Couple’S Garden Lesson: One Step Leads To Another

Ben and Anna Rolphe just wanted a pond, but they got an ecology lesson.

“We learned that it doesn’t take much to throw the balance off in nature,” Anna says during a stroll on her parklike grounds.

The Rolphes’ grassy hills, rocky waterfall and placid pond are featured with five other sites in the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club’s annual garden tour on Sunday.

Once upon a time, the 5 acres of gentle swells behind the Rolphes’ Hayden Lake home were flat pasture. Ben pined for a pond, so the digging began.

Dirt removed for the pond was shaped into attractive hills that added dimension to the land. Hills also increased runoff and erosion, so Anna planted ground cover.

The pond - really a small lake - stretched over three-quarters of an acre. The Rolphes added a dock, baby trout and a waterfall to circulate pond water, then watched the nature of their acreage change.

“We attracted kingfishers, even a blue heron,” Anna says.

The new environment needed plants for balance, but the Rolphes didn’t want their pond to become a marsh. They planted grasses and other water flora in pots, which they submerged.

Last winter, Anna raised geraniums, petunias, begonias, fuschias and other flowering plants in her greenhouse. In the spring, she transplanted the flowers onto the new hills and into brick and railroad tie planters throughout the yard.

Among the middle-aged pines and firs sprinkled in the area, Anna planted berrying trees and bushes to add color over winter and to attract a wide variety of birds. Ben built a stone footpath that winds around the pond and up to the waterfall.

The pastoral scene, complete with flowering water lilies and rocking rowboat, befits a Claude Monet painting.

“It’s hard to leave here, even for vacation,” Anna says, listening to the rush of water tumbling over the rocks into her pond. “We built it truly for our own enjoyment.”

For Sunday’s garden tour, which benefits the Coeur d’Alene Cultural Center and the Kootenai Humane Society, a caterer will sell lunch and musicians will perform at the Rolphes’.

At other sites, the tour will feature artisans selling garden ornaments and a landscape consultant speaking on organic gardening.

Advance tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $4 for children, or $8 for all tickets on Sunday. Call 772-0647 for details.

Flamingo fever

In the creative department, the people at St. Vincent de Paul in Coeur d’Alene win first prize. In the past few years, they’ve found bizarre and outrageous ways to raise money that leave you wondering what they’ll come up with next. Remember the Rock(ing chair)-a-thon?

Now, they’re planting plastic flamingos on front lawns and charging $10 to remove them.

Don’t get your feathers in a fluff - if you’re really against programs for homeless children living at the transitional housing center, which is where the money will go, just say so. St. Vinnies will remove the bird free.

There are only two birds and they’ll stick around for only two months. For $5, you can send a friend a bird. Or for $10, you can buy lawn insurance. Wanna play? Call 664-3095, ext. 32.

Tech time

If Kellogg is going to have a community computer lab, the people will have to build it. Debbie Johannson at the Silver Valley Learning Center is rarin’ to go, but she needs industrial grade particle board, plywood, oak pattern formica, glue, lumber, screws, Internet access and more, including money.

Sounds like a good deal. Call 783-5205 if you can help.

What has your community built together? Hammer out the story for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; send a fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.