The backyard is an oasis surrounded by greenery and beauty.
Beautiful monkshood. Getting inspiration Jon and Pat find garden tours such as
the Strathcona County Library Tour and Edmonton Horticultural Society Tour sources of great inspiration. “Design ideas can spring from viewing public or private gardens within the city or abroad and by reading books and locally oriented garden magazines. We also recommend joining a garden club such as the Edmonton Horti- cultural Society to learn from speakers, newsletters and other local gardeners,” says Pat. They are always looking for new ideas and projects they can adapt to their space. As our garden has become more
mature, we are not buying as many plants. We tend to look for specific varieties now,” explains Pat of their more focused buying habits at local garden stores, large
localgardener.net
The Brehaut’s love to entertain by the water feature.
and small. The garden is also reasonably sized, so to reduce future labour,
their
plans for next year include adding more shrubs to replace some of the perenni- als. “We’ll add some shrubs, hardy roses probably, to one back bed. We’d also like to remove a rock border along our front walk, it is tedious to keep free of debris, and add some ground covers and small shrubs,” says Jon. The garden brings a lot of joy to the
couple and they enjoy sharing it with others. “We love entertaining and sitting in our garden and do so as much as possi- ble each season. Once we had a group of friends here for lunch on the patio and they were thrilled by a visit from a hummingbird, this was especially fun as we live in Hummingbird Court,” laughs Pat.
They also believe in passing on their
love of and value of gardening at every opportunity. They recommend that people buy plants that are suited to the amount of sunlight, soil conditions and heat/cold they will get where they wish to plant them. “Read plant tags and ask the experts at garden centres. Don’t be afraid to experiment though and move plants around. Be prepared to lose some now and then to pests, harsh winters, etc. Get the children or grandchildren involved in
learning and appreciating garden-
ing whether it is veggies or flowers. We should pass on our love of and the value of gardening at every opportunity,” advises Pat. Great words for every gardener. K
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Beautiful Gardens 2015 • 15
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