Beautiful Gardens: April and Dery, Edmonton

from Canada's Local Gardener Volume 1 Issue 2

by PegasusPublicationsInc

Beautiful Gardens: Phyllis Snow and Krystle Snow, Winnipeg.

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

When 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 concrete core samples, laid on their ends, create a patio.

The core samples are also used as stepping stones.

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April and Chris at the front table.The back yard is a work in progress. You can see the

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

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

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half-moon vegetable garden here.Dictamnus sets a pretty picture in front of the shed.

Pink veronica.Persicaria in front of golden lady’s mantle and hostas.

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

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

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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-moonshaped

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