Posted: 9/14/04
A huge, crazy flower garden
 Jean Betz stands amidst a wide variety of annual and perennial flowers in her backyard. |
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
ìSo do you think Iím crazy too?î
The question came at the end of a 45-minute tour of some of the most amazing flower beds this side of the Mississippi River.
Jean Betz had asked it, despite more oohs and ahhs from this reporter since the Bicentennial fireworks display.
My answer was an emphatic no way.
ìI tell everybody as long as I enjoy itÖî Jean said, letting the sentence trail off and speak for itself.
Thatís the bottom line for most passions, and Jean Betz has a passion indeed for her flower gardens.
I got to tour them during a long lunch hour last week. Jean snuck away from her job too at Nelson Construction in Caledonia.
The gardens are huge and numerous. Letís put it this way. I climbed almost to the top of the windmill in her yard to take a picture, and I was able to get about a third of the gardens in my cameraís wide-angle viewfinder.
Itís the color that hits you first when you pull into the Betz yard at 12738 Prairie Ridge Road six miles northwest of Caledonia.
You look there, and there, and there, and there, and all you see are explosions of red and yellow and orange and pink. Itís almost too much to take in, like gazing at a night sky full of brilliant stars. You get a bit dizzy.
But Jean Betz has the patience and sense of humor of a good gardener, and she led me slowly and proudly through each patch of rainbow.
I say proudly with a bit of caution, because Jean is not a braggart. She was even a bit reluctant for me to write a story, and did it at the request of friend Bev Ideker.
Jean and Allen ìShortyî Betz moved to this farm in section three of Sheldon Township in 1987. They have worked together on the flower beds. Shorty does a lot of the hauling, digging, and building. He handles most of the grass cutting and trimming too, which Jean estimated is a nine-hour job.
It looks like a park, I told Jean when our tour started and my head had stopped spinning.
ìI keep adding,î she replied with a laugh.
Is it an addiction? I asked. I was joking, mostly.
ìI think it could be,î she responded, but a good one. ìIt is relaxing. Weíve got about three different places where I can just sit and look.î
One of the first ones, and finest, was a pond that Shorty had built. It has walls three feet high that a person can sit on, in between the rubber snakes coiled on the top sill. Water circulates in from an old hand pump that Shorty had painted red. A tiny row boat containing two frogs floats across the top, and some koi and sunfish swim in the water. In the winter Jean puts the fish in a tank in the basement.
Decorations like a steel honey bee a foot long, or a metal bicycle that holds flower planters, add a light touch to almost every garden. Jean buys some of them, and her children Carrie (OíHeron), Mitchell, and Roxanne (Schleich) like to give her items too.
Jean said her kids tell her to never buy anything for the gardens. ìBecause they know I like anything with flowers.î
There are birdhouses too, 12 or 13 of them, and grape vines hanging with fruit. ìI make grape juice out of them,î Jean said.
The flower beds seem arranged just right, with shorter flowers in front of taller ones, annuals mixed in with perennials just right, and colors coordinated better than an interior decorator could achieve.
We walked past a tree stump that was covered with flowers. Shorty had hauled it in from the woods, using a Bobcat. A wooden bridge, more of Shortyís handwork, crossed over a waterway of rocks. Jean said she might move the flowers on one side of the waterway.
Thereís a huge patch of raspberries that was absolutely full of fruit, which we sampled for a few minutes. (Another couple hours would have been better.) ìMy husband likes them on ice cream,î Jean said. ìItís a very good crop.î
Not many weeds could be seen in the flower beds. Jean likes to apply Preem, an herbicide that comes in pellet form, to the soil once the flowers are up a couple inches.
Jean can tell a little something about almost every plant. For instance, I admired a big white flower that was shaped like a trumpet. Itís an angel trumpet, Jean informed me. She bought a plant a year ago, then took seeds from it in the fall and started them this spring. It took a long time for the seeds to germinate, she said. ìTheyíve got a nice smell to them.î
Many of the flower beds are mulched with wood shavings that the Betzes obtain from Staggemeyer Stave Mill in Eitzen. Some of the paths have wood chips from that same fine company.
One big area is bordered by a split rail fence, more of Shortyís labor. A five-foot-long bug made of recycled metal guards the entrance. This flower corral is full of annuals, things like salvia and zinnias and cosmos, many of them still bright with colors despite the calendar showing September 9.
Jean said she likes this garden. ìOnce they start blooming, they bloom and bloom and bloom. Whereas perennials, theyíve got their season and theyíre done.î
Jean recalled that Shorty thought she was crazy when she came up with this flower area. ìWoman, youíre crazy,î he told her.
Jean recalled this with a laugh. I asked if he had done the work for it. ìOh yes, oh yes,î Jean answered with another chuckle, as if to say there could be no other answer.
I said it was a nice spot. ìI can see a lot of changes,î Jean replied. (Look out, Shorty!)
Before winter, Jean and Shorty will dig up the dahlias ñ after she color-codes them ñ pack them in boxes in wood chips, and store them in their daughter Roxanneís basement, where it is just the right temperature.
There are no doubt many other fall ìjobsî on the near horizon. But the word job should be used lightly here. Itís definitely a labor of love when it comes to flowers at the Betz farm.
Jean welcomes visitors to her garden. Call her at 507-724-2220.
Flowers, flowers everywhere
Editorís note: Jean Betz pointed out many plants in her garden and yard. Hereís a partial list that I scribbled in my notebook.
Angel trumpets, astors, black-eyed susans, cleome, cosmos, dianthus, dahlias, flowering kale, geraniums, gladiola, grape vines, hibiscus, lilacs, marigolds, mint, nicotiania, pregnant onions, salvia, spider plants, sunflowers, verbena, yucca, zinnias And donít forget lilies: asiatic, calla, canna, oriental, and trumpet. ìI like lilies,î Jean said.
Jean can identify almost all of the plants. That amazed this reporter. ìAfter a while I think you get to know them,î she replied with her customary modesty. I stumped Jean on only one plant. It was a type of grass that was growing in a huge patch that towered over my six-foot frame. ìIím not 100 percent sure what the name is,î Jean said. But she will remember, fellow gardeners, she will.
Jean said she doesnít grow many vegetables now that the kids are gone, just tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and radishes.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com