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FeedCommon Wealth
Plymouth neighbors cultivate flowers — and friendships — for nearly 40 years
By Suzy Feine
Photo by Susan Gilmore
Nine children, now fully grown, once played among the elms and maples and chased one another through the garden gates. A backyard pond begged them to skate competitively come winter—not family against family, but hockey players versus figure skaters.
Come summer, perennials are handed out like candy. Plants are tenderly watched over while neighbors vacation. Gardening advice flies over the fence like honeybees. And flowers fill the backyards with blooms. Such is life as it always has been for three suburban families.
In 1968, when Judie and Gary Anderson moved to their half-acre of Plymouth, little did they know that within a few years their soon-to-be friends would move nearby. In 1971, Barbara and Jim Willis moved in two doors down, and a year later, Barbara and Ed Thode moved in between the two. The three-way friendship blossomed when the couples learned that all six adults were roughly the same age, all were at the same life stage, and all three yards were blank slates in need of landscaping. “All three families are friendly and outgoing,” says Barbara Thode. “When we laid sod, everyone came over to help. We can count on each other, no matter what.”
The yards grew up, along with the children. Now, nearly 40 years later, the landscapes almost blend into one—thanks to years of plant swapping—yet each maintains the individuality of the homeowners.
Among the hostas and lamium from the Andersons and pines from Ed Thode’s tree farm are plants whose names are meaningful to Barbara and Jim Willis. ‘Deep Blue Sea,’ ‘Maui Buttercups,’ and ‘Blue Hawaii’ hostas tell tales of the couple’s island home on Oahu; ‘Opening Night’ hybrid tea roses and ‘Chorus Line’ daylilies celebrate their musical interests; and ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ hostas and ‘Chicago Peace’ roses honor Barbara’s hometown.
Potted tropicals and geraniums add a punch of color to the Willises’ backyard swimming pool, which is flanked by garden beds of hydrangeas, daffodils, iris, daisies, and vegetables. Yellow Brick Road Pavers and Landscapers in Brooklyn Park installed a custom-made iron fence that circles through the backyard, and paver pathways that wind throughout. “The three fence gates were designed by our younger daughter, and then drawn up and built by the prop master of the Minnesota Opera, Dean Hawthorne,” says Barbara Willis. Waves and laua’e leaves (a Hawaiian ground cover) adorn the gates, one of which includes scrollwork that spells out, “E Komo Mai,” Hawaiian for “Welcome, please come in.”
A giant honey locust and a towering ‘Cortland’ apple tree bookend the backyard, while mature maples shade the front. “We like trees, but they create so much shade that we can’t grow grass,” says Jim. “As time goes on, we’ll probably grow more ground covers.”
A River Runs Through It
Photo by Susan Gilmore
Lights mounted on trees softly illuminate pathways that wind through the yard and end at a feng shui seating area tucked into a back corner. “We took no trees down to accommodate the landscape; we built around them,” says Judie Anderson, a self-proclaimed environmentalist. Clearly the mastermind behind the landscaping, Judie has logged nearly 200 different types of plants in her yard, and requested a French drain to keep her property’s water from affecting the ecosystem. And while Judie designs the plan, her husband Gary executes it via hard labor, which he considers a labor of love.
Child’s Play
The Thodes’ flower-filled backyard started as a means to pass the time while the children napped. “We had three children within five years so it was good therapy to have the garden,” says Barbara Thode. “There was no aesthetic; this thing just kept going and going.” Pathways wander through flowering plants—giant dahlias, red cardinal, a ‘Pinot Noir’ hibiscus from the Willises, rose bushes, cannas, begonias, and heirloom zinnias—and lead to gates that never close on either side of the yard, inviting neighbors in. Ed’s tree farm in Sauk Centre provided many of the white cedars, spruce, and balsams throughout the yard. More than 500 hostas fill in the shady areas beneath the trees. Come winter, these snowbirds leave their garden behind and head to Arizona, but not before dozens of potted plants are moved indoors and 160 water jugs are filled. “Barbara Willis keeps our plants going all winter long,” Ed says. All three couples agree with Ed’s summary of their love for this little swatch of Plymouth. “We can drive around and see a new house and think it would be marvelous, but our sweat, our dirty fingers, our equity is all here,” he says. “I remember almost everything we did in the yard, every tree we planted. This is our life out here.”
Suzy Feine is a writer and editor from Elko.
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