News : Gates to part with plants and flowers, wanting to help you grow your garden

For the next few weeks, Dave Gates will be saying goodbye to some of the things he's spent a lot of time raising, plants. He says that rather than just throwing everything away, he thought that maybe someone else might like some of the things.  Usually, Gates provides plants to the Master Gardener or Vinton Garden Club sales but of course, those won't be happening. 

With hundreds of bulbs, rhizomes, and clumps of plants over the last 20-25 years of growing flowers in his yard he needs to find homes for all of them. 

He said, "Some might call it an obsession since it kept growing and expanding.  I always enjoyed growing things but didn't always have the time, space, or money to do it.  In one way or another, with the various circumstances we had here, schooling, job changes, etc.  everything came together with a few flowers and then more and more and, well, more…"

In the Gates' yard, Dave has had between 20 and 30 different areas where he would grow his plants, besides the main garden. 

To accommodate the plants,  trees were moved, some blew down and others were hit by lightning so his gardening just kept growing. 

Now he's decided to reverse the process and rather than just throw the plants away he's offering them for a minimal cost to anyone that might enjoy them.  He is welcoming people to stop in, and even dig your own. 

Gates said he used to have "dahlias, cannas, and other very visible and showy plants, but it's been several years since I have had any of those, they all had to be dug and saved over the winter." At one point he had 3-5,000 tulip bulbs a year. 

He said there was never really a plan, it just "happened" because he could do it. One of his most popular plants has been his purple dome asters. Over the years one plant that he got from a neighbor has produced 2-300 clumps. 

The Gates' home has a great location for showing off Dave's handiwork. On the corner of 13th St. and 8th Ave. near Tilford the yard has been noticed by several travelers. He told the story of a young child that was just learning to read in Shellsburg Elementary where Sue was the principal. She asked her mother why Mrs. Gates lived in the hospital, because of the location of the sign directing traffic past their house to the hospital.  However, to the child it looked like the sign was pointing to the house. 

So, as Dave begins to downsize, he'd like to invite anyone to give him a call with questions 560-9558 or stop by. 

He also has a few other gardening odds and ends that he would like to part with, some bricks and stakes, so give him a call.

Any donations will go to the Vinton Garden Club. 

Editor's note: If you are not a gardener, talk to Dave he can help you out and explain what you'll need to do. The plants right now are in between blooming so they will look different than the pictures, but eventually they will look like what you see!