Republished from The Hamilton Spectator by permission. (original article)
Rob Howard is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach who lives and gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. Find him on Facebook at Rob Howard: Garden Writer, or email him at gardenwriter@bell.net
If you're of a mind to find — to talk to God, look in a garden. Not an original thought.
But if you're of a mind to see a garden made by two of God's faithful servants, try a convent on the edge of Waterdown during Open Garden Week.
For there is the Jubilee Garden of Notre Dame Convent, restored and lovingly maintained by Sister Katharine Reiter and Sister Doreen Norman, both residents for the past 10 years of the imposing 91-year-old building on Snake Road.
In this garden, through much of every day, you'll find these two nuns who are members of the teaching order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Sister Katharine celebrated the 75th anniversary of her vows in 2016. She is 96. Sister Doreen is a mere stripling at 87, next year marking the 70th anniversary of professing her vows.
To watch them in the garden is to believe that age is, indeed, just a number. Their love of growing things seems bred into them.
Sister Katharine grew up in Saskatchewan and had her hands in the rich soil there from toddler age on. "My mother was a great gardener," she says. "It was farm country."
Sister Doreen grew up in Kitchener. Her father bought a vacant lot next to a playing field across from their house and turned it into their extended garden. "My father had me help because my brothers didn't want to." (One of those brothers was golfing legend Moe Norman.)
Sister Katharine was a teacher, who taught in several provinces and in every grade. Sister Doreen was a stationary engineer, who ran the mechanicals of many convents, including the water plant at Notre Dame before it was connected to municipal water lines.
But now, they garden.
It's also not an easy space to make a garden. A wing of the convent once stood there, and the garden sits atop the rubble. Under one part of the garden, Sister Doreen points out with a chuckle, is the old bowling alley, now full of debris. The soil of the garden, despite years of topping up with triple-mix, is only a foot or so deep. Plants, and even the fruit and decorative trees that make a peaceful grove in the centre of the garden, have to make survive on shallow roots.
Both nuns came to Notre Dame from Sioux Narrows, up in the Kenora District of northwestern Ontario, in 2008. The convent there, where they had made a garden, closed and they came to Waterdown knowing they wanted to do the same work here. The Jubilee Garden had been laid out by 2000, but had fallen into neglect. "It was a weed pit," says Sister Katharine.
And so they weeded, turned soil, lifted and divided overgrown perennials, pruned and trimmed and planted. Through the winters, in an old carpenter's shop turned plant nursery, they grew on cuttings from past years' annuals, grew hundreds more from seed, overwintered tender plants, and waited patiently for the spring to come.
And what is the garden they have restored and remade? It is a soothing, peaceful space overflowing with a broad array of well-tended plants. Paths wind around and between the crabapple, cherry and pear trees. Flower borders are a lovely mix of shrubs, roses, perennials and ground covers. Marigolds and geraniums from their shop-turned-nursery are planted at the front.
Hydrangeas flourish here: Sister Doreen says they're all potted hydrangeas planted each year, along with lilies, after Easter services in the convent chapel. Irises are in bloom, both bearded and Japanese varieties. Alliums are showing their deep purple heads, and delphinium flowers behind a clump of lupines — one of my favourite plants but also almost impossible to grow unless they're in precisely the right spot. Angel trumpets have self-seeded and the sisters have thinned and transplanted the seedlings to where they want them. Marsh marigolds look like field buttercups. A flowering dogwood has just a few perfect blossoms this year.
The garden is alive with wildlife. They've hung out bird feeders and a horde of chipmunks feast on the spillage. Deer come out of the nearby woods and feast on what they like. A visitor asks if the nuns' love of God's creation extends to squirrels. Neither reply, but Sister Doreen makes a wry face.
Astilbes and sedums and coral bells (heuchera) fill another bed.
Near the middle of the garden, a large, waist-high raised bed is waiting to be planted with geraniums inside a border of pinks and alyssums. Sister Doreen uses a small step ladder to get up and into the bed for planting and weeding. Adjacent is a small water feature, where the sound of running water adds to the serenity. Cranesbill geraniums and columbines jostle for space.
This is a special garden: a space where work and service and prayer come together. Stations of the Cross are positioned along some of the paths. There are plants and trees in memory of nuns who have died. A Harlequin maple was a gift from Sister Doreen's biological sister, now gone. Many of the retired nuns have limited mobility; some are in wheelchairs. Others have forms of dementia. The garden is fully accessible and is a peaceful, soothing space.
Why do they garden? "I love it," Sister Katharine says.
Why does she love it? "It keeps me alive. It keeps me young."
Sister Doreen just nods her head in agreement. She's the quiet one.
Do they find a connection to God by working in the garden?
"Oh yes, yes," says Sister Katharine. "We plant it, God makes it grow."
Sister Katharine and Sister Doreen will be in the Jubilee Garden when it is open to the public — for the first time — during Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week, on June 29 and 30, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 to 4 p.m. Full listings will be published in The Spectator's GO section on June 22.
Go for the garden. Stay to talk with these fascinating women. (Ask Sister Doreen about bicycling in the rain.)
