Marie Saretsky's Secret Garden welcomes visitors

When you follow Marie Saretsky around her garden, she effuses with enthusiasm as she talks about the 20-year dream that finally came to life this year.

Marie and husband Jerry Saretsky live on a 14-acre farm just outside of Burr. Until this year, she used the plot of land, now been transformed into a meditative garden with curving pathways and lush vegetation, to grow flowers for her dried flower business, Flowers of Dellwood Creek, www.dellwoodcreek.com.

Prior to that, it was a wheat field.

“We broke the soil 29 years ago,” said the pixie-like woman, “the year my son was born.” That was when her long journey began, the journey that led her to discover the direction her garden was meant to grow.

Saretsky has always been interested in gardening, and making use of what the land offers. From her dried flowers, she has created a myriad of small crafts, such as floral arrangements, homemade paper with pressed flowers, handmade cards, herbal sachets; the list goes on.

But over time, her vision changed, and she became interested in something she refers to as intuitive gardening.

“It can be many things, a garden,” explained Saretsky, “There’s the language of the flowers, and there’s the historical symbolism that goes with flowers. When I give garden tours, there is no end to the topics you can have in a garden.”

Or, she added, you can just walk quietly through it and enjoy.

To see the garden today, it’s hard to believe that in the spring the pathways weren’t yet laid down.

At that point, according to Saretsky, she didn’t know whether the garden was really going to go ahead. Then she had some volunteer help through the WWOOF organization (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms); a couple of “Woofers” came from France and completely pruned the lilac hedge that borders one long wall of the garden. That is when Saretsky started to believe it was going to happen.

A short time later, another two girls who had seen her ‘blurb’ on the WWOOF website came from the United States to help. Together they got the paths put in. But it was a case of “three steps forward and two steps back”, for when the rains came in the spring, she was left with a garden full of weeds.

Today, bright blue delphiniums stand nearly six feet tall near the north “wall” of her garden, while the east wall is covered with yellow lilies.

“The garden has four walls,” she explained, “for the four directions. The east wall isn’t finished yet, but when it is done, there will be a mass of yellow in the middle of the lattice work. It symbolizes the rising sun, which is the new beginnings of a new day.”

Plants of all kinds line the curving paths, which, Saretsky insisted, are meant to slow people down as they wander through the garden.

“Walking through a garden should be relaxing.” she said.

Leggy garlic stems sway above Lady’s Mantle, while a row of tomato plants stand proudly next to a clump of sunflowers, three feet high. Further along the pathway, onions border the edge in front of a row of calendula.

“It’s a mixed garden, with both vegetables and flowers, the way we use to garden,” noted Saretsky. “Today there is a trend toward monocultures, but it didn’t used to be like that.”

At the centre of her garden, on a little stone patio, a wooden table and chairs invite the visitor to sit down and contemplate. The quirky effect of the brightly painted furniture, each item a different colour, adds to the garden’s charm.

Saretsky loves the idea of sharing her garden and can think of many ways people could come and enjoy the space. It could be a place of inspiration for artists, a place of quiet meditation for yogis, a place for people to commune with nature or a place for those who want to learn more about intuitive gardening.

Artist Karen Holden and her "Love of Critters"

 

 

It will be the first time local artist Karen Holden has exhibited at the Hand Wave Gallery in Meacham.

Located in the small village west of Humboldt, the gallery features solo and group exhibitions of Saskatchewan artists and artisans from May through December.

“For the Love of Critters,” the title of Holden’s current exhibit, is a collection of pastel drawings and sculptures that represent her unique affinity with animals.

It is rare to find someone who befriends a porcupine, plays hide and seek with muskoxen, or enjoys the company of a fox when working in the garden of the farm she shares with husband and artist, Mel Bolen.

That’s why all the “critters” in her show have names – because she has a story for all of them. The personality of each animal comes through in her renditions: their eyes and their facial expressions have almost a human quality to them.

“I cannot imagine living without animals in my life,” reads the beginning of the artist’s mission statement, “There is a great deal to be learned from nature’s creatures.”

Holden chose to work with pastels for the small, almost pocket-sized renditions. The advantage of using this medium is the delicate blending of colours that can be achieved, set off by the darker shades of paper the artist used to draw on.

Holden also does sculpture and has included some pieces in this exhibit.

At the entrance to their property is an example of one she completed recently, a muskox made entirely of lengths of rope tied onto a wire frame. Its horns, nose and hooves are made of clay. The inspiration came from the herd of ten muskoxen they brought to their farm, animals the University of Saskatchewan were looking to find a home for.

But there is room on their farm, a vast acreage west of Humboldt near Carmel. Thirty years ago, they bought an abandoned church and the land around it; now it is the fruit of their labour, love and vision in making it an artist’s paradise.

“It exemplifies how we live as artists, and what we do,” Holden said of her home, which they open to the public on Mother’s Day every year for a gathering of any and all who are interested in coming.

The main floor of the renovated church is Bolen’s atelier, and with a two-storey high ceiling that allows plenty of light in, it’s the perfect place for an artist to work.

The quiet and solitude of the winter months is when the couple get most of their work done, Holden said, because they tend to get a lot of company in the summer. And they travel as well, recently back from one of their regular pilgrimages to Europe where their main occupation is visiting as many exhibits as they can possibly squeeze into each day.

Holden has her own studio in a converted barn on their property. Built under the eaves of the building, the large, open floor plan painted white lets in the maximum amount of light. Here she is beginning the foundation work for her next project of landscape paintings. The large, six by ten foot canvases will be based on sketches and drawings she will be doing in Orange, France, a trip she is about to embark on with six other artist friends.

“Working on these large canvases is a little intimidating,” admitted Holden, “but it brings with it a sense of freedom as well.”

The same sense of freedom she wishes for all her critters.