|
|
 Small, baby pumpkin plant |
 A wonderful display of lilies |
 Gorgeous black irises |
 Gorgeous red-brown irises |
 Thriving ladyslippers (Since this is a protected species, it might be best not to run this photo) |
 Can you guess that I like orange lilies? |
 Great gnomes |
 Backyard panorama |
|
It was hot this week.....So hot it was hard to move. So where can you find respite from the heat? In a garden. That was my assignment and will continue to be something that I write about over the next few weeks. Highlight some of Atikokan's gardens. And it was assigned to me. This is work? Talk to people about their gardens, take pictures and write about them? This is work?
I started with Alana Rechlin and her garden. Being the (long-time) President of the local Horticultural Society, Alana was a good person to begin with. Her interest in gardening is not a recent focus; she grew up on a farm, helping her mother in the family garden. And so began her lifelong passion. A definition of a garden that I read recently (from The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore) is that a garden is the intersection between nature and human imagination in which both seek the fulfilment of their beauty. Add to this a deep understanding of plants and how they grow and you have an artist, the gardener, who works with living organisms rather than paint. I am a gardener with more enthusiasm than skill, so it was enlightening to talk with Alana, whose knowledge comes from a lifetime of familiarity with plants. I saw lilies, peonies, beautiful dark brown and black irises, lupines, mayflowers, forest plants and critters. Living close to the bush, it is be expected that the wild creeps into gardens. In Alana's case, she welcomes the wild, the happy surprises of something unexpected popping up in the spring. Her garden will never be completely finished, nor is it static. She experiments with plants, moving them if they are not thriving where they were initially planted. Like all gardeners in this area this spring, Alana looked sadly on the wreckage wrought by the army worms,: trees defoliated, blossoms gnawed, peony buds a dried-up mess. But, like farmers, gardeners know there is always next year. Seed catalogues will brighten long, winter days (are you feeling cooler now?), and plans for a better spring next year will help them endure the cold. The garden is a lot of work, undertaken gladly. Beds surround the house, the garage, the gazebo. Plants were waiting to be assigned their place. Now that Alana has retired from teaching, she has the time to devote to the work that isn't really work (kind of like doing these articles). Her garden, like many in Atikokan, abounds in figurines and critters giving it a lively, whimsical feel. Wherever you look, something peeks out at you. There is a fountain, and plenty of wooden beams, and stones. All of these combining to produce a restful, restorative environment. There are vegetables too and a baby pumpkin plant. It will be interesting to check in again toward the end of summer to see what bounty it has produced – a giant award-winning pumpkin maybe? Gardens are places where our souls can take flight with the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees, away from our mundane cares, and even away from the blistering heat for a while. A thought....if the "Canoe Capital of Canada" theme doesn't catch on, we can always try the "Garden G-nome (you have to pronounce a hard G) Capital of Canada". It has a certain ring to it, doesn't it? |