Therapy brings beauty to yard
It’s taken her nearly 30 years but Dodie Gerding can finally relax and enjoy her backyard for what it is: a haven of vegetables, herbs and perennials – not to mention it’s a meditative spot where she can watch the sunset over downtown Spokane, listen to the sound of running water, birds chirping and get her hands dirty with compost soil.
“I finally have it the way I want it,” says the 60-year-old South Hill resident.
Four hip replacement surgeries and a knee surgery later and Gerding says gardening on her three-tier backyard deck is more therapeutic than anything else.
“Just walking around is good for me,” she says. She’s usually in the garden by 7:30 a.m., deadheading flowers, trimming her lettuce, pulling up any garlic, picking the ripe tomatoes. “I just can’t do everything I want to do, but I can do more than most people who’ve had all this surgery,” she says.
The most stunning thing about Gerding’s garden is the variety. An avid tomato-lover, she grows 10 different types of tomatoes, from the bright red “Early Girl” to the deep crimson “Black from Tula” tomato.
“I always told my girls, ‘there’s two things money can’t buy: true love and a vine ripe tomato,’ ” says Gerding. In addition to tomatoes she grows two types of eggplant, two types of summer squash, four types of peppers, cucumbers, carrots, leeks, scarlet runner beans, snow peas, garlic, an assortment of herbs and three kinds of potatoes.
“I have two grandsons, and the younger one always wants to dig out the potatoes. They get such a big bang out of that. I really like that they help because then they really know where this stuff comes from – not just the grocery store,” she says. In cooler weather she is able to grow spinach, scallions and a variety of lettuce. “I do a lot of this by trial and error – by learning about my own garden.”
Gerding and her husband, Jim, are devoted compost users. Her impressive garden is grown in part with the soil generated from her organic scraps some of which even include paper shreddings.
“I just annoy everyone I know about composting, but I feel better doing that. When it’s done, it smells like fresh earth and I put that right back into my beds every year.” Her backyard has four composting containers.
Her steep backyard was remodeled in 2000. The couple decided to use a unique deck building material called Trex which is made of a mixture of saw dust and recycled plastic.
“We really researched it. It’s the tried and true brand, and the maintenance-free aspect of it is just great,” she says. On the remaining portion of their property, they planted native plants to cater to local wildlife and cut down on water use.