article image - Notes from Northern Gardener

A GARDENER’S LEGACY
Back Left to Right: Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary, Katherine, and Barbara. Front Left to Right: John, Mildred, and Joe, Jr.
A Gardener’s Legacy is the abbreviated telling of a woman’s life-long passion
for gardening and how this passion sparked a love for gardening
in each of her seven children.
Story by Elizabeth Wieners Canavati
Photos supplied by family
Mildred Hiniker Wieners was born, raised and lived most of her
100+ years in Hastings, MN. She learned to love gardening at an
early age as her parents grew vegetables, fruits, and flowers. In fact,
when she was 8 or 9 she was put in charge of the vegetable gardenplanting seeds and watering. Her mother was a great cook and baker.
She taught Mildred how to use all the produce economically. Her
older sisters loved flowers and the borders around their home were
gorgeous! Throughout the growing seasons, the flowers in bloom-the
variety of colors, shapes, and sizes were like a magazine cover but
without the advantage of photoshop. Those borders left a lasting impression on some of the nieces in the family. Subsequently, many of
those perennials were shared with Mildred and live on in her second
and third generations’ own gardens.
Mildred married her grade school admirer, Joseph Wieners, after
World War II. They had seven children in ten years. Although Mil and
Joe were financially secure when they first married, supporting a
family of nine was costly. So they purchased two city lots and put a
vegetable garden with some raspberries and a few fruit trees on the
second lot. The children can remember watching their parents work
in the garden until dark all summer long and wondered how they
could enjoy doing so much hard work.
Author between Hiniker Flower Borders-1957
Top: Margaret’s soil before amendments. Bottom: Borders
after amendments
Joe and Mildred on their 55th Anniversary-2000
The soil on the lots Mil and Joe purchased was heavy
clay and needed a lot of amending. Mildred and Joe started several compost piles, where vegetable and fruit
scraps were disposed of and clippings from flowers and
occasionally grass were added. In the fall, the leaves were
raked up and spread over the vegetable garden and
worked into the soil. In the early years, this was a back
breaking job done with a shovel and garden fork as tillers
weren’t readily available. Over the course of many years,
the garden developed very rich, loose soil. They successfully grew just about anything that would survive Minnesota winters.
All Mildred’s children saw the benefit of composting and
have their own bin (or two). Her daughter, Margaret, has
worked to enhance her soil most zealously. She is fortunate to live in Arlington, VA where she has a higher hardiness zone and can grow a wider variety of plants. Marge
has two mulching bins behind her tool shed, where she
collects kitchen waste, plant matter, and grass clippings.
She spreads the composted material in the spring prior to
planting. In addition, her county has free leaf mulch that
she takes advantage of each year. After 30 years, her clay
soil is now less compacted and her gardens are thriving
beautifully.
Mildred frequently told her young children that “gardening
was a good hobby”. We were often given some gardening
chores, such as digging out weeds, dead heading flowers,
hoeing between the rows of vegetables, harvesting vegetables or picking fruit. I don’t think that any of us especially
enjoy these jobs. We would much rather play on the dirt
but we were expected to help. Our mom patiently showed
us how to plant seeds in a straight row by using two sticks
and twine. She taught us how to thin vegetables and
stressed the need to rotate the vegetable plants each
year.
August and September were incredibly busy times for
Mildred as the produce was harvested. She got busy canning as much as she could to supplement the family diet
throughout the winter months. In fact, one year she
canned over 100 quarts of tomatoes. The kitchen was
quite small and the heat and steam from the water bath
made the temperature in there extremely hot. We can remember sitting at the kitchen table peeling and/or slicing
tomatoes and stuffing them into canning jars. Mildred never let us near the stove where the hot water was boiling,
however. A similar scenario occurred when it was time to
bottle applesauce, sliced apples, plums, or peaches. Mildred would process the fruit for pie or make jams and jellies. We had Concord grapes growing behind our garage
and she would make grape juice or jelly. The elderberries
grew at the far end of the garden and mom would make
syrup, which we put on pancakes or ice cream.
Above: Isa’s vegetable garden Below: Fresh vegetables and fruit,
Elizabeth’s handiwork and Mildred’s cookbook, her other legacy.
Most of Mildred’s children process some of their produce. Her daughter Elizabeth, who lives in Fort Wayne,
IN, has reluctantly continued the canning legacy as her
husband, Isa, has become passionate about gardening.
Even though they have a vegetable garden about one
third the size that Mildred and Joe had, Elizabeth is
busy every August canning tomatoes, pasta sauce,
ratatouille, salsa, and pickling beets. When she fills her
quart or pint jars full of something, she marvels at how
her mother did it in her small, steamy hot kitchen. Elizabeth just wouldn’t “can” without air conditioning!
Isa has recently put in a fruit orchard. So this year she
learned how to process sliced peaches and make
peach compote. Fortunately, her husband has a colleague at work that makes jams and jellies. They give
her the fruit and she provides them with some of the
finished product. To think that Mildred use to do it all
herself with a bunch of little ones running around!
The vegetables and fruits became a necessity for
Mildred’s family, but the flowers were a labor of love.
