Two decades ago, LeRoy and Barb Dahlberg’s sprawling backyard was home to a few lonely trees, a makeshift baseball diamond and an endless stream of their kids’ neighborhood friends.
This past summer, however, the Dahlbergs played host to a different cross-section of the Maple Grove community as droves of avid gardening enthusiasts toured their made-over backyard, gushing over handcrafted water features, precisely laid patios, and dazzling arrays of brilliant annuals, perennials and specialty shrubs.
Not surprisingly, the question on nearly everyone’s mind seemed to be, “How on earth did they make the transition from an empty construction site to this relaxing garden oasis?”
According to LeRoy, it’s been a fairly simple recipe of elbow grease, ambition, and trial and error. “I’m just not a person who can sit still,” he admits, “and I love the outdoors…so once the kids graduated and after I retired, I just really got into it.”
The first project on the docket was a built-in fieldstone water feature inspired by LeRoy’s upbringing on the rugged North Shore of Minnesota. It’s an ambitious endeavor for even a seasoned landscaper, much less someone with no gardening experience whatsoever.
“We were just amateurs, and we knew it,” admits LeRoy. “In fact, we’re still amateurs, but back then, neither one of us knew anything about gardening: climate zones, which plants were perennials or annuals, landscaping...”
Luckily, LeRoy’s beginner status didn’t put a damper on his grand visions for a backyard transformation, and relentless ambition got him through the preliminary stages of planning and site preparation. In no time at all, he had accumulated a collection of locally sourced fieldstones, all “hand selected by character” and hauled in in small batches by wheelbarrow.
Technical project details were fleshed out at do-it-yourself seminars with expert advice from local hardscaping and landscaping companies like Hedberg Landscape and Masonry Supplies and Lynde’s Greenhouse. Soon, his meticulously constructed waterfall was not only up and running but teeming with bunches of bright petunias, miniature snapdragons, cascades of sweet potato vine and clumps of succulent moss roses.
After his first “amateur” success, “the rest is history,” LeRoy says. “It just naturally evolved. We kind of just went from one thing to another.”
The garden in the far corner sprang up after a willow tree that had been planted more than 20 years prior was blown over in a windstorm. “I didn’t have the money to get the stump taken out, so I figured, well, I’ll just make a garden out of it,” he says.
Sixteen yards of black dirt and several years later, that old willow stump is home to various species of hydrangea, a visually striking Tiger-Eye sumac, mounds of vibrant day lilies, wide-eyed perennial hibiscus and a dazzling array of annuals, although LeRoy assures that the list is subject to change on a regular basis.
Since losing that first tree, the Dahlbergs have lost two others, necessitating a constantly evolving plant selection. “Sometimes you do something one way one year, and the next year you change it, do something different. And other years, things don’t work at all, and you have to start all over. You learn what plants will adapt to and what they won’t,” he says.
The gardening decisions that aren’t influenced by Mother Nature tend to come from the other leading lady in LeRoy’s life: his wife, Barb.
“She’s the garden designer,” LeRoy says with a smile. “She comes up with all the ideas. She has the eye for that, [whereas] I do the building and digging. I call her my executive outside plant director,” he teases.
“That’s true,” says Barb. “I’m actually more of an indoor person, but I can see everything from inside our house and I’ll sit upstairs and design things. I tell him, ‘That one goes there, no, 3 inches this way! Wait, turn it, turn it,” she explains, gesturing enthusiastically. “So it ends up being beautiful from both the inside and out.”
Barb’s keen design eye and colorful influence are unmistakable in the rainbow of petunias, geraniums and begonias as well as in various bits of garden art, which have inspired more new garden features.
For example, the Dahlbergs’ central rose garden—a more recent addition—was inspired by an elegant white patio set that Barb stumbled across. A clematis-clad garden arbor, two grafted rose trees, low-maintenance shrub roses in various shades of pink, a tiered cement fountain and a meticulously laid block pathway not only completed her vision but simultaneously begged friends and guests to meander through the garden oasis.
And that’s just what happened last summer, after the Dahlbergs’ backyard was selected as one of four homes to be featured in the 17th Annual Maple Grove Days Garden Tour.
“We had, I don’t know, it felt like 500 people wandering around in our backyard asking about plant names, or about the water feature, or how I put in the patio blocks,” says LeRoy.
Although one can hardly imagine a more relaxing way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon, LeRoy admits that a few of the tour-goers might have walked away with a slightly longer to-do list. “A lot of guys came over with their wives,” he says with a sheepish smile. “Why can’t you do this in our yard?” was heard more than once.
LeRoy’s favorite question of the day, however, came from an awestruck young girl who simply summed up her afternoon experience by asking her father, “Daddy! Can we live here?”
Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies
Plymouth, Stillwater, Farmington
Whether you’re looking for do-it-yourself or call-someone-else, Hedberg is a one-stop shop for landscaping projects. They also offer DIY seminars and expert advice on masonry, water features, retaining walls and many other hardscaping projects.
Lynde Greenhouse & Nursery
Maple Grove
Fifth-generation and family-owned, Lynde Greenhouse & Nursery has been an integral part of the Twin Cities gardening scene for more than 100 years. Now, in addition to offering a variety of retail, wholesale and landscaping services, Lynde’s organizes the Maple Grove Days Garden Tour.
- Interested in having your garden featured on the 2016 tour? Email: carolyn@lyndegreenhouse.com.
