A Garden of Eden in Green Bay - published June 1, 2005

Green Bay Green Thumbs and Greenhorns Garden Club attendees went on a road trip to visit a Garden of Eden in Green Bay on Sunday, May 29. What a beautiful garden! And to think that some people think you can’t grow anything in Newfoundland!

Tucked away in Miles Cove is the beautiful garden of Denzil and Betty-Jean Reid. The garden sits on a gently sloping piece of land that overlooks the bay. The garden itself has its own natural water features of a bubbling brook and a small peaceful pond. Along the sides of the pond marsh marigolds were out in full bloom and candelabra primroses were sprouting to bloom later in the summer.

In the center of the gentle slope of the garden is an interesting wooden trellis surrounded by a flower garden that was in full spring bloom when we visited. Spring flowering bulbs of daffodils and tulips in many different colors were sprinkled throughout the flower bed and were interspersed with different perennials. Many different colors and types of primroses were in different stages of blooming. Old favorites such as forget-me-nots, snow-in-winter, and lungwort, also know as lads and lasses, were also in bloom adding to the color. In between all these plants you could see later flowering plants, such as peonies, getting ready to take over the job of adding color when the spring flowers have faded. The trellis itself had signs of old clematis from last year still clinging to it, adding to the artistic look, while new growth of clematis could be seen starting to creep up the bottom of the trellis.

Beyond the trellis is a plot for a vegetable garden that will be planted a little later. Along one side of the vegetable plot is a grape vine stretching the full side of the plot. Along the other side are a number of berry trees and bushes. The front of the plot has a bed of summer blooming flowers that were just starting to grow. Beyond the vegetable garden are a number of fruit trees.

Across the brook on the side of another gentle slope is garden plot full of rose bushes and trees that of course were not showing much sign of growth yet but will be out in full bloom later in the summer.

The house itself is surrounded by rhododendrons that will add to the color later in the season. There are also flower beds around the house and all along the edge of the garden. Beautiful trees of a number of different varieties, both flowering and not flowering, are also sprinkled throughout the garden.

I never did believe that Newfoundland is just an ugly old rock on which you can’t get anything to grow, but now I will vehemently argue with anyone that dears say such a thing in my presence.

While at the garden we met up with members of a garden club from Central Newfoundland that were also visiting this haven of beauty. Contact information was traded between the club organizers in the hopes of planning future road trips and exchange garden visits. This is one of the things that will be discussed at the our next meeting on June 5 at 2:30 at Camp Mettabesic.