In This Issue:
Minter Gardens
Things To Do in Your Garden
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Minter Gardens: a national treasure
I heard some rather sad news recently: Minter Gardens of Hope B.C. is closing at the end of this season. The news hit me rather hard as I know the founder, Brian Minter, personally and I love the guy. I have followed his storied career from the early days.
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Coincidentally, Brian opened this marvellous jewel of a garden in 1980, the same year that my Dad opened Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village in Whitby Ontario.
I will never forget meeting Brian on the mountainside where his future garden was under construction in the summer of 1979. He explained how he was creating a massive rose garden complete with trimmings: arbours, teak benches and a view to die for. He was going to take the stunning natural attributes of the site and enhance them with 'the hand of man'.
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Minter Gardens was special the day that it opened. As it matured it only got better. An allay of trees matured into a shaded walk, perennials and annual flowering plants provide eye-popping colour. My very favourite man-made water fall became encrusted in moss and ferns, a sight that only British Columbia could produce [in Canada anyway].
I visited whenever I could. Our daughter Heather took work there for two summers just a few years ago. She went on to become a Landscape Architect: no doubt Brian had a positive effect.
I remained in touch with Brian through 'industry' volunteer work and through Heather, who became one of many beneficiaries of Brian and wife Faye's generosity and kindness: our relationship grew.
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Selling is not Easy
When my sister made the difficult but necessary decision to sell the Cullen Gardens property about 8 years ago, Brian was among the first people that I called with the news. As expected he was sympathetic, empathetic and encouraging all at once. Perhaps he knew then that the challenges of attracting a new generation to a 'show garden' are very difficult to overcome without government support.
Minter Gardens will have served a very special purpose for 33 years when it closes its doors this October. In the meantime several million visitors have walked through the Minter garden gate, by my estimation. How many individuals have been inspired by this creation in this time? How many brides and grooms have happy memories of a story-book wedding? How many young people have been affected by their summer work at Minter Gardens and as a result taken up gardening as a profession? These are questions to which there is no answer other than this: countless many.
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Hope
Perhaps someone will find inspiration for a new generation who will see a future in repurposing and finding other uses for a 'show garden' on a mountainside in Hope. With a name like that, this town just might resuscitate Minter Gardens.
To Brian I say this: Closing one of the great public gardens in the country is not a mark of failure. It is a success story that will live on in the minds, imaginations and the history books of Canadian horticulture. You and your family have much to be proud of.
I urge you to visit Minter Gardens this late summer or fall. If only to see for yourself that I am not making any of this up. If you don't agree that this wonderful place is indeed a 'National Treasure' I would like to hear from you personally.
You still have a chance to see it. If you do not live near Hope B.C. it would not be out of the question to make a special trip to see it. While you are there you might want to take in some of the other attractions that make British Columbia a vacation Mecca.
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Things To Do in Your Garden
We are on the continental divide of the gardening season. On your right is the last 4 months that you invested and the flowers and fruit that your garden has produced to date. On your left is another 4 months [or so, depending on where you live]. This is when apples ripen and tomatoes are harvested. To many of us, the best is yet to come.
Here is what you need to know:
1. Divide German iris in August. Spread them around the sunny parts of your yard or give them away.
2. Sow grass seed and lay sod. From Mid August until early October - this is the best time of year to do it.
3. If you are receiving some rain and night temperatures are cooling down, this is a great time to apply Golfgreen lawn fertilizer, if you have not done it in 8 to 10 weeks.
4. Remove the spent blossoms of July flowering perennials and roses. Day lilies, early flowering hostas, veronica and the like. My blue veronica produces another set of blossoms when I cut it down this time of year.
5. If you are in the habit of fertilizing your winter hardy shrubs and roses monthly [with, say, Green Earth Rose, Annual and Perennial Food] then right now is the last application that you will make for this year. Feeding later in the summer/early fall can promote growth that will not have time to harden off before winter.
6. Take lots of pictures! My late father Len used to say that the garden peaks in the first two weeks of August. Enjoy! And use some of your best pictures as wall paper on your computer. Come winter you will be glad that you did.
7. Hang out a hummingbird feeder [and fill it, silly]: they are returning from the far north, will stop and forage in your garden for a few weeks as they accumulate fat under their wings for the long flight south this fall.
8. Stake your dahlias.
9. Harvest as your garden matures. The more you harvest, the more it will produce.
10. Continue to spray Bordo copper spray on your tomatoes to prevent early and late blight.
11. Weed, mulch, water as needed and be sure to hang in the hammock. You earned it!!
Mark
Merchant of Beauty
