Waseca Garden Club Summer Tour

The Waseca Garden Club’s summer tour took place Saturday, Aug. 2. Five locations were part of the event; well over 100 people attended. Included gardens belonged to Jen Dvorak and John Katz; Jody and Gene Buell; Julie and Maddie Poehler; and Andy and Kathy Miller. Home base for the tour was the historic Bailey-Lewer House on Second Avenue Northeast. Participants were invited to sign in there and enjoy refreshments before using provided maps to visit as many of the four private gardens as they wished.

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Volunteering at the Bailey-Lewer house were Gini Gekeler, Sue Schoenfeld, Kathy Oftedahl, Vicki Neidt and Jolene Gundermann. Visitors at the site enjoyed the vintage gardens purposely designed to be similar to the way the yard would have looked in 1868. 

 

Another stop on the tour was the vegetable garden of Jen Dvorak and John Katz on their property along Sixteenth Avenue Northeast. The garden began in 2017 with a single raised bed and now has three. John provided a quick walk-through of his lush plants that include red onions, green bell peppers, sugar snap peas and regular peas, Blue Lake pole beans, Better Boy tomatoes, and red and white potatoes. He tells of having started his planting “around the third week in May.” He attributed the late start to the hard freezes which occurred a number of times in April. So far, he’s harvested some peas and cucumbers.” As of 2 p.m. on Saturday his garden had seen around 60 visitors.

 

Andy and Kathy Miller say it brought them great pleasure to meet and talk with the individuals, couples and families who visited their property.

 

“We’ve put in a lot of time and energy to bring our yard and garden to a place where we’re proud of it,” observed Andy. “It’s a pleasure to share it and answer people’s questions.”

 

The two have lived in their home along Clear Lake Drive for 35 years, having raised their children Keith, Reid and Paige there, they now love having their children and grandchildren for visits.

 

Their three-acre lawn is designed for hospitality.

 

Out front is a shaded patio with adirondack chairs for relaxing and watching the activity on and near the lake. Boaters and anglers are silhouettes against the sun-sparkled water. Walkers, runners and bicycle riders–as well as the occasional passerby on skates or a motorized scooter–present an ever-changing panorama on the trail and roadway. Songbirds and other wildlife, not all of it welcome, keep the immediate vicinity interesting.

 

Andy describes having found a smartphone app which identifies birds. He says the number and variety of winged visitors astounded him, with 35 different species apparently coming and going. “Some of them, I’d never even heard of,” he comments. He says he especially enjoys hearing the songs of goldfinches and cardinals.

 

“We love to sit out here and enjoy the cool breeze off the lake while we watch the activity,” observes Kathy.

 

That “breeze” becomes a particularly icy wind in colder parts of the year, the two observe. They say it took a few tries to find some landscaping plants which could survive the winter and bounce back in the spring. The solution? “Spirea is indestructible,” notes Andy. “And it’s pretty easy to care for, too.” He has different colors and varieties of the bush up against the northwest wall of the house and lining his lakeshore property across the road. He says even though he cuts the plants “down to the ground” in the fall, they grow out again when the weather turns warm.

 

“And they look nice, too,” he comments.

 

In the back yard, a spacious pergola up at the same level with the house offers a gathering place

 

for 20 or more people. The patio is constructed with landscape pavers; the pillars and sitting walls are constructed with tumbled blocks. Under the pergola is a u-shaped,  leathered granite-topped counter which can seat a small crowd; a grill is nestled into the counter, making it clear this is a place for well-rounded hospitality. 

 

An appealing feature of the patio is an outdoor fireplace built of the same “tumbled” blocks.

The back yard is also shaded. Strategically placed in easy view of the patio are a number of plant features. Andy says the gingko bush is one of his favorites, thanks to its exotically shaped leaves. He feels it’s part of a set, in a way, since a gingko tree is growing nearby.

 

Kathy says she finds particular pleasure in a flower garden which features a two-foot-tall statue of St. Frances. Known for his humility, his concern for the poor and underprivileged, and for communing with nature, the saint seems right at home surrounded by day lilies of various colors and other colorful plants. The garden includes elements which memorialize beloved people from Kathy and Andy’s past. 

 

Leading in and among other strategically placed plantings are some paving bricks which say either “Flint Co.” or “Purington.” Andy acquired the bricks even before he owned the house on Clear Lake Drive. He explains they were the paving on streets in Waseca’s downtown before modern bituminous surfacing became the standard. At least 100 years old, they had been left in place and covered over at one time.

 

When the streets were redone, he explains regarding a time nearly 50 years ago, “the city decided to get rid of them. They put them out in a pile near the airport and told people they could take what they wanted.”

 

The bricks have been adding character at the Millers’ house, now, for decades. But before that, they cost family members a lot of effort, since they were moved and stored at about four different locations before finding their current placements. Andy estimates there are about 2,000 of them creating pathways in the back yard.

 

Behind the patio, the back yard slopes down to a lower level, eventually leading to a cornfield behind their property.  Hydrangea, fruit trees and shrubs outline the house and property. In the center of the largest space in the backyard is Andy’s garden.

 

He comments it, too, has evolved over time. Fenced in to keep out deer, the space features raised gardening beds and even has a few benches scattered among them, apparently for detail work. He says he spends about an hour a day there, and loves every minute of it. His criteria for selecting his produce is perfectly straightforward: “I grow what I like to eat.” Many of his favorite recipes are equally simple: “I heat the vegetables up and put on a little butter.”

 

Summer, of course, is the time to enjoy and appreciate the rich growth and beauty of nature. Andy comments his appreciation is perhaps even richer given the effort needed in the fall and spring to prepare for and then recover from winter weather. 

 

“It’s a lot to take care of,” Kathy observes. “But it’s all worth it because we enjoy it so much.”