Dream garden
After living and gardening in this country, Canada and overseas, Pat Baillie’s dream of a big, bountiful, garden couldn’t thrive in Arizona’s strong desert heat. So when her husband, Rusty, retired as an outdoor sports educator at an Arizona college, the couple moved north.
Familiar with the region, the couple chose the Dalton Gardens area of North Idaho.
“Our daughters live in Alberta,” Pat Baillie said. “So, here, we could be close to them and near the outdoor things my husband loves to do.”
They purchased an acre plot and put down roots. And Pat Baillie’s garden grew.
The long, narrow garden is divided into several different areas. A hedgerow of rugged “rugosa” roses marks the entrance to a long avenue of century-old black walnut trees.
“We bought the house from a family that had owned it since 1949,” Baillie said. “And they said the trees were mature – maybe 50 years old – when they bought it.”
Rusty Baillie practices Tai Chi and requested a space for that. So the couple designed a small, somewhat enclosed, grass lawn for him. An arbor leads to the patio and play area for the couple’s grandchildren.
Pat Baillie planted hazelnuts, raspberries and fruit trees as well as an herb garden.
An old shed, used by the former owners as a tack shed, was moved around the garden and finally found a home in the berry patch.
The couple built massive compost bins out of recycled cement. A large garden, surrounded by a high deer fence, sits at the end of the lot.
She has recently started keeping orchard Mason bees. The small black bee nests in blocks of wood and is active when the weather is wet and windy – conditions that she said keeps ordinary honey bees home.
“They pollinate, lay their eggs and then that generation dies off,” Baillie said. “They are fascinating creatures.”
Pat Baillie spends several hours each day working in her gardens and she shares the bounty with friends and family. “We share the produce with our daughters and with neighbors,” she said. “I was brought up by a family that went through hard times, so I’m happiest when I’m out in the garden making lots of good food.”
Rusty Baillie grew up in Africa and loves to cook outdoors over a wood fire. “We have all this walnut wood that blows down and we can make a nice hot fire out of that,” Pat Baillie said. “So we cook and eat outdoors a good bit.”
After years of adventure and travel, working as a kindergarten teacher and raising a family, Pat Baillie is happy with the way her life is blooming.
“All these years of moving around the world have come together in the right combination of sun, water and family,” she said. “It is the perfect way to spend the retirement years.”