MASTER GARDENER
Gardening gets personal with visit
July 27, 2013 by Julie Brocklehurst-Woods
I love gardening, and all the pleasures it brings to my life: better health, beautiful landscapes, fresh food, friends, and opportunities to visit other gardens.
I always learn something when I visit a garden, frequently about plants, but also I learn about people and places. This happened again just a short time ago. I enjoyed a visit to Retsof to see the gardens of Mary Lou and Gary Boyd.
The gardens were lovely: multiple island beds, perfectly mulched and manicured in spite of my short notice; stately pots with complimentary plantings; annuals (coleus, zinnias), perennials, shrubs and beautiful trees on an amazing property with family heritage. There was an equally attractive shed, for storing all that garden stuff. The best gardens are ones that make people happy and connect with their lives.
Mary Lou is more the gardener, but Gary is right there to help. They had his and hers Gators, ready to tackle any chore, or give rides across the Retsof terrain. And boy, did I get a delightful ride with a personal story!
A giant boulder in a front garden of Mary Lou and Gary Boyd?s Retsof home is an attention-getter.
The front bed containing a huge boulder grabbed my attention. I didn?t have to wait to find out how it got there.
Gary is a fourth generation salt mine employee/retiree. The property came to them through family hands. When he was still working, they knew they would be building in this location. Salt mine equipment was used to transport the boulder to its current spot well before the house was built.
Following my tour of the gardens with Mary Lou, Gary wondered if I might have time for a ride to see historic Little Italy and other sights in Retsof. My husband was tied up for the weekend with Rotary and the Geneseo Summer Festival, I had no plans. Off we went!
I saw nicely maintained homes, many built originally for salt mine employees. We drove down a two-lane trail, to closely inspect the foundations of the earliest homes. We saw the reservoir, which previously supplied water for steam engines and ice for residents, harvested and stored for year-round use.
I had never ridden in a Gator. It was surprisingly comfortable, even going over the railroad tracks at the salt mine. There we entered a couple of buildings, which are still being used for packaging and storing salt. We saw a monument inscribed with the names of each of the men who lost their lives in the mine. Many years there were no deaths, but families will forever mourn the loss of their loved ones.
They trustingly loaned me an irreplaceable book on the history of Retsof. I have carefully read it in my living room, gaining a deeper appreciation of this particular area?s history, including the salt mine, and well-known people who have come from this community. The book was published in 1984, following the 100th anniversary of the mine and ten years before the collapse which led to its closure.
My husband and I are imports, having moved to this area 33 years ago when we got married. There is a lot that we don?t know. I am grateful to Mary Lou and Gary for sharing their gardens and their lives with me.
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Julie Brocklehurst-Woods has been a Master Gardener Volunteer with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Livingston County for over ten years. She enjoys helping all gardeners become successful gardeners, especially helping people identify tools and strategies to prioritize and simplify their gardening tasks.
Source: http://thelcn.com/2013/07/27/gardening-gets-personal/
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