A garden with an ever-changing view

<p>Samantha Pogue/News Tribune</p><p>Alice and Floyd Hansen’s hilltop Holts Summit home garden has a mesmerizing view of Jefferson City as well as lavish garden highlights including a water garden with waterfall. These features and others helped the couple earn the Bittersweet Garden Club’s August Garden of the Month.</p>

Samantha Pogue/News Tribune

Alice and Floyd Hansen’s hilltop Holts Summit home garden has a mesmerizing view of Jefferson City as well as lavish garden highlights including a water garden with waterfall. These features and others helped the couple earn the Bittersweet Garden Club’s August Garden of the Month.

A young man recently asked Alice and Floyd Hansen if he could look at their Holts Summit home's gardens. They graciously agreed and watched as he gazed in awe of the colorful, diverse flowers and plants that line walkways up to their front porch, down paths on both sides of the raised ranch house and around to a lush, green yard complete with a waterfall and pond.

One enhanced element to their beautifully renovated and landscaped bluff top home is the panoramic view of the Missouri River and Jefferson City landscape on the horizon from two levels of decks and the garden.

"He said, 'I thought about this and I wondered if I could get tired of the view.' I said, 'Well, we have been up here 18 years and I never, ever get tired of it,'" Alice said. "It is ever-changing. Almost every night, we go out on the deck and enjoy the gardens and watch the city lights come on. When it is foggy, sometimes the fog rolls in and covers the whole river bottom and the Capitol looks like its sitting on top of meringue. We can watch the storms come across, and in the winter, the snow is absolutely amazing."

Being invited to the Hansen home is a treat to any guest, no matter how many times and the time of year, said Linda Block, 2018 Garden of the Month committee chairman for the Bittersweet Garden Club. This inviting, lavish and beautiful home garden with a view is the reason why it was selected as the club's August Garden of the Month.

"Their gardens are all beautiful and pristine, offering a view like none other. The colors are abundant, beginning with the front of their home and flowing around both sides to the back where we were greeted by a gorgeous waterfall," Block said. "The bluff top view of the river bottoms, the airport and Jefferson City awaits one and all who come there."

The view is what prompted Alice and Floyd to consider moving the Riviera Heights subdivision, and they first saw it while attending a holiday gathering on Christmas Eve at a friend's home in the neighborhood.

"She had windows that ran the entire length of the house and overlooked the city and down into her garden. She also had greenery with lights along there and the (Christmas) tree and fireplace inside reflected out into her garden," said Alice, a Washington state native and now retired registered nurse. "When we left, we were just mesmerized. We said we want to live up there."

No home was available at that time, but later, the couple discovered a house in the neighborhood had come on the market. They bought the split level home, completely renovating it from top to bottom and converting it into a raised ranch. Taking nearly a year to complete this project, the couple still planned out how they wanted to create the exterior landscape and gardens.

Alice and Floyd, a South Dakota native and retired engineer for Sprint, bought the house 18 years ago, but the couple moved to Jefferson City in 1975 for Floyd's work. Their interest in gardening had blossomed through the years both at the homes they have shared during 54 years of marriage and through Alice's participation in garden clubs. She was a longtime member and past president of the now dissolved Hawthorn Garden Club, served as third vice president for the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri and now is a Bittersweet Garden Club member.

Alice also taught landscape design for Master Gardeners and educated participants on water gardening, a popular yard highlight at the time. Incorporating a waterfall was also at the top of the couple's home garden priority list.

"I actually went out into the woods in Ashland and studied the waterfall there. I went up on our deck to see how we wanted it shaped and how it would fit into the area," Alice said. "We began to dig it out and also build the berm. I wanted it to look natural."

The placement and direction the waterfall flows down into the pond is also important, Alice and Floyd said. After Floyd built a gazebo off the dropped back deck of the home, they wanted the waterfall to cancel out traffic noise from Missouri 94.

"So, I pointed the waterfall toward the gazebo because you can't hear the outside noise," he said.

"We found out that is more important than seeing (the waterfall) because you can hear it," Alice added.

While teaching water garden classes, Alice found people would become discouraged because they thought the maintenance was difficult. However, she said if the pond is balanced, there is only about two days out of the year that are labor intensive.

"In the spring, we have to power wash it down and clean it, take the fish out and all of that. We don't have a major algae problem because there are three things you need: plants, fish and gravel," she said. "The gravel has a lot of area on it where the bacteria can grow. Bacteria is what fights against the algae."

The creation of the water garden and berm was hard work, with Floyd wheeling soil for the berm from the driveway down to the area because heavy equipment wasn't able to access the backyard. Alice and a neighbor also made many trips hauling rocks and everything in 5-gallon buckets down to the men working on the features. Yet, the end is a colorful oasis filled with lily pads, koi and frogs in the pond that is surrounded by hostas, small trees, flowers and a bench near the waterfall.

"It's like stepping into a world of peace and beauty. We all loved relaxing on their deck, overlooking their beautiful masterpiece and hearing the sounds of their waterfall and seeing their gardens of many varieties, textures and colors," said Janet Lepper, Garden of the Month committee member.

Doing almost everything themselves, Alice and Floyd enjoy having an extremely diverse assortment of plants in their garden. They have butterfly weed, hydrangeas, lavender, tiger ferns, elephant ears, lilies, daffodils, roses, zinnias, a granny apple tree and one of Alice's favorites, a hybrid hibiscus tree.

"I bought it four years ago. They braided four trees together and grew it, so when it blooms it has light pink, dark pink, orange and peach flowers all along the same tree," Alice said, noting she also has at least 35 varieties of hostas. "I also love a millennium ornamental onion that is blooming right now."

As the Hansen's view is ever changing, so is their garden. As Alice explained, some things live their life and die, or critters may do some damage, so the couple will replace them or change up a few areas. Floyd has also installed drippers in all of the flowerpots, which helps on 95-100 degree summer days, as well as a water system throughout much of the garden.

"If you stay on top of it and go out every day a little bit, there isn't a lot of maintenance. If you let it get ahead of you, it becomes a pain," she said. "I always tell people you need to sing to your plants and tell them how beautiful they are, and if you do that, they'll flourish. They need food, they need water and they need love. In the spring, it is more labor intensive. Once you get that done, it really is not that much work and it becomes enjoyable. I like to walk through the garden and look at the blooms and see what is going on. I love the butterflies, the bees, the hummingbirds."

That love of their garden has spread to neighbors, friends and family, with many asking to take senior, graduation or engagement photos there. Alice and Floyd's friends and family, including sons Craig and Keith, daughter-in-law Jill and their three grandchildren Evan, Olivia and Mason, also enjoy seeing the garden come to life when the Hansens host an annual Fourth of July party or other gathering near the holidays.

They are honored to receive the Garden of the Month award, and they are proud to share their garden with others

"I could honestly say if I could not share my garden I wouldn't really care about having it," Alice said. "The highlight of my gardening is to be able to share."