Area gardeners prepare for another season of flowers

The lakes area is full of people that love to plant seeds in the spring and watch fresh, green sprigs of life poke through the soil.

For many, the love of gardening began during childhood and has burgeoned into a lifelong hobby. The following area gardeners are a few of many that received “Beautification Awards” the last time the Chamber of Commerce ran the contest back in 2006.

Sue and Larry Larson

Sue and Larry have been in their house off Highway 59 since 2004, and although some of the landscaping was there when they moved in, it was their more than seven-foot-tall hollyhocks that got the attention of passers-by a couple years ago.

They couldn’t get them to grow as tall last year because of chillier temperatures, but the couple, who both grew up with green-thumb families, says they’ll try again this year.

Sue, one of 14 children, lived in Idaho for a time before moving to the Lake Park area with her family. She remembers her mother being excited to start planting vegetables in the rich, black soil that the valley is known for.

“I just loved being outside,” Sue said. “I would rather have gardened, and make my sisters stay inside and cook.”

Larry, who grew up on a farm outside Lake Park, saves the seeds from some of the flowers, and marks the colors to plan for future years.

When planting their gardens, Larry says the most important thing is “to get the first row straight.”

The couple also plants peonies, tulips and lilies, and in the vegetable garden, strawberries, hot peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, just to name a few.

Last year, Larry said, deer chewed off the tops of their beets, and one year, they accidentally fenced in a trouble rabbit that had been nibbling on plants.

“We put up a fence, but then found out that it had built a den inside the fence,” Sue said.

Still, she said, they’ll be at it for a while.

“We’ll probably be doing this until we can’t bend over anymore, and then we’ll probably crawl,” she said.

Steve and Renee Specht

Steve and Renee started small when they moved to their property, then a new development, 11 years ago.

Steve said they started out with a small garden bordered in old railroad ties, and have added on to it five or six times.

“We figured we’d have less (grass) to mow that way,” he said.

The pair doesn’t grow many vegetables, just tomatoes and peppers for their love of salsa, but their big garden in back is full of flowers, including Renee’s favorite, zinnias.

“I call it our family flower, because my mother’s name was Zinnel,” she explained.

Many of their perennials, she said, came from her sister-in-law Janis Schram, who splits up her perennial bulbs at the end of every season and gives them away to family and friends.

“She’s really the one that helped us get started in a lot of this,” Steve said.

The couple lived in a townhome prior to moving there, and only had a few flowerpots, but now, Steve says it’s their “big hobby.”

Their garden is mostly perennials with annuals to fill in, like sunflowers, but since they live in a location with few trees for shade, they don’t have hostas.

And some things over the years haven’t been successful.

“It happens,” Renee said. “It’s just trial and error, and learning by doing, but it’s basically fun.”

Betty Smith

It’s probably safe to call Betty Smith an area green-thumb legend.

She has enough awards and newspaper clippings to fill a binder, has been a part of the Lakes Region Gardening Club for over 40 years (she was president from 1978 through 1980, and secretary for a few years, too), and currently serves as the superintendent for the District 11 Horticulture Shows (and the district is a big one — from East Grand Forks to Lake Park and Ada).

These days, her house just north of Detroit Lakes, which she has lived in since 1979, is surrounded by flowers, mostly annuals and hostas — “Everybody has hostas” — but a garden in back is full of gladiolas (her favorite), more than three kinds of lilies, hybrid irises of every color, lilacs and dahlias.

Red geraniums fill up hanging pots, apple trees blossom in the spring, and she could fill a cornucopia with the amount of vegetables she grows, everything from potatoes and beets to radishes and spinach.

“You can’t top the flavor,” she said.

She says she makes five kinds of pickles, apple pickles, beet pickles, and plum jelly, which she says is tart but “has a beautiful color.”

Betty has never had trouble growing anything, she says, and credits her parents with those skills.

“I don’t know what I don’t have,” she said of her garden.

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