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Luizas Garden

As our much awaited Spring is nipping at our heels, in all our dreams and thoughts we take time to travel to the Southern Part of Canada to visit our Gardenbuddie Luiza, who is originally from Poland. Altho, she considers herself a Fledgling Gardener I find her gardens so delicious as they are evolving!I kept telling her any gardener worth their weight in gold is constantly designing,redesigning and moving things..You will truly enjoy what she has accomplished in such a short time.

I grew up on a fairly large farm in rural Poland. It belonged to my nanny and her husband who provided babysitting services for my young working parents. It is a beautiful place full of grassy fields, farm lands and rolling hills covered in forests. This place has definitely influenced my love of nature.

Now, after changing continents, I garden on a much smaller scale. Our garden is located in Ontario, Canada (zone 5b). The house is situated at the end of a short court, on a pie shaped lot. The south and east side of the property borders a greenbelt, which gives us the illusion of more space then we actually have.

We did'nt do much for the first two years. This was a brand new development area, so we waited for the fences to be put in and planned what to do. Among the very first things we planted was an apple tree which we transplanted from my parent’s garden. We did it on a cold, fall evening. The sun had already set so we did the work by flash light. This type of gardening became a tradition with us and since then we planted many things in the most unfavorable conditions. The neighbors surely think we're crazy, but the plants seem to like what we're doing.

We continued to plant many trees and shrubs over the next few years to provide the structural backbone of the garden. Our biggest planting project included 5 Colorado blue spruce weighing 400 lb each.

After completing a few borders filled with shrubs, I realized that there were no flowers. I was familiar with some of the standard annuals everyone planted for seasonal color but I felt I wanted to start using perennials. To do that however, I had to learn about the varieties, requirements and various other conditions to grow these plants successfully. I spent many evenings doing research on the internet and by spring of 2004 I felt ready to dive into the world of perennial gardening.

The first perennial border contained such plants as rose Bonica, Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’, Stachys, Hostas, Daylily ‘Red Prince’, Iris, Clematis ‘Polish Spirit’, Dianthus and Lilies ‘Lolypop’. It was extremely rewarding to see these plants flourish and even more so to see them all come back after their first winter.

I've also experimented with growing plants from seed. That included starting my own tomato plants for a small vegetable garden that I created. The process was fairly easy and very rewarding. I've been very successful in growing plants such as zinnia, morning glory, coneflowers and aquilegias.

We are slowly transforming our garden from a very bare vast expense of grass to defined areas filled with various shrubs and flowers.

Our lot is fairly large for city standards so the goal is to significantly reduce the amount of grass we have to mow by creating more planting areas. Winter is spent planning the various projects to be accomplished during the growing season. By no means am I a landscape designer so the garden is constantly changing and the plants are rearranged numerous times before I’m satisfied with the outcome. Gardening has become a great hobby for me. It’s an escape from the hectic pace of everyday life, a means to relax and unwind. It’s also an opportunity to nurture the next generation of gardenbuddies.

Luiza, your gardens have really come a long way from it's inception and she has so many planned projects coming. Thank you so much for allowing us to visit your gardens and see the fruit of your labors. I know I will be watching to see all that you have planned..To keep up with our Luiza's garden projects check out her website at http://www.citygarden.netfirms.com/

Produced by Jeanne

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