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In the garden: an exotic retreat in the heart of North Battleford

Beautiful Battlefords

If you are driving down 11th Avenue toward Battlefords Union Hospital, Amy Williams’ vine-covered fence might invite speculation about just what kind of garden is behind it. Is it unkempt or painstakingly manicured? If you enter the yard through a gate with Virginia creeper overhead, the lush greenery promised by the sight of the slightly overgrown vines as viewed from the road proves true, and then some.

Garden beds filled with leafy plants run the length of the yard on both sides, while the back quarter is dedicated to a vegetable garden in wash-bin-like containers that surround the lone mature tree that provides shade from the afternoon sun for half the yard.

It takes a moment to appreciate what makes Williams’ yard so special. There are other attention-grabbing elements to take in first, beginning with the outdoor living and dining spaces that meet you when you enter from the side of the yard or through the back of the house. It is then, after your eyes wander and you inspect the rest of the yard, that you distinguish any one of the dozens of exotic plants Williams has carefully cultivated. Although not so carefully as she would have liked.

“This winter I’m going to be better about it,” she says. “I have hardwood floors and just stuck (the pots) on the floor with towels. It was horrible. This year I’ll use trays. Because it was so not fun I didn’t do it enough and I lost some plants.”

Williams’ sunroom is transformed into a greenhouse each fall, after she hauls anywhere from 50 to 60 pots of tropical and arid plants inside, 

If repotting and lugging dozens of plants inside sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is. But that’s what appeals to her, Williams says.

“I’m retired. I love the work of it. I love coming out in the spring and getting active. I try to spend an hour or two outside every day.”

Following knee surgery last winter, getting active proved more difficult this time around, although Williams wasn’t discouraged. This spring, she started gardening with a cane in one hand, but today she no longer needs the added support.

Particular components, like the raised vegetable garden, eased some of the strain by saving her from having to bend down. Modifications to the usual garden plans had to be made, too. Normally, Williams says, she has more elaborate pots, but it was just too difficult to do this year.

Looking at the dozen or so pots of exotic succulents, elephant ear and something called “Italian oregano,” it’s hard to imagine something more elaborate. Even so, one pot in particular stands out for Williams. 

“I just love that combination of those big leafs and those really old-fashioned plants,” she says. “The petunias and daisies with something a bit more exotic.”

The combination between exotic plants and those typical to Canada is the distinctive feature of the Williams’ garden on the whole, though the collection of potted plants manages to be the highlight of an already mesmerizing yard.

While this kind of garden, which straddles climates, requires a lot of work, Williams doesn’t lose sight of why she began to garden in the first place.

“I go away every winter for a couple weeks and, I always think, you wait all year for summer in North Battleford because it’s such a wonderful time,” she says. “It’s nice to have something that you want to do outside.”