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Garden Tour stop features backyard with a golf green

Troy Shantz The garden of Linda and Angus Black has it all — even a putting green. “It has really helped our golf game immensely,” said Linda Black, who has lived with her husband at the north-end home the past 25 years.
GardenTour2
The Lakeshore Road property of Linda and Angus Black is one of eight stops on this year’s Garden Tour. Troy Shantz

Troy Shantz

The garden of Linda and Angus Black has it all — even a putting green.

“It has really helped our golf game immensely,” said Linda Black, who has lived with her husband at the north-end home the past 25 years.

Linda Black and her husband Angus have been nurturing their gardens for the past 25 years.  Troy Shantz
Linda Black and her husband Angus have been nurturing their gardens for the past 25 years.Troy Shantz

The putting green is a relatively recent addition to the 1.5-acre Lakeshore property and is just a stone’s throw — or a poor chip —from the Howard Watson Nature Trail.

The moment you pull up it’s evident the gardens cover much of the lot, which feels more like a park then a residential yard.

The Black’s gave The Journal a sneak peak of their space in preparation for this year’s Communities in Bloom Garden Tour on June 24. It’s one of eight gardens on the tour, which showcases a variety of neighbourhoods in Sarnia and Point Edward.

The Blacks took over nurturing the landscape from the previous owners, two doctors, who also loved to garden.

They kept certain features and added some of their own, including flagstone stepping and an in-ground swimming pool.

Two curved hedges in the backyard form an informal gateway to the back section of the lot.

“The minute I walked in this yard and saw those, I was sold,” Linda Black said.

The couple has added a pair of water features — a front year fountain and a circular pond and waterfall behind that contains koi and the occasional frog and turtle, likely pilgrims from the nature trail.

There are at least eight flower beds of varying sizes and shapes, each with a personality and packed with greenery including ferns, ivies and hostas.

Currently, tones of purple, pink and fuschia abound, a colour palette Linda Black adores. But don’t ask her for plant names. She admits she doesn’t get mired in the technical details.

“I’m more about planning the garden than knowing what plants are,” she said, defining her approach as more Mother Nature than Betty Crocker.

Such a large garden naturally requires a lot of attention, and Black hinting she’s waiting for her husband to retire so she can commission him to do more grounds-keeping duties.

Asked how many hours she puts into the yard now Black replied, “If you look at my black nails…”

Tickets for the garden tour are $13, with proceeds supporting a Sarnia Communities in Bloom project to update signage at Sarnia parks.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Sarnia Communities in Bloom presents the Garden Tour 2017

WHERE: Eight properties in Sarnia and Point Edward.

WHEN: June 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

TICKETS: $13, available at Praill’s Greenhouse, Degroot’s Nurseries, the Strangway Centre, Tourism Sarnia-Lambton and most local flower stores.


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