Gardener's Corner
by Judith Rogers

Mothers and daughters can be very close and two of my best friends are my daughters. Now that they have their own homes and are starting to garden we have even more in common and the fact that both girls are professionals means they have little time to fuss over plants so the 'low maintenance' aspect is very important to both of them. Number two daughter keeps her plants to a bare minimum of a few shrubs and colourful annuals she likes to put in with her own daughter. Number one daughter and her family have recently moved into their first home which has lots of beds and perennials already in place.

When I first visited the new home I became a story teller as we meandered through the gardens, explaining what the various plants were, what to expect for performance from each and that the bright red jewel looking bugs on the lilies were, in fact, the lily beetle that was going to do a lot of damage. The beds on this property have in them many old pieces of equipment such as a reel mower, ancient rakes and other implements, an antique sleigh and a sewing machine. Number one daughter is afraid of offending the previous owner if she removes these artifacts because they are clearly not her style. I assured her that every gardener gardens with soul and by making subtle changes she will ultimately reveal her own personality, possibly without even realizing it.

'In search of my Mother's garden, I found my own' - Andrea O'Reilly.

This has a familiar ring to it as daughters not only frequently duplicate what they grew up with inside a house, but also outside in the garden. My daughter fondly remembers the peonies from our garden; full frilly doubles, fragrant and in vases throughout the house. She would like to have pieces of them all since they have travelled with me to where we currently live. Peonies are divided in the fall so I'll pot some divisions for her then and over winter those until spring when they can be planted in the new bed we've designed for her sunny front yard.

Her back yard is shaded by two mature maples and makes a perfect woodland setting for the perennials already established and the native plants we're going to include. She already has numerous colours and cultivars of columbines in this area, fringed bleeding heart and meadow rue that are easy to care for.

This daughter likes hostas too and has on her wish list from me a division of 'June', 'Blue Umbrella' and Blue Cadet' which are slug resistant as each has a thick, waxy leaf that slugs and snails are unable to chew through.

There is an abundance of birds and butterflies visiting the gardens every day which are a delight for the grandchildren to enjoy, particularly the bird house with the busy chickadee family.

As with many communities, school and housing development is forcing wildlife to move into new areas and just this year the residents are experiencing roaming deer and a groundhog that has made a new home by burrowing under a neighbour's shed.

In a couple of years after plants from my garden have been added, many moved around as gardeners are apt to do, and then again, I know my daughter will find her own garden.