In 1996, the Saskatchewan Perennial Society embarked on an ambitious project to establish a meditation garden at the Forestry Farm Park in the location where the Foreman’s house had recently been demolished. Robin Smith, a landscape architect with Meewasin and also a past president of our society, had envisioned the garden, but unfortunately passed away in 1994 from cancer. Using Robin’s concept drawings of the area that occupied the Foreman’s residence and the adjacent vegetable garden, Grace Berg, an active member of the perennial society, designed the meditation garden and, a few years later, the Heritage Rose Garden. Both gardens perpetuate the tradition of the former Sutherland Nursery Station to showcase plant material that does well in our climate, so that visitors can get ideas and inspiration to alter their home gardens and embrace winter-hardy specimens that will endure through many years. To that end, labels were made to identify species and cultivars in both gardens.
The Robin Smith Meditation garden, which opened in 1998, was flanked on the North and East sides with the original caragana edges planted in 1913. To the West, the City of Saskatoon installed two rock walls and added some lilacs and mature cedars; to the South, original lilac hedges separated the garden from a grassy field that at one time was a vegetable garden. The bermed perennial borders and a dry gravelled stream ending in a large pond and bog area were the focal point of the garden. Two benches along a pathway around the garden, which included a little bridge crossing the stream, provided a resting place for visitors to contemplate and admire the garden. An old Manitoba Maple provided low branches that often served as a backdrop for wedding and graduation photographs. Sometimes throughout the year, the volunteers who weed, and top-dress the garden with compost have to accommodate the artists who often use the space to paint the landscape or particular plants of interest. Today, the pond has all but disappeared, but bog plants that thrive in the low moist areas have been introduced. An effort is made to replace plants when needed and in the last few years we have started to introduce some native plants under the old Maple tree.
In 2003, work was started on the Heritage Rose Garden. The volunteers who had built the arbour at the entrance of the gardens were called upon again to build additional structures in the Rose Garden to tie the gardens together. We worked with the Art Placement Committee of the City of Saskatoon to get some sculptures installed in both gardens. While this garden would be focusing on roses predominantly, it also included trees by prairie plant breeders such as Percy Wright’s ‘Thunderchild’ crab apple, Les Kerr’s ‘Fuchsia Girl’ crab apple and ‘Rudolph,’ a crab apple introduced by Frank Skinner. The crab apples are usually in their glory in the 2nd and 3rd week in May. Unfortunately, we lost ‘Rudolph’ (the tree) to a plow wind last year. Interesting shrubs in the garden include ‘Abbotsford’ Potentilla, ‘Blizzard’ Mockorange, and the ‘Sutherland Golden’ and ‘Goldenlocks’ elder, both introductions from Les Kerr, who was the second Superintendent of the Sutherland Forest Nursery.
The majority of the roses featured in the gardens were bred in Canada, with the exception of three pavement roses, which are rugosa roses that originated in Germany. We have ‘Foxy Pavement’ and ‘Purple Pavement’ and we recently added ‘Snow Pavement.’ These roses are very hardy, produce very large rose hips and when in bloom, perfume the whole garden.
Because the gardens are so well hidden from the road, we have had to deal with some vandalism; one example is the pond that we could not maintain in its natural form, as rocks were continually pushed into the water. Labels are being moved around by elves at night, to make things interesting and at times frustrating for volunteers. Peony cages disappear. Nevertheless, working at the gardens with other like-minded people is a joy. Volunteers are always welcome to join us at our ‘Labour and Learn’ and ‘Weedy Wednesday’ sessions. You can check our website Calendar for dates and times.
Next time you are at the Forestry Farm Park, don’t forget to take a stroll down Foreman Road and through the ever-changing landscape of the gardens.
This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society (SPS; saskperennial@hotmail.com). Check our website (www.saskperennial.ca) or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/saskperennial) for a list of upcoming gardening events.
