The Giving Garden

This award-winning garden is rooted in personal connections.

-  -Kristin Beane Sullivan

Walk through Sue and Bob Olson's Mankato, Minnesota, garden, and you'll find just as many stories as you'll find plants.

Connections to other people are the heart of this ½-acre garden. For example, Sue says, “My brother built this shed for me about 15 years ago. I love it because it's his handiwork.” Nearly every plant and ornament here carries a memory or a tie to a friend, family member or experience. This is why we chose the Olsons as our Annual Reader Garden Award grand prize winners. Congratulations to this creative gardening couple! Now let's take a tour and hear their stories.

How the Garden Began

When Sue and Bob moved to Mankato and purchased this zone 5 property 26 years ago, the backyard was all lawn except for a perennial-filled island bed in need of renovation. Sue had grown up in a family of gardeners and always kept a garden as an adult. So she knew that it was better to watch the existing beds for a season to get to know the property before she started executing all of her backyard dreams.

When they did dig into the perennial bed project, they found Siberian iris, garden phlox, daylilies, purple coneflowers and many other Midwestern stalwarts. Sue says, “I kept as much as I could but cleaned that bed up and spread the plants around.”