5 - Sunday, April 16, 1989 - Lynn Valley Echo

LV’s winning gardeners.

FROM RUDI Pinkowski’s

and _rhododendrons, to Molly Nye’s old-fashioned display

of flowers and vegetables, g:

people who create and coax them into beauty.

Both | winners — in
Norta Shore Garden Contest, the
Lynn Valley residents are happy to
pass ‘along some tips they have
learned over many years of ex-
perimentation and advice they
have: received from other
gardeners. :

Originally from Germany,
Pinkowski has a love of things
green.

On. arrival in -Vancouver, he
plunged into gardening, fascinated
by the wealth of native and exotic,
plants that could be grown in the
area — Canada’s only sliver of
“Zone 8’ growing conditions.

“‘We are fortunate that there are
so. many things we can grow. It’s
great to expand on what we can
do,”’ Says Pinkowski.

There is a belief that gardeners
shouid stick with native plants, but

: Pinkowski points out that many
local species were imported at
some time,

His: garden, on a large Lynn
Valley lot, boasts not a blade of
grass. Instead you walk along
paths exptoring various . rockeries
and anticipating the unexpected

’ around the corner.
Palm trees of various kinds

(Pinkowski is head of the Pacific -

Northwest Palm Society) often
form the focus of. the garden
groupings.

He likes to try different species
(available at nurseries early in the
season), and is only mildly
discouraged when some don’t sur-
vive the inconsistencies of West
Coast winters.

Chinese Windmill Palms are a
good bet, though, and Pinkowski

also likes to use fatsias and yuccas.

Growing
annuais
discussed

A TALK given by Henry Hansen
of Hansen Landscape and Garden
Maintenance Co. will be the
highlight of the next monthly
meeting of the newly reformed
Lynn Valley Garden Club.
Speaking Thursday, April 20,
7:30 p.m. at Lynn Valley United

Church (basement hall), Hansen -

will address the subject ‘‘The easi-
est garden to grow — annuals."” -

He will include tips on planning
and design for color.

The new club recently elected a
slate of officers, including presi-
dent Connie Simmington, secretary
Anne Welton and treasurer Grace
Polvi.

- Margit Mitchell is in charge of
membership and Gert Baker, hos-
pitality.

The club, one ‘of the most active
in Lynn. ‘Valley’ 's early _ years,
meets the third Thursday of each
month in the Lynn Valley United
Church Hall.’

.. The club’s aims and objectives
are to stimulate a knowledge and
love of gardening among families.

Educ’.tional programs wilt.offer
an exchange. of ideas and sugges-
tions to novice gardeners and an
‘opportunity to hear. professionals

» in the field of horticulture.: ~

Membership is open to all resi-::. §

dents.of the North Shore: and’.
children’s activities will also be in- ‘
cluded...

' For further. information ‘ about
the club contact Ruth Howard at
987—5055, “or. about... Hansen’s
- talk, Anne Walton at 987-9700. : :

last year’s.

exotic landscape of palm trees.

ardens are as individual as the

' They intermingle well with his

' large collection of rhododendrons
.and azaleas, which he prizes not
only for their flowers, but mainly
for their foliage.

“I'm very much a foliage
gardener. I fove to use plants with
spiky or large leaves which give a
warm exotic feel,’’ says
Pinkowski.

For summer color he adds an-
nuals, mostly petunias, geraniums
and lobellia, which he buys as
bedding plants.

“1 don’t have time for a
greenhouse yet,”’ says the energetic
businessman, who is moving out of
his chain of hair salons into real
estate.

Pinkowski is enthusiastic about
the use of rocks in the garden, a
popular trend that he traces to an
influence from Asia, where rocks
are considered living things. _

“They give a garden a serse of
permanence,’’ he explains.

He advises hopeful rock
gardeners to stick to one type of

photo Cindy Bellamy
THE MAJOR North Shore Gardens Contest award went, last year, to , Lynn Valley’s Rudi Pinkowski, who is
noted for growing some of the more unusual and exotic plants. He is particularly fond of the Chinese Windunill
Palm (Trachycarpus Fortumei) which adapts well to local climactic conditions. It survived the past winter with a
litte damage from the snow and frost. ;

rock in one area and set them deep
into the ground for a more natural
look.

Pinkowski has a creek bed runn-
ing through his property which is
enhanced only with washed rock
and pebbles, and is currently col-
Jecting pink. granite for a sunken
garden he is planning for a little
hollow.

Just as interesting but in a dif-
ferent way is the award winning
‘pioneer’? garden that Florence
**Molly’’ Nye has been working on
since her childhood.

A retired teacher and member of
a local pioneer family, Nye helped
her great niece Jill Machell win
recognition for her vegetable plot
on soil the Nyes have been tilling
since the early 1900s.

Nye began competing in school
garden contests when she was just
nine. Each child was issued six
packets of vegetable seeds and six
packets of flower seeds which they
planted and cared for on two
6’x10" plots.

The judges came around for an
inspection at the end of the season,

and the children were allowed to
pull up their vegetables in time to
enter them at the fall fair in Lynn
Valley’s Institute Hall.

“My sister and I won lovely
prizes — ivory trays, button hooks
for our boots, nail files and dolls’
suitcases,’’ Nye recalls,

She went on to compete in later
years in the PNE, until the garden-
ing section was dropped.

Nye has always benefited from
other people’s experience, — par-
ticularly local pioneers . Walter
Draycott (who passed away at 102)

and Samuel Maude. .

“I also came by it naturally,”
she says,relating that her Grand-
mother Nye would get so carried
away in the garden that she would
forget to come in und feed her
family of six. :

Nye continues to experiment
with different kinds of vegetables,
but has given up on corn — the
detight of local racoons.

Last year she fought off the
pesky carrot fly with great success
See Plant
Page 10

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