The Citizen, 2008-05-08, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2008.Park-like setting brings visitors to family gardens
Continued from page 17
lunch at our picnic table,” Atkinson
said. “I came out and did my clean-
ing and then went back in. They
must have thought it was a park or
something, but I didn’t want to inter-
rupt their meal.”
Because the couple aims to add
something new to the garden annual-
ly, this has earned them fans who
anticipate their additions and will
often stop by after spotting the cou-
ple’s latest addition.
The garden is comprised of sever-
al mini-gardens. Two are shaped as
cat’s eyes, two like cat’s ears, one
like a butterfly, and the list goes on.
While hours and hours of work are
put into the gardens, there is no nec-
essary rhyme or reason to the plant-
ing, with a certain kind of flower
planted all over the garden and some
one-offs just planted periodically
around the yard.
Atkinson refers to her husband as
“the bulb man” as he is often in
charge of any flowers that fall into
that category. Tulips are his specialty
as there are over 750 tulips between
the front and back gardens. There are
nearly 1,100 bulbs on the property
all together, but this still comes up
short, as Johnston wanted to plant an
even 1,000 tulips in addition to the
approximately 250 other assorted
bulbs in their gardens.
When it comes to material,
Atkinson says she and her husband
are far from connoisseurs. The cou-
ple will often find interesting
plants at garage sales or at end-of-
season sales at reduced prices and
incorporate them into their
gardens.
They often invest in flat-packs of
18 perennials, frequently containing
plants they’ve never heard of, just to
see how they come in and where they
can fit them. The couple has also
been known to find themselves in
conversations with fellow gardeners
and when they leave, it never seems
to be empty-handed.
Atkinson says the seeds of garden-
ing were planted in her at a very
young age.
When she was very young, she
helped her grandparents garden. She
says their flower garden was one of
the most beautiful things she’s ever
seen and she loved to help out,
though one of her few duties back
then was pulling weeds.
Despite her grandparents’ passion
and care for their garden, during the
depression, they abolished all of
their flower gardens and converted
everything to vegetable gardens to
help feed the neighbourhood.
Atkinson began her own garden as
soon as she had a place to put it.
Before setting up in Auburn with
her husband, she had several gardens
in Saltford. However, when the cou-
ple made the big move to Auburn,
nearly everything was transplanted
to the new place, almost immediate-
ly. While Johnston was concentrat-
ing on moving in furniture and pre-
liminary home improvement work,
Atkinson was out back ensuring her
flowers found a nice home where
they would thrive.
In the spring and fall Atkinson is in
the garden from six to eight hours a
day working, and putting in a modest
two hours per day in the summer.
The spring and fall are important
seasons to any gardener as prepara-
tion and preservation take centre
stage as the soil rebounds, then pre-
pares for the cold that Huron County
is known for.
Atkinson says most of her time in
the spring is spent edging, digging,
planting, cleaning and spreading
manure and peat moss. In the sum-
mer, she is mostly just tidying up and
making sure that everything looks
the way it should.
While the couple’s garden isn’t
quite the public park it has been
taken for in the past, it is very visible
while driving through town. A drive
past allows one time to appre-
ciate the hard work that has gone
into the years of sculpting this gar-
den.
Spring Home and Garden
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Eye-catching sight
Even in early spring, the gardens of Christine Atkinson and Paul Johnston abound with colour.
The yard, located on a corner lot is a traffic stopper in the peak season. (Courtesy photo)
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