Peaceful haven: Gardener Bea Onderek finds success with variety garden
Staff reporter
She claims she doesn't have a green thumb, just a green yard. But anyone who drives by Bea Onderek's house at 300 South Fourth Street, Marion, can see the woman can grow plants.
Bea doesn't go for the neat rows and container gardens. She plants things in areas where she thinks they'll grow best.
In her yard next to Moore Street and South Fourth Street, she's planted various flowers. Passers-by can't help but notice numerous tall stems of hollyhocks in an assortment of colors. Some are pink, some are red, and some are dark maroon.
To keep the majestic stems intact, various wire contraptions are used as stakes.
Whatever Bea can find, she uses in her sanctuary — even a metal Christmas tree silhouette.
Each year is a challenge, with different flowers and trees doing better or worse than the year before.
"Last year I had 137 pink tulips," said Bea, "and this year I only had 50."
An apple tree on the east side of her house has been producing apples galore the past couple of years but the fruit detaches and falls to the ground before ripening.
"We took 110 gallons to the county lake last year and they fed them to deer," Bea said.
A pure horticulturist and nature-lover, Bea said her love for gardening and growing plants comes naturally.
"I'm just a country girl from Missouri," she said.
As a child, her family had to raise what they ate. And it holds true today.
Besides a colorful array of blooming and green plants, there are many edibles in Bea's garden.
Along the front of her yard, growing with the lilies and the iris, are bell peppers. Interspersed with the delicate blossoms are rhubarb, various vines of berries — red raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries — and an asparagus patch.
By the garage is a small pumpkin patch, which will be ripe for the picking in late September or early October.
On the northeast side of the house, there is a traditional garden spot with various peppers (banana, chili, etc.), tomato plants, and potatoes (one crop already gathered). Next to the house is a row of zucchini and jalapeno peppers.
She also has a small stand of grape vines.
"We collect rain water in a big tub and use it on the garden," Bea said. The flowers and other plants only get watered when the weather is extremely dry.
Despite a bad back and other health concerns, Bea will pull weeds from the wandering garden.
"It's good exercise for me," she said with a smile.
Otherwise her beautiful bliss is left to nature.
"I don't use any pesticides or weed killers," said Bea. She doesn't mind animals visiting her yard because they're as much a part of nature as her flowers.
"I even planted flowers that I know deer like to eat," said the nature-lover. The deer also enjoy her peaches and green apples.
Scattered throughout the yard are fruit and nut trees.
A honey peach tree from San Antonio, two pine trees from Illinois that were started in containers and now are 10-12 feet tall, and a pecan tree planted in 1985 by Bea's stepfather adorn the yard.
So, how many different kinds of flowers does Bea have in her yard? Besides hollyhocks, she has bee balm, butterfly bush, mums, roses, wild and tall phlox, hibiscus, tulips, various lilies, azaleas, hydrangeas, and other less familiar varieties.
And she has this pink flower that she doesn't know what kind it is because it was there before she acquired the property.
"I think it's from Czechoslovakia," Bea said.
Bea has started a scrapbook of plants and flowers that includes information on those varieties planted in her yard and some she might want to plant in the future.
She doesn't spend a lot of time planning her garden.
"It depends on what's on sale," Bea said.
She used to purchase her plants by mail order but the quality has become inconsistent. Now she purchases most in stores. A lot of the time, the plants or flowers are ready to be disposed.
"I adopt unwanted flowers," she said with a laugh.
So how does she manage so many different kinds of flowers and plants?
"They talk to me and tell me what they need," Bea said, matter-of-factly.
If the plants need more or less sun, she transplants them to a new spot.
Bea is passing on her love for flowers and plants, much like her mother did with her, to a young neighbor girl, seven-year-old Taylor Pontious.
"I'm training Taylor to be a caregiver of my flowers," Bea said.
Sitting in a glider swing in her yard, Bea and Taylor survey her work.
"Gardening brings me peace," said Bea, something everyone can use more of.
