Brighten up your yard with flowers from Linda’s Market Gardens

By Irene van der Kloet

The snow is gone, and the garden looks brown and lifeless. Time for so much-needed colour! Along highway 28, right across from the Esso in Smoky Lake, is Linda’s Market Gardens, a beautiful corner that can brighten up anyone’s day. The greenhouse’s primary attraction is an abundance of scents and colours that welcomes the customers; flowers form a beautiful kaleidoscope that may soon brighten up a customer’s yard. Linda Christensen started with gardens in 1983 and has owned the greenhouse for approximately 30 years. “We grow the flowers at home in our greenhouse and bring them here to sell. It is quite hard to find good seasonal staff, so one place to sell flowers is sufficient; we don’t sell from home. The way flowers are started changed over the years; they used to be started from seeds, but now they are started from plugs; it’s a different technique. There has also been a change from gardens to planters and baskets over the years. There are new things, new varieties every year”. The variety of colours in, especially the petunias, is indeed astounding. Linda shows how different colours combined make for beautiful arrangements, as showcased by the hanging baskets and pots with combined colours of flowers, almost begging customers to bring them home. Although petunias seem to comprise the majority, the pansies don’t lag far behind. They, too, present in a colourful palette, a pleasure for the eye. These petunias and pansies are annuals; they flower the entire summer but one summer only, whereas perennials only flower for a restricted period and then come back the following year. That makes the annuals so popular. Flowers make up most of the greenhouse, but Linda sells vegetables as well: seed potatoes, tomato plants and several spices such as basil and dill. The mint chocolate plant spreads a delicious scent; one can hardly wait to make a specialty tea. Linda will also make flower arrangements, for weddings, for example. In her shop, she sells ice cream, homemade preserves and jams. She used to sell more ornaments, but it seems people are more minimalistic and do not want all the decorations in their yards anymore. Due to her location, Linda gets customers from everywhere. “It’s good to have different greenhouses in the area so people can compare; every greenhouse offers something different. Greenhouses are all weather-related. If the weather is nice, people will go out and visit greenhouses.” Linda’s Market Gardens is open from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm.