It was a beautiful morning to view the gardens and yards on the list for the Virden Garden Club self-guided tours, Saturday, Jul. 29. On a drive around Virden and the countryside, one suspects these yards are really just the tip of the iceberg among the area’s many well-kept properties, inspiring landscaping and luscious blooms.
Yards on display included that of Trudy Warren, Marjorie Andrew, Todd Beltz and Jennifer Chapman, Andrew Morden, Lil Wadham, Patti and Howard Hole, Ken and Gwen Clarke.
Many gardeners commented their yard was a work in progress, saying the outdoor garden provided a place a peace ... a sense of accomplishment where being ‘in the present’ is the recipe for stress relief.
A brochure provided yard addresses for those touring, and also referenced The Millennium Flower Bed and notable trees in Virden.
On the Garden Club brochure, there is an invitation: “If you are interested in opening your garden for the tours next year, please contact any member of the Garden Club or the President, Brenda Cameron; and, they’re open for suggestions.
The Virden Garden Club and Virden Ag Society show will provide another opportunity to see what growing, check out the sewing; and enjoy lunch, perhaps on the patio of Sacred Heart parish Hall, August 10.
There was enough inspiration in these seven yards to last for the rest of the summer. Over the next few weeks, watch for more coverage on the gardens of Virden.
Starting at Trudy’s garden
Trudy Warren’s immaculate yard includes a shady backyard sanctuary where Warren has luscious, well watered plantings with a multitude of annuals filling in around a wide selection of perennials.
Here, metal art, light-up mock wasp nests, and re-purposed objects such as an old kitchen chair provide interest, among the greens and blooms.
Precise edging and a super lawn speak of hours of care, and a sand point well makes watering feasible. When she waters, each area receives at least an hour’s soak. Warren says, “If you soak them good, that way I don’t have to water for a few days. That way those roots are going to go down. If you water shallow, for 10 minutes your roots are always going to be at the surface.”
Amaranths, or ‘Love Lies Bleeding’, a wine, draping flower is a focal point in the back yard.
On August 29, the canna lilies are flowering early this year, says the gardener. “They usually don’t flower until the middle of August, but they’re flowering now.” The yellow rocket is also flowering early. “Maybe we’re going to have an early fall,” she questions.
Every year she is thinking about new things for the garden; she takes notes all through the summer. “In August, I’ll go around with a pen and paper. I’ll think, ‘that didn’t work there I’m going to move it’.” She formulated, in the fall, what she will do next year.
Warren, now retired, invests significant time in her yard. “I live out here. I grew up on a farm, I worked in the field with Dad, with brothers,” she explains of her love for the natural outdoor world.
Warren purchased the property on Raglan in 2005. “It was an open pallet,” she explained. Each year she extended the plantings. “Any of the annuals, I start myself. The impatiens have to be started early.”
Until two years ago, everything was started in her house. Then she ordered a portable pop-up from Home Hardware, expanding the capacity for seedlings.
“I have a lot of plants that I have to bring in, in the winter time. There’s dahlias and callas and cannas, and begonias that you dig up, you dry them off and you bring them in.” She says her mother and grandmother stored geraniums for the winter, out of the soil. But Warren says her basement may be too damp – it doesn’t work for her.
Andrew’s shady pond
Marjorie Andrew has a unique yard, like a rainforest, with a beautiful water feature and bird statues. Pink highlights Andrew’s backyard. A restful atmosphere invites you to lounge near the little pool under shade.
The air is fresh and cool even on a hot July morning. “It’s about 10 degrees cooler here than it is out there,” she says.
Back yard blooms are simple. The challenge is the shade planting. “Pink and white, I find, are a nice combination. I don’t find gardening work at all.”
Ten years ago, the back yard was torn up to create a sun room. Andrew made that the opportunity to create the shady garden, with Jackie and Barry Tough doing the heavy lifting and Andrew doing the designing. Virginia creeper covers around the pond.
The front yard is quaint, with white picket fence, a little white bridge and dry stone lined creek bed, among the ground cover under trees including pines and oaks. “I’ve just let things grow that will grow naturally.” Bright yellow cushion spurge does well in the acidic ground around the conifers.
Andrew says she has to clean up after squirrels that eat pine cones and acorns, littering the yard, but it seems to be a live and let live arrangement.
Trudy Warren’s front yard with eye-catching plantings.
People are gathered in Trudy Warren’s backyard, the first stop in the Virden Garden Club’s Saturday morning self-guided tour.
People are gathered in Trudy Warren’s backyard, the first stop in the Virden Garden Club’s Saturday morning self-guided tour.
Bee balm stands out against the white fence in Andrew’s front yard; the garden tour is admiring the tall lilies.
