Phlox bloom enthusiastically.


A warm and relaxed garden.


A unique fireplace accent sets off the plants.


the nurturing only a good mother and a garden can give. Of course, Jill and Dave come by gardening all so very


naturally, being from Essex, England. They’ve been here adventuring in the garden for 15 years now. The garden has just sort of sprung up around the


people. When the kids were small, a large trampoline and paddling pools were surrounded by grass. There were some big shady polar trees and two huge spruce trees. But as the kids grew, the grass was replaced, bit- by-bit with more interesting plants, the big trees came down to be replaced by more gentrified types and flowers began to creep into odd corners. So did the lovely and mesmerizing fish pond, which


now resides in the side garden near the entrance. Other animation is the yard comes from the welcome songbirds. “Birds seem to like to face north,” says an observant Dave. They get wrens and chickadees, finches, robins, sparrows, hummingbirds – and of course, squirrels. Jill does the flowers. Dave does the construction. “He


has the vision,” comments Jill, who adds that in the case of the way people garden in Calgary, “We’ve noticed some big changes over the past 14 years.” She is so right – gardens are becoming more sophisticated and the plant variety has exploded. “Some people


spend a 28 • Beautiful Gardens 2015 fortune in their garden,” observes Dave. “We spend blood, sweat and tears.” Not


Mallow adds a gorgeous scent to the garden.


that it is easy to imagine many tears in this lovely space. Jill got the Canadian garden bug not long after coming


here. She did the Master Gardener program, learned all the Latin names (“I can’t remember any of them now,” she laughs) and basically soaked up the culture of how to garden in a sometimes unfriendly climate. She is one of the open garden co-ordinators for the Calgary Horticul- tural Society, where she has been a member for the past four years. As for the garden, it is full of pathways and surprises.


A family of metal pigs occupies a centre bed where an ornate fire pit creates a focal point. The garden is filled with special shrubs; tall delphiniums reach out to the sun; traditional hollyhocks and roses stand out against the greenery. A Canadian yew (Taxus canadensis) is one of the lovely shrubs found in this garden. One corner is taken up with raised beds growing salad


greens and other vegetables and where once onions and carrots were growing until the dog got into the act and ate them all. Jill is philosophical about this – she is that kind of lady. And it is that kind of garden: warm, relaxed and quite lovely – just like the people who created it. K


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