Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison / povy.com
Carolyn and Larry's small pond is a natural, low-maintenance landscaping option.
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
When Carolyn Linville and Larry Holgerson bought their ranch-style home in suburban Wheat Ridge, Colorado, 12 years ago, the double lot was viewed as both an asset and a liability. “We really liked the fact that we had this big old honking yard,” says Carolyn. “However, we weren’t wild about the idea of mowing the grass in this big old honking yard.”
Their remedy? “Get rid of as much grass as possible,” Carolyn explains. “Our only grand plan, our defining mantra, was that we minimize the grass.” Everything else, she admits, was left to chance.
The result is a thriving backyard ecosystem that includes a vegetable garden, a potato field, and a pond—containing goldfish, koi, and frogs. Around the pond, Carolyn has planted self-proliferating plants such as purple phlox, coneflowers, ravena grass, bee balm, and lamb’s ears. Over the years this vegetation has crept out into the yard and overtaken grassy areas. That’s perfectly alright with Carolyn, who points out, “You don’t have to mow a purple coneflower.”
Amphibian Friends
The eight-by-four-feet pond, which anchors the backyard landscaping, was another low maintenance tactic in the strategy. Carolyn and Larry dug the hole three feet deep to provide a frost-free zone for the fish. As a lark, Larry threw in a few tadpoles ten years ago, and they’ve proven to be much more valuable than whimsical. “Over time, we realized that the frogs were leaving the pool and going off to forage on insects,” says Carolyn, who now has virtually eliminated bug problems in her yard. Strawberries, which have spread from her garden to the pond’s edge, are free of pests that once ravaged them. “The frogs take care of the insects,” she says. “It’s a win-win for all of us.”
In addition to enjoying their soothing evening chorus and observing their pond antics, the accidental herpetoculturists have come to value the frogs as friends. As the two oldest, Dark Eyes and Elvis, have matured, they’ve learned to recognize Carolyn and Larry’s voices. The couple had a friendly contest to see who would be first to actually feed a frog—which Carolyn is proud to have won.
“Dark Eyes was more at ease with us than the others, and occasionally I would throw worms or nonbeneficial insects out to the little island where she typically sits,” she says. “She came to see me as a food source. And one day, I put out my arm and dangled a worm, and she jumped up and grabbed it out of my hand.” Carolyn and the frog were both shocked. But over time, they got used to the practice, and now it’s become something of a routine: Carolyn stands near the ponddangling a worm; a blink of an eye later, Dark Eyes leaps, snags the worm with her sticky tongue, and returns to her lily pad, never touching Carolyn’s finger.
Celtic Roots: A Potato Patch
Another large, hard-to-mow area between the existing garden and the house has given way to Carolyn’s potato field: twelve by fifteen feet planted with ten different varieties of potatoes. The unusual patch—not found in most suburban gardens—was just another fluke, Carolyn explains.
“It was such a large area to take over for a garden; it would have been difficult and expensive to do eight kinds of vegetables,” she says. “I just happened to get a catalog in the mail that had 150 varieties of potatoes, and I kind of got suckered in—I always end up overordering. So I used the whole area for potatoes.”
As with the frogs, Carolyn dotes on her potatoes. (“It’s probably my Celtic background,” she admits.) They thrive in her clay soil, require little maintenance other than water and an occasional bit of organic fertilizer. The frogs prey on any Colorado potato beetles attracted to the plants, and the spuds stay in the ground until Carolyn’s ready to retrieve them. “In September and October, when everything else is long gone, you get potatoes,” says Carolyn, who stores them in the unheated garage and brings them out as needed all winter long, serving them roasted or stirred into soup.
The successful potato field is just another example of the merry hand of fate, she points out. “If I had listened to people talk about growing potatoes, I never would have tried it,” she says.
Meditating, Not Mowing
This lack of planning may have resulted in a chaotic landscape, but Carolyn and Larry’s yard is serene—a true oasis in the suburban landscape. With the time that might have been spent mowing, they relax on the back porch by the pond. “Whenever we have anyone over here in summer, they just stare into the pond, look at the fish, look at the cats looking at the fish—they become mesmerized,” Carolyn says. “Nobody feels any stress. I just don’t think you can have a pond with fish and frogs, that bubbling and gurgling water sound, and get completely stressed out.”
In the end, providence has proven an effective landscaper for the Holgersons. “Most of our lives seem to be run by happenstance,” Carolyn points out. “You just throw stuff out there and see what takes. It’s not very logical, but it works.”
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