The Luxton Garden
Georgina
Luxton
is credited with growing one of Banff’s first
flower gardens, making the grounds of the Luxton home an
important component in the home’s interpretation. Eleanor
shared her mother’s love of flowers and carried
on her own work in the garden. The importance
of gardening to the family is evident
in the extensive collection of garden-related artifacts preserved
in the home. These include tools, catalogues, and seed packets dating back
to 1913.
Georgie
loved her garden, and waited impatiently for the spring
seed catalogues to arrive. She also depended
on the old fashioned advice found in books
like Flower Growing in the North, written by Norman Luxton’s brother George
E. Luxton.
George was a well-known horticultural
columnist for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
He peppered his columns with advice from his
Grandmother. “Grandma had no commercial fungicide for mushrooms in her
lawn. When she was making soft soap
for family washings, she used to pour a
cupful of the lye water over the fungi, and
they disappeared overnight. In a few days,
Uncle Jerry would cut out the dead spot
and put in a plug of green sod. It was as simple
as that.”
Another wise piece of advice was, “When buying
grass seed, don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish.
No matter how good the earth may be
a garden or lawn is no better than the seed you put
into it.”
Perhaps those words of
wisdom and others like them contributed to making
the Luxton garden in Banff the showplace it has been for nearly
100 years.
The Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation is currently working with
a heritage architect to create a long-term
restoration and conservation plan for the home and
grounds. The Whyte Museum has been contracted to care
for the home and garden. Until a
thorough garden plan is developed, the garden is
being maintained mainly as is, letting the perennials fill most of the
garden area.
To ensure continuous blooming throughout the
summer and to fill in gaps, some seeds
have been planted, particularly alongside the house. This flowerbed has
traditionally been kept as a cutting garden.
Seeds planted have been chosen according to research
done with the seed packets in the home, Georgie’s
garden notes and discussions with friends of
the Luxton family. Seeds planted this year include
sweet peas, bachelor buttons, asters, bells of Ireland, cosmos, lavatera, nigella, stocks
and zinnia.
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