Bridges cross the flowing stream.


Keith Lemkey designed and installed this waterfall which Mark loves because the sound of water soothes away any stresses at the end of a busy day.


The firepit at the bottom of the garden beside the creek.


nipeg’s best landscapers. Keith lives right across the street and Keith-like, he had the perfect answer – a natural looking waterfall. As luck would have it, he had one that fit the space perfectly. Now Mark has to have that pond and waterfall going, says Shel- ley, to complete the therapy that the garden never fails to provide him with at the end of a stressful day or on return home from a sojourn in the States. The garden has had other changes since


Shelley took over. She scaled back on some of the higher maintenance perennials, re- placing them with hostas and grasses and shrubs chosen for their foliage colour and texture. Since business also takes her away frequently, she has no time for fussing, but she really does enjoy working in the garden. “I’m happiest when digging in the dirt,” she laughs, recounting how once, when she was seven months pregnant, the earth smelled so good, she wanted to eat it. “I brought it right up to my mouth,” she says. She loves


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the old-fashioned plants such as hollyhocks. She plans to bring some of them into the garden in the future. Shelley also uses the garden as a bonding


tool with the kids. She’ll get them out with her, working together on weeds or whatever has to be done. Three pairs of hands make it go faster but the side benefits of being and doing something together are worth far more. Not that the kids are idle. Max regularly mows the grass, a tricky procedure thanks to the design. For the future, Shelly has in mind a tool


shed built to look like a carriage house. That reminds her of the challenges they face with a house they just bought in Laguna Beach. “There are so many regulations,” she says. “The neighbours even have a right to inter- vene in our choice of plants.” It’s a good reminder of how lucky we are


to live and garden in sunny Manitoba where the chill comes from the weather and not from the hearts of our neighbours.


Shelley beside her lovely pool in the ealy morning light. Beautiful Gardens 2012 • 13


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