Mildred’s sons, Joe in Kasson, MN and John in
Ogden, UT, have taken to vegetable gardening
without much interest in the flowers. They both are
great cooks and can make some amazing dishes
with home grown vegetables. Although Joe does
some canning, they both prefer the freezer for
preserving their garden bounty.
Flowers
As far back as her children can remember, there
were two beautiful red climbing rose bushes spread
across a trellis that spanned the entire kitchen wall.
Anyone entering the back door could smell their
fragrant perfume and admire their deep red color.
They bloomed almost all summer long. Mildred particularly loved the roses and she proceeded to plant
them all along the east side of the house. All her
daughters have a rose bush or six!
In addition, she has two large flower
borders. One runs east-west and the other runs north-south in almost an L shape
along the property line. She had obtained
many plants from her mother’s home to
get started with her flower borders. The
garden was carefully planned with taller
plants in the back, medium plants in the
middle and smaller plants in front. They
were planted in such a way that the colors were complementary and several
plants were in bloom from spring to fall.
She would use annuals to fill in during
times when perennials weren’t blooming
much. Over the years, she added a second north-south border, where she put all
her bearded irises as they like it dry and
she had acquired so many of them.
Mildred maintains several large “charts”
to indicate where all the plants are located in each border. She didn’t want to accidentally dig up a dormant or late growing perennial or bulbs when moving
plants to a different location or dividing
large clumps of perennials. She also referred to her charts when she needed to
figure out where a new plant might fit in
nicely as she was looking through plant
catalogues during the winter months indoors. The bearded iris bed had its own
chart, where the names/colors were listed
along with how tall they would grow. Every year, she would select flowers to dig
up and divide. Joe Sr. was a great help in
that process as day lily or iris clumps
could be very large and needing a strong
back and heavy foot. She was always
looking for new homes for all her extra
plants.
Mildred is a charter member of the Hastings Garden Club. The club and their
annual plant sale became a great way for
her to share her plants with many people.
She always enjoyed having people come
look at her gardens and answer any
questions they might have about growing
flowers or vegetables. Mil also enjoyed
sharing tried and true recipes using garden produce.
As her children completed their educations, got married, and settled into their
own homes, Mildred was there to help
them start their gardens. She would give
them advice on where to plant the
Top: East-West Border; Mildred near Iris Border; and Wildflower Garden
perennials, how much sun or water they might require, and what plants
look good together. For daughters that lived too far away to assist with the
division process, she would send them a “care package” of plants with
names and instructions on where and what to do. Elizabeth remembers
getting a box where the plants were all mixed up. She was able to find out
from Mildred what they were by describing the leaf shape.
Her oldest daughter, Kate, lives in Mendota Heights, MN. She attributes her flower gardening style to Mildred’s fine example and the beautiful borders she remembers as a child at her grandma’s house. Kate’s goal is to have flowers and
bulbs blooming from early spring until hard frost. Kate also uses the winter months to peruse gardening catalogs and
make plans for spring revisions to her borders. She likes to experiment with new cultivars each year. She is now sharing
her love of gardening with her sons at their homes.
Below: Kate’s borders
Mary, Mildred’s second daughter, lives in Coleraine, MN. She never thought she would like to garden as an adult.
Initially, she felt Mildred was a little pushy with her extra perennials but took a few to make her mom happy. Over the
years, Mary has received many perennials and more than a dozen different iris rhizomes. Now she “pushes” plants onto
her own children. After 37 years of gardening, Mary admits to being addicted and unable to go to a local nursery without
purchasing at least one new plant. She recently got her husband involved by encouraging him to make her a pergola
and a block wall so that she could enjoy the advantages of having raised beds.
Below: Mary’s arbor and raised beds
As Mildred and Joe got older, the various plantings in the extra
lot were reduced to accommodate what they could physically
handle. Half the vegetable garden was converted into a wild flower bed. As fruit trees died, they weren’t replaced, and two rows of
red raspberries became one. Eventually, even that was too much
work so more of the lot became grass.
Mildred’s youngest daughter, Barb, probably benefited the most
from all of Mildred’s gardening knowledge as she settled and
raised her family in Hastings. Since she was in town, she became
the keeper of the seedlings growing under lights in Mildred’s
basement in March and April or out in the cold frame, while Mil
and Joe were off vacationing somewhere. Barb couldn’t understand how Mildred could spend so many hours caring for the little
seedlings but managed to keep them growing in Mildred’s absence.
Ten years ago, Barb purchased Mil and Joe’s extra lot and built
her home there. She has continued to help Mildred with her borders while she develops and plants her own. Barb has adopted to
the cottage garden style and had a 9’ window box made for a
great view of flowers just outside her kitchen window. A few years
ago, Barb purchased a grow light system. Last spring, she started about 300 seeds and the plants were taking over her basement. Barb was happy to get them outside just like her mother 20
years before. Now Barb shares her small plants with Mildred and
her family.
Barb’s back entry and window box
Although Mildred is still living in her own home, she
can no longer maintain her borders. It now becomes
the task of whatever child or grandchild is visiting to
complete the “jobs” that Mildred desires done when
they arrive for a visit. Mildred still has her charts and
likes to sit in the sun and admire her flowers. Her
love of gardening is truly a family legacy. Her
children agree, “Gardening is a good hobby!”
Barb’s seedlings under the lights-2013