One of Virden’s most eye-catching yards belongs to Eileen Calcut. On the corner of Queen Street East and Second Avenue South you cannot miss the giant 4 ft. butterfly dominating a smooth stone yard scape (unless it’s gone into hibernation).
Her yard has been a focal place for her family, including her eight grandchildren and even some of her neighbours.
Calcut is an interior painter so it’s only natural her grandchildren would find rocks to paint to add to her yard décor. She has also re-purposed eight used doors as a painting project, first painting them white, and then letting the children decorate them to become part of her backyard interest.
On Sept. 29, the front and side yards had pops of colour with large clumps of brilliantly blooming annuals among perennials such as the deer-resistant beebalm. A contrast on the round grey stones.
Calcut credits her sons Clint and Collin and their wives for assistance and the tractor work last year to bring in the yard stone. Their ingenuity also provided her with the water-weathered tree root from Oak Lake, which fits right in with the stony landscape, providing an element of wild interest.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, fall décor is coming out now. Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy swing from former plant pot hooks, the giant butterfly will disappear.
An attractive yard has always been Calcut’s hobby. She used to live on Anderson Street near the White Owl. But her first stone landscaping was done in Brandon where she created a yard that earned her a Communities in Bloom honorable mention.
Back in Virden, she was looking for a home to purchase and spotted the corner lot property at Queen and Second. The front yard had the common dandelion and quack grass problems at the time. But to Calcut, it was the perfect challenge.
“As soon as I saw that house, I had a vision of what I would do with it.” That went for the yard and for the interior, which she also remodelled.
It was in the spring of 2022 that Calcut turned her hand to the front yard. She created flower beds and planted shrubs before laying landscape fabric. After that, smooth small rock was brought in with a tractor and bucket, and Calcut went to work raking, leveling it out by hand.
She’s a mother of five and she agrees that attention to landscaping and yard deco does run in the family, as can be seen at her daughter Chalene and son-in-law Jason Walton’s property. Their winter wonderland was featured in the Empire-Advance Christmas issue in 2020.
A front deck was installed as part of her renovation. She found the pillars to re-purpose to make the deck into a veranda.
The yellow sidewalk, she laughs about it saying, “Oh that’s me!” The first time she painted her sidewalk, she drew some family surprise.
But now, they kind of like it she says. Eileen Calcut has also inspired her neighbour Bonnie. Together they hauled rocks and have created something special in Bonnie’s backyard as well.
Calcut says she’d rather water flowers than grass, and she has zero mowing.
