Anna-Marie’s garden was created out of love. It commemorates lives that have had meaning for her and her family and, in a way, for those who built her century-old house.


Anna-Marie’s garden was also partly a gift to her much-loved mother-in-law who lived out her final years in a small house the Snows built for her next to their own house on their eight-acre property near Birtle. “I loved my mother-in-law. I wanted to make the garden beautiful because I wanted her to have something beautiful to look at when she got up in the morning,” said Anna- Marie. “She had her own personal space in her Grandma’s flat, but I could be near her. I could bring her meals, be company, and if she had a doctor’s appointment or needed something, I could be there for her.” Anna-Marie, who is the youngest daughter of a Franco-Manitoban family from St. Laz- arre, not far from Birtle, grew up gardening with her mother and sisters. The youngest of 13 children, her empathetic nature sur- rounds her like a mantle. It was probably learned, like her gardening skills, from her mother and sisters. She passes this grace on now to all who know her. Her caring nature shows in her garden.


So when Anna-Marie and Rodney moved to their century-old house, she began to vi- sualize the flowers and trees she could grow there. Perhaps, without knowing it, she felt the need to treat the house to something special. It bears a dated insignia: 1917. “I am told it was built by prisoners of war,” says Anna-Marie. If so, it would have been con- structed by the mostly Ukrainian internees, who were detained as “enemy aliens” during the First World War and housed in the Ex- hibition Building in Brandon from 1914 to 1916. Their goods and chattels confiscated, the detainees were often loaned to private interests as cheap labour during their inter- ment. It was a painful period and it’s pleasing to think that Anna-Marie’s garden eases the


www.localgardener.net Beautiful Gardens 2012 • 27


What’s more important, the vegetable or the flowers? He says food, she says flowers, and in the end they get along just fine together.


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