Hopkins couple combine talents for Beautiful Garden win

Unruly trees and a predominantly shaded backyard were no match for Bette and Curt Fenton’s green thumbs.

Lime trees meticulously carved into the shape of swords line the boulevard of their Hopkins home, where potted flowers are beautifully displayed out front.

Head to the yard and you’ll find themed gardens that are such a spectacle as the Fentons’ backyard, named one of this year’s Star Tribune. Beautiful gardens competition winners, it’s a regular stop when local garden tours roll around.

Bette and Curt’s gardens are a culmination of the 45 years they have lived in their home and practiced their favorite hobby. It started with a vegetable patch with things like strawberries, asparagus, potatoes and corn.

“We’d do a neighborhood fish fry every year,” Bette said. “Curt would catch crappie and sunfish or whatever and then we’d have sweetcorn with him and he’d get the potatoes and make chips.”

Creative freedom

These days, the vegetable garden, which took the entire south side of the yard, is no more.

“The vegetable garden was a bit practical then but now the kids are older [and moved out]” said Bette. “I remember the kids hated weeding when they were little and complained like crazy.”

Eliminating the vegetable garden only left more room for the Fentons to practice their love of gardening in the ways of bonsai and flowers. Bette takes the lead on the flowers, Curt the trees.

Bette learned to garden from her mother, an avid gardener whose spirit is still very much alive, especially when the cardinals visit the garden, singing as if to greet them from the other side. Bette hones her skills by experimenting and comparing notes with other gardeners, including those in the Men’s and Women’s Garden Club of Minneapolis, of which she is a member.

“It’s been a great resource,” he said. “There are so many people who are really knowledgeable and willing to share information.”

Interior exterior design

Listen to Bette talk about her garden strategy, and bring to mind an interior design approach.

He often dreams of ways to create combinations of containers that add dimension, mixing different shapes, textures and heights. Before planting, water the plants to ensure that the potting soil is saturated and flexible.

“Then I can shape the root of the plant, so if it’s in a round pot, I can shape it round. Or if I need a plant to drape over the side for a great sideshow, then plant it in a corner,” he said. . “Everything falls into the pot in the direction I want to go.”

To tie all these variations together, stick to similar tones.

“My favorite color palette is the same inside the house as it is outside,” she said. “The plant that really inspires me is a hibiscus called Tequila and it’s yellow, rose pink-colored, orange with a kind of deep burgundy in the middle.”

The gardens are also dotted with unique art, each with special meaning and a story behind it.

Bette’s sister, a potter, created vases by pressing lace curtains from her childhood home and her mother’s wedding veil. The pots are hung on the fence beams and double as wall art. In the hosta-laden St. Francis garden, a towering statue of the patron saint of nature and animals is a statement piece.

“We were in New Mexico and Santa Fe and met the artist, who is from Guadalajara, Mexico,” Bette said. “We paid him to carve it for us and then we didn’t hear from him for five years. And then he called one day and said, ‘Your statue is ready and at the border.'”

In addition to the perennials that return each year, the Fentons estimated they filled at least 130 containers with plants this past season.

Some came from local nurseries while others, like hostas, were a community effort.

“A lot of them are about friends and sharing. We have to dig that plant and then share again and again,” said Bette. “All the hosts you see in the front of the house came from one plant and we shared it with a group of our neighbors who have their entire yards full of them.”

Over the years, Bette has learned which flowers grow in the shade. Ask her today, and she can rattle off a list that includes coleus, ivy, cordylines, bridal veil, dracaena and papyrus. Colorful clematis climb trellises, flowing lilies sprout from garden beds and Viking begonias adorn pots.

“Caladiums do extremely well, as do all the different impatiens, especially SunPatiens because they are so vibrant and can take over if the sun doesn’t come through,” Bette said. “I like all kinds of elephant ears – they give me great drama.”

‘bonsai’

In the sections of the yard that get more sun, echinacea and monkfish mix with bonsai.

Curt, an art lover, first became interested in bonsai after visiting a Mother’s Day show at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. Fascinated to learn more about the ancient Japanese art form, he became a member of the Minnesota Bonsai Society.

The 17 bonsai trees in the Fentons’ garden include limber and ponderosa pines.

“I like these [limber pines] because they have smaller needles. They’re just perfect for bonsai,” Curt said. “Ponderosas are easy to care for and give more. They are really easy to water.”

For anyone starting out, Curt recommends soaking the bonsai roots in water before potting for a healthy start. He uses copper wires to guide the branches until they are strong enough to keep their shape because at the beginning, “everyone wants to go towards the sun”.

Recently, his 10-year-old grandson, Owen, has taken a liking to the art form, and helps his grandfather with irrigation. “You can kill a bonsai really easy if you don’t know how to water. You can overwater, under water,” said Curt.

The type of bonsai also determines how best to maintain it. Japanese maples have to go inside once it gets cold outside and be placed in a shadier area of ​​the garden because “they can’t take the Minnesota winter and they don’t like a lot of sun,” Curt said. . In contrast, ponderosas from the Rocky Mountains can be grown outside during the winters, and “love the warm sun.”

Once, the Fentons invited a member of the local bonsai society to help sculpt bonsai. Kevin Oshima, who trained in Japan and runs a bonsai nursery in Lakeland, showed Curt how to prune other trees in the garden. Now, Curt gives him regular hair.

“The Japanese pagoda tree is cut in a bonsai pattern. The magnolia tree is cut like a bonsai,” said Bette. “And the meme and the lilac – Curt bonsai-of those too.”

When fall returns, the Fentons invite University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener volunteers to pick potted plants and help spread the joy of gardening.

“They bring my pots and sell hundreds and hundreds of plants that can be used as indoor plants at a plant sale,” Bette said. “That way all is not lost.”