‘A hidden gem’: Lougheed House gardens in full bloom thanks to volunteers

It takes a lot of work to maintain gardens, and those at the historic Lougheed House wouldn't be possible without the effort of dozens of volunteers.

The grounds of the historic Lougheed House in downtown Calgary are filled with a variety of plants and flowers, but the colourful gardens wouldn’t exist without a team of close to 30 dedicated volunteers.

The gardens are open to the public, and for the last six years it’s been head gardener Jane Reksten’s job to map out the various spaces.

“I do all the planning, designing of the garden displays, purchasing all the plants, making sure the (volunteer) gardeners have everything they need to get their job done – so supplies and soil and all of that kind of stuff,” she said. “Then on our work days, I guide the work of the volunteers. They do all the heavy lifting – I just steer them in the right direction.”

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Gardening days are on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the growing season.

Reksten says some of the volunteers are so dedicated they show up twice a week.

“It is quite astonishing how often people will stop and thank the volunteers – thank them for what they’re doing – say ‘You’re doing a fabulous job,’ we love the gardens,’” she said. “We know that the work is appreciated and really valued, especially for the folks that live within the area and treat this as their backyard.”

Volunteer Jackie Marston has been part of the team for six years and says she enjoys putting bouquets together with flowers from the garden for visitors to enjoy inside the Lougheed House.

“It’s getting out in the fresh air, it’s lovely,” she said. “Even in the springtime, in the summer, in the autumn – you get all the different colors and it’s such a beautiful garden and I live very close, so that helps too.”

Jeff Walker started volunteering in 2018 after he retired.

He says he likes to build things and does a lot of heavy lifting in the garden.

“Pruning, deadheading, weeding,” he said. “I’m a bit of a handy guy so we put up trellises and the signs and put some of the furniture together, just odd jobs.”

Walker says he’s proud of not only the work the volunteers do, but also how beautiful the gardens look.

“It’s nice to see and people come by and thank you for having the gardens in nice shape,” he said. “It’s a pride of mine. Not pride of ownership, but a pride in [us] doing something for the neighborhood.”

Nearby resident Mariana Araujo de Castro says she enjoys coming to the park with her dog Sky every chance she gets.

“It’s a hidden gem,” she said. “I just love to come here, and the flowers are so beautiful. I love to come here with my dog and let her sit here on the grass while I admire the flowers. Sometimes I take pictures. I think the garden is so well taken care of.”

Reksten says the gardens are not original to the property, because at one time there were buildings on the space. However, staff have done their best to design the layout of the gardens close to what the Lougheed family would have had in the late 1800s.

“The Lougheed’s in the Victorian Era were into what we call carpet bedding, so low plants that created shapes and designs,” she said. “Well, those are very difficult to design, very difficult to look after, and not reflective of what anyone is going to be doing in their gardens now.”

The plants in the garden are not original, but some of the native species are used throughout the space.

“They absolutely would have had tons of roses,” Reksten said. “We have lots of roses, peonies and delphiniums, because the garden has been rebuilt from what it was originally.”

“We can’t say for sure that any of the plants are still in their same place, but the hollyhocks – those are biennials – they self seed and pop up in all kinds of different corners of the gardens, and we can be pretty confident that those have been on site ever since the Lougheed’s were here in the 1890s and early 1900s.”

The Lougheed House is hosting an event on August 24th called The House Meets Garden tour.

For more information, you can visit the Lougheed House website.