Garden of Heinke Thiessen, Mississauga
Story and photos by Shauna Dobbie

Heinke Thiessen has a shady garden and she wouldn’t trade it. “I would hate to lose the honey locust tree whose canopy covers three-quarters of the yard. Even on the hottest summer days, it’s pleasant relaxing on the deck due to the tree’s cooling properties.”
Heinke knows her beans from her peas when it comes to gardening. She owns and operates a landscaping business, Perennial Pleasures Landscape Design, and teaches Horticulture in Continuing Ed at Sheridan College. She is also an accredited horticultural judge, founding member of the Mississauga Master Gardeners, a member of Landscape Ontario, the Perennial Plant Association and the Ontario Hosta Society, and a past president of the Credit Valley Hort Society.
She puts her knowledge to work building a healthy and sustainable garden. To grow native woodland perennials in the shade, she has amended her clay soil over the years by adding compost and a winter mulch of shredded leaves; Heinke collects leaves around the neighbourhood and processes them by running the electric lawn mower over them. The leaf mulch breaks down into the clay, creating a nice loose topsoil with good drainage. The clay deeper down helps retain water—sandy soil can be a little too free draining for many plants—and hold nutrients.
She is a native plant fan, but not a fanatic. She has many non-natives, including some 50 cultivars of hosta. “My favourite perennials, however, are native woodland plants. The garden comes alive in the spring with hepatica, bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches, trilliums, Virginia bluebells, bellwort, Solomon’s seal, Jacob’s ladder and mayapple.”
Lately, shrubs have been capturing her interest, and she’s having a minor love affair with variegated Japanese kerria. Other shrubs that brighten up Heinke’s shady yard are mahonia (related to berberis, with leaves shaped like holly), holly, boxwood, yews, hydrangea and dogwood species.
Although she’s fond of rhododendrons, Heinke is ready to give up on growing them. The struggle to acidify the soil simply isn’t worth it when squirrels come along every spring to eat the buds. Part of being a gardener is knowing when to give in!
Such a nature-inspired garden tends to inspire nature to come for a visit. In Heinke’s garden, wildlife is welcome. Birds bathe in the steps of her waterfall. Skunks, racoons and even the occasional heron have dropped in. They seem to appreciate the setting sufficiently that they don’t trash it.
The one thing racoons and herons can’t resist getting their paws or beaks onto—goldfish—are well protected in the pond; there is a piece of sewer pipe sunk into the pond in the centre, far enough from the sides that the racoons cannot jump to it. The fish hide in the pipe when they sense danger. The system has worked well enough that the original little feeder goldfish she bought have swelled in size and number to a school of 14.
Schooled though she is in design, Heinke doesn’t practice the usual rules in her own garden. She’s a collector, like so many hort enthusiasts, and there’s no room for drifts of flowers when what you really want is to try everything. “The difficulty of being in the horticultural industry is resisting the large number of new plants and garden ornaments introduced each season, but there always seems room for at least one more,” she explains.
The layout of the garden certainly works, though, and all the more so because it suits her own needs and preferences. An air of ease and grace wafts through the cool shade to greet visitors. The plants and ornaments inhabit their space with a confidence that only ever comes about under the guidance of the most experienced of gardeners.
It is a family garden, too, and it has changed over the years. Certainly it has become shadier with the growth of the honey locust, but it has also matured with the growth of the family. Each winter used to see a skating rink and each summer personal veggie patches for Andy and Michael, the two boys who are now 18 and 16. Heinke’s husband Martin Zemancik, always appreciative of her efforts, offers his greatest support by giving her free rein to decide what goes where and when.

*Originally published on Ontario Gardener 2007 Spring issue