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JULIE BARNES
HEATHER FRITZ
RESIDENTIAL GREENHOUSES 101 Growing a Love for Greenhouse Gardening On a spacious corner lot in Holiday Park, Georgie and Rusty Chartier grow their own food and maximize every inch of space. With an L-shaped greenhouse wrapped around the southwest corner of their home and a sprawling outdoor garden that stretches to the curb, these two self-taught greenthumbs have grown
everything from apples to zinnias since they set down roots here almost 60 years ago. From herbs to fruit to vegetables and flowers, if it grows in Saskatchewan, it has grown in the Chartiers’ well-tended greenhouse or outdoor garden. The greenhouse and surrounding gardens are a
labour of love the Chartiers share with three generations of family. Their seven grown children and 13 grandchildren have all dug in and helped with seeding, watering, weeding and canning. When the greenhouse shelving is factored in, they have 5,000 square feet of plantings. The Chartiers built their
home in the late 1950s, and that’s when their interest in gardening bloomed. “We started growing our own garden because we didn’t have a lot of money to begin with and we started growing everything,” says Georgie. The original greenhouse was smaller and heated by a potbelly wood stove.That
SUMMER 2015
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Saskatoon HOME
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