Earthspirit Garden
Earthspirit Garden is a
privately owned garden, planted and
nurtured by Jean Bawden. The house was built on a former corn field
in 1998, which is when Jean retired from the teaching profession and
moved from the city to the country, taking many of her favorite
perennial plants with her.
In 1999, Jean began operating the garden as a business in order to make enough money to afford all the plants and trees she wanted for the gardens. It wasn’t long before she had forty gardens, filled with over one-thousand varieties of perennials, for either shade or sun.
Her work in the gardens is never done, as the gardens themselves are constantly evolving. Small trees become big trees, turning formerly sunny gardens into shady ones, and thus, necessitating the complete change of plants growing around and beneath the trees. The gardens sprawl over five acres, with trees lining the Western border in the hopes of lessening the wind velocity.
There are many pine varieties. numerous larches, and many unusual trees, such as Liriodendron (tulip tree), Nyssa sylvatica (Sweet-gum), Katsura, Abies (Firs) and Magnolias.
Jean hybridizes daylilies, specializing primarily in spiders and unusual forms, and has introduced 19 of them. She has recently cut down her collection to about 450 of her favorites, that consist of a little of every type of daylily. Her gardens were part of the Region 2 Daylily Tour in 2008.
Referring to herself as a “plant fanatic, and a seedaholic,” Jean has bought and collected seed from dwarf and Siberian iris, and from the 100-plus tree peonies that she has grown from seed. She also grows about 400 varieties of hosta cultivars, about 40 varieties of primula, as well as many woodland varieties. There are several patches of prairie plants, a rock garden, small pond, and just about any sort of perennial that you can imagine.
There are over a thousand irises in the gardens, including over 100 varieties of Siberians, l00-plus varieties of dwarf iris (mostly SDBs), hundreds of tall beardeds, and even Spurias scattered among the other garden flowers. The guest irises are consolidated into three areas behind the house.
Each Spring Jean has a sale that primarily features hostas, daylilies, and iris, plus extras of just about any sort of perennial you can imagine.
