Helping your garden grow

RATHDRUM – The next time you’re in Rathdrum, take time to wander behind the Super 1 Foods store and stroll through the outdoor magic of Jodee Fyfe’s Westwood Gardens Nursery & Garden Art.

You’ll find a full-service garden center with hundreds of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs and native and pond plants – all artistically displayed amid a sprinkling of garden art.

Chances are, if you browse long enough through the colorful pots and outdoor furniture, you also will find owner and longtime Rathdrum resident Fyfe hard at work with a large shade hat on her head, a shovel in her hand and good, solid gardening advice to share.

Fyfe started the business seven years ago after recognizing the need for a garden center in the area while working at a Fred Meyer garden center. She started Westwood Gardens on a bare lot and has watched it blossom and thrive.

“Business is good,” said Fyfe. “And we are growing as more people find us – we’re kind of tucked back in here, and it takes a while.”

Finding Westwood Gardens is worth the trouble. One of the things that sets it apart from many nurseries is Fyfe’s selection of healthy and hardy plants and the attention she pays to bringing in plants that are specifically selected for this area, making sure they will survive the region’s harsh winters.

Each of the nearly 350 roses she recently potted are own-root roses, which are more likely to survive the cold winters than the graft roses more commonly available.

Fyfe’s artistic flair also is evident at Westwood Gardens.

She sets the plants in rows with eye-pleasing “end caps” of themed pots and plants, cherubs, frogs, Buddhas, leprechauns and bunnies. Hundreds of pots of every color, size and description are displayed artfully in stacks and rows.

Bistro sets and other outdoor furniture, including Adirondack chairs and outdoor benches, beckon with quiet invitation. And four plastic-enclosed “rooms” convey a Zen-like peace and tranquillity that exhibit Fyfe’s eye for detail.

Fyfe makes things easy for customers with a play area for children and colorful wagons and carts for hauling plants. Two resident ducks, Cheese and Quackers, wander among most everything any gardener could need, including potting soil, manure, peat moss, bark and rock of all types.

Creative signage clearly marks each type of plant, including dozens of perennials, Fyfe’s most-popular-selling plants.

A gift shop – full of garden-related items and consignment pieces Fyfe brings in from local artists – adds to the fun of visiting Westwood Gardens. Log benches have sold well for the past couple of years, and homemade, lightweight pots called Hyper-tufa remain popular, too, according to Fyfe.

She has added pallets of both moss-covered and flat slate landscaping rocks on consignment this year.

Fyfe also offers innovative classes and events throughout the year.

The next class, on Monday, is “Palouse Prairie in a Flat” to be presented by two of Fyfe’s suppliers, Plants of the Wild and Palouse Prairie Scapes. It will include information on native wildflowers and grasses, and attendees will receive a flat of well-established, individually potted plants. Cost of the class is $59; preregistration is required.

On May 7, Sharon Gunter, of the Basket Case in Sandpoint, will teach a “Paint Your Own Garden Tote” class. “You don’t have to know how to paint because she has watercolor-type designs laid out that she will walk you through,” Fyfe said. Cost of the class is $30, including all supplies.

Fyfe also plans to hold her popular Garden Party during Rathdrum Days again this year. The July event will include a special sale, as well as food, hors d’oeuvres, beverages and wine.

With her business growing, Fyfe has five employees who work flexible hours, leaving her more time to do “in-home consultations.”

“I go to a client’s home, look at their yard and give them ideas on what they can plant,” she said. “Because I know what grows well in the shade and the sun – and how big the plants are going to get – I can help pick out plants that do well in their area.”