By Martha Aitkin, Bruce Peninsula Press
After 16 years of writing a regular column for the Bruce Peninsula Press, Joan Regan (affectionately nicknamed Joni since childhood) has decided to retire. Many avid fans and readers of “In the Garden – Hints from a Mrs Gardener” will miss her contributions that gave us hope and kept us trying to grow beautiful things in our shaded landscapes with lots of rocks and very little good soil!
“Joni shared her loves (hostas, large potted plants), hates (gout-weed) and frustrations (Bambi, Thumper and shallow rocky soils topped the list) with the whole peninsula.” said John Francis, Publisher of the Bruce Peninsula Press. “Her good humoured accounts of her successes and failures made good reading for gardeners and non-gardeners alike.” Her collection of sage advice for those of us attempting to grow gardens in shade and on rocks is available online at brucepeninsulapress.com
Joni shared that she recently lost her husband of 63 years quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Pete Regan’s presence is still strong in the home they shared and the gardens that they built together. Joni, of course, is still in shock and mourning. Fortunately, with the help of her son Scot (Inch by nickname) as well as many dear friends, she is gradually getting her feet back under her.
Joni was just 15 when she met Pete in her hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. She was immediately attracted to his good looks and good manners. It seems the attraction was mutual. She married her first and only sweetheart just 2 years later. Together they raised 2 children, Paula (who died suddenly of a heart condition at age 42, leaving behind two teenage sons) and Scot, a father of 2 daughters. There are some grandchildren now and soon there will be a great, great grandchild as well.
Joni’s gardens are filled with many magical places for children to play. Over the years many parts of the gardens have become memorials, for Paula, and now for Pete, as well as 5 family pets. For many years Joni and Pete kept the gardens open for visitors and sales of plants that Joni grew. These days Joni prefers peace and privacy, so the touring gardens are open only for family, friends and others, lucky to be invited as guests.
Joni and her family visited Tobermory for many years before buying an old log cabin on what was once called the Bury Road (now Brock Street). They moved here permanently in 1988 after Pete retired from Stelco and not long after Joni’s mother died. Joni’s father, a Trillium Award winning gardener from Hamilton, was the first to start digging and clearing the dense wooded land behind the cabin. Joni had never really gardened before but, based on the beauty of her very shaded land, it seems that she did inherit green-tinged thumbs from her father.
This year, in the absence of Pete (who seemed to like things pretty plain), Joni has set out with cans of spray paint to bring some lovely and vivid shades of lime green, purple and red to her many old benches, chairs and tables. The gardens are filled with concrete sculptures, including 2 Buddhas, some bird baths, bunnies and squirrels, a small bear and even a watchful garden dragon. Metal butterflies and dragonflies abound as well as wind chimes and bits of mirror tiles bringing dancing reflections of light to this magical realm.
It has been a good year for gardening with enough rain and sunshine for many plants to thrive. I enjoyed dappled sunlight through the many cedar trees as Joni showed me around. We had visits from chipmunks and red squirrels as well as birds and butterflies. Apparently some of the land behind the old log cabin had been previously used as a dump site by residents of the village. Pete used many of the broken pots they found there to decorate what has become known as “Pete’s Pot Tree”. Over the years, Pete and Joni have added some worn out pots of their own to the collection.
As Joni gradually becomes accustomed to being a widow, her gardens will provide refuge and sanctuary – a place for remembrance of Pete and family times. The Press and its readers are grateful to Joni for her sixteen years of fun and frustration and we all wish Joni a healing and peaceful retirement with many happy gardening seasons to come.
