already laid out and hardscaped, so she had a good base to work from. Over the years, they’ve moved and changed some plants and taken out and added some trees. A huge locust tree in the back was felled by a storm, giving Maggie a sunny spot in one corner. The gorgeous old crab apple in the
front is coming to the end of its life too, which will be difficult for all the shade plants. There is some kind of fungal disease in the soil and some years the tree doesn’t bloom. Maggie has decided not to worry about it until she has to. Both Maggie and Julian are keen photographers, and Maggie says photography has informed her sense of gardening. “I’ve enjoyed developing the garden with my background of texture, form, composition, how
Pink and orange echinacea broken up by soft spikes of Russian sage. localgardener.net
to arrange plants; all that sort of has a photography feeling to it, I think, it helps me to get the garden the way it is.” The way she composes a bed with hostas, ferns, pulmonaria and other leafy plants speaks to her expertise. When one of the plants is in bloom, the focus is on the colour, but for the rest of the season, texture takes centre stage. The front yard is overseen by the old crab apple tree. There is no lawn in front; instead there are arrays of
A few monarda by the bleached cedar stairs. Issue 2
2020 • 61
Metal stork sniffing the peony foliage.
flowers and plants from the curb to the house. Low-growing wooly thyme fronts gayfeather and tradescantia and a wide swath of echinacea. Further back, toward the house, Maggie grows miscanthus with a steady hand so that it doesn’t escape its bounds. On the other side of the driveway there is an arbour that leads you to a path between an ivy-covered wall and an ivy-covered fence.
At the end of this pathway is the back yard, a park-like setting of wide flower borders surrounded by trees. Hostas are varied and plentiful here, and Maggie combines them with ferns, sedums, geraniums, bleeding hearts, sweet woodbine and more to a deeply textured effect. Offsetting it all is a generous planting of hakonechloa grass, lighting up the garden with yellow. Maggie also has a few pots of
annuals around for colour. “I don’t plant annuals in the garden much,” she says. “There’s not much room. I like the splashes of colour around the garden when some of the perennials are over.” She loves late May to early June because that’s when everything is blooming. “It looks fresh still,” she says. But our visit in August showed a garden peaceful in its maturity and thriving. i
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Art in the garden
Photo by maggie sale.
S
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potted throughout Maggie and Julian’s garden are a handful of works of art. The earliest came from their cottage in England; it’s the face of a woman carved from stone by a Shona artisan in Zimbabwe. Maggie and Julian were disheartened to find that a guest at the cottage had scratched her face; they brought the sculpture back to Canada, hoping to find someone to fix it. That’s how they found ZimArt in Peterborough, which happens to specialize in sculpture of Shona and other artisans in Zimbabwe. They got the face fixed and purchased another piece besides, a swirly sort of work. They also have a wind-activated piece that had belonged to friends they know who moved into a condo. And there is a trellis-like piece near the back door, created by their son. These and other pieces complete their garden.
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2020 • 63
Revolutionize your yard
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