The life-affirming garden of Elaine and Warren Haggith


Story and photos by Dorothy Dobbie


The fun starts right at the front door. D


appled shade and bright sunlight play among the flowers in Elaine and Warren Haggith’s Edmon- ton garden. The two have known each other


almost forever: they were in 4-H together, Elaine in grain and Warren in beef. Elaine grew up gardening in Bruderheim not far from


Edmonton. Back in those days, though, Elaine had the job of weeding and picking berries while her mom did the flow- ers. Now she can do flowers to her heart’s content, prun- ing, deadheading and fussing with them, while Warren does the berry picking — and the weeding! (I’m the cheap labour,” he declares). And there are a lot of berries: they grow Saskatoons, raspberries, honeyberries, blueberries, Nanking cherries and strawberries. Their biggest challenge is keeping the birds out of the berry patch. As for Warren, well, he likes the rose garden and he has


quite a collection including ‘Hope for Humanity’, ‘Morden Sunrise’ and the reliable and hardy Winnipeg Parks rose. The Haggiths have been 19 years in this home, building


32 • Summer 2016


The front yard.


on a skeleton of trees and shrubs that existed when they arrived. It’s been an incremental exercise ever since; they added flowers, then vegetables amongst the flowers, creat- ing a country garden that fits in the city. Warren busied himself building patios and walkways, erecting trellises and a fire pit.


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