SASKATOONEXPRESS - July 20-26, 2015 - Page 1 Volume 12, Issue 29, Week of July 20, 2015
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Lois and Alex Hertzum-Larsen (above) and Della and Don Greer (see page 4), are the hard-working owners of winning gardens (Photo by Steve Gibb)
Beautiful times two Horticulture club chooses double winners in annual garden competition
Joanne Paulson Saskatoon Express ven if you didn’t know the Hertzum-Larsens’ address on Eighth Avenue North, you would have no trouble finding the Saskatoon Horticulture Society’s (SHS) award-winning garden in North Park. Lush, colourful and weedless, the beautiful yard would stand out in any neighbourhood. What makes this yard even more interesting is its Victorian vibe, elegantly matching the home’s design. Similarly, the Greer home on King Crescent in City Park has a spectacular and unique presentation. A rock waterfall gently flows just outside the home’s office window, with roses to one side and greenery surrounding the water feature. The Greer yard also matches the home designed by one of its owners, with its variegated spaces, curves and angles. It must have been a hard decision for the SHS to choose between the home-enhancing gardens; and so, there are double winners in the 2015 competition.
When the now-retired couple designed the yard, Lois wanted several things incorporated, including curb appeal at the front, a welcoming pathway into the backyard, plenty of texture and variegation. They did not just create the yard. They built the house. Alex often walked by a tiny bungalow on a huge lot during the course of his career as a letter carrier. When the owner moved, the HertzumLarsens bought the property in 2003. There was a lot of work to be done, such as removing carragana bushes, a dilapidated fence and all the old dirt left from underneath the old house. Lesson number one to new homeowners: “Spend the dollar on real topsoil originally,” advised Alex. It certainly worked for him and Lois. “You can see how prolific everything is.” Trees and walkways were planned as the house went up, although the paths were put in last. A garage (soon to become, partially, a greenhouse), gazebo, several arbors, a deck with a water feature and other structural pieces were incorporated in the design. The plantings have come over the Alex and Lois Hertzumyears; one area along the north fence was Larsen: Victoriana just planted this year. Today, there are “at Alex and Lois Hertzum-Larsen are a least” 300 varieties of plants in the yard, perfect combination: Alex is the hardscape say the pair. handyman, and Lois is the softscaper, “That’s not on purpose,” said Lois. “It a.k.a. plant person. just seemed to happen.”
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Lois is a master gardener and composter, one of the first graduates of a University of Saskatchewan extension division program. She always had a passion for gardening, but also had a job in health care and a family to raise. Now retired (officially in September), she can focus on the yard. Although quite new, the house is Victorian in style, and Lois wanted that romantic ambiance to distinguish the yard as well. She describes it as soft and welcoming, with separations between areas, a shade garden, curves and a meandering feel. “Wherever you sit in this yard, you will be surrounded with beauty.” Much of it was trial and error, she said. “It was the yard telling me what will grow,” she said. “Grapes (for example) should not grow in the shade” – but they do in her yard. Lois is a strong advocate of dense plantings, and her yard demonstrates the benefits of that: nearly weedless, lush and strong. Here are the principles behind the Hertzum-Larsen garden: Attract pollinators: Bees, wasps, monarch butterflies, hummingbirds: provide them with the plants they like to visit, such as milkweed for the monarchs. Enjoy watching them get tipsy on some of the fermenting juices of the plants. Plant fruit trees: The garden has
apples, grapes, plums, cherries, haskaps, hazelnuts and other fruit trees, mainly from the U of S fruit tree breeding program. “We wanted the fruit for the kids to eat, instead of junk food,” said Lois. Watch the watering: The HertzumLarsen garden has no underground sprinkler system. “We water what needs to be watered,” said Alex. “The plants tell us when they need watering.” Water conservation: Use mulch, tight planting design, and lots of ground cover to conserve moisture and to keep the weeds down. Not even Lois likes weeding. Save money: Buy plants at the end of the season, cheaply, and lots of them. Consider prairie-hardy plants: “Everything is prairie hardy (in the yard),” said Lois. “There was no way I wanted to muck with exotics, and watch them die.” Don and Della Greer: Architecturally unique Don and Della Greer have lived in their unique, multi-levelled home for 22 years. Don was the architect behind his own project and, since then, the couple has shared work on the yard. “It’s really been a progression,” said Don in an interview. “We bought the property 25, 26 years ago and tore down the house.” (Continued on page 4)