It’s been a challenging year for Gale Tytlandsvik as she works to look after the Garden Park on Fourth, but the park has still had visitors this spring and summer.
Repairs have been taking place to the roof of the SaskTel building that is west of the park. It meant that a portion of the park had to be closed for a couple of weeks this year, but the entire park has been open for most of this year.
“The tarp is constantly blowing loose and wreaking havoc, so I’m spending a lot of time coming in here and tying it down,” said Tytlandsvik.
The Garden Park on Fourth, located between the SaskTel building and the Estevan Salvation Army, has been open for nearly a decade. It’s a place where people can come and enjoy lunch, coffee or a peaceful time outdoors.
Tytlandsvik said people have been coming to the park this summer. Some have even had photo shoots in the setting.
Coffee in the park sessions have been taking place every Tuesday morning, and have attracted five to a dozen people.
She expects the weekly gatherings will take place for the rest of the summer.
The flowers in the park look good, she said. Tytlandsvik admits she overwintered a couple of the bigger plants, but she has also been trying some new things.
“Some have been hits and some have been misses,” she said.
Sun coleus plants were added to the park this year, and she has an angel wing plant up front. Bells of Ireland have been added to some of the planters. Annual sunflowers and succulents are looking good.
Tytlandsvik is looking into replacing all of the black volcanic rock with a hard, rubberized black surface, similar to what has been added at some of Estevan’s other parks in recent years. The volcanic rock requires a lot of maintenance, and Tytlandsvik would like to see a maintenance-free surface in place.
A fundraiser would take place to have the rubberized surface installed.
Tytlandsvik noted she retired earlier this year, and has spent even more time than normal working on the park.
“My son and I came in and leaf blowed for a couple of hours a couple of times, but it’s already filling up with debris again, which is just normal when you have a lot of plants,” she said.
She has also announced plans to have a mural for the wall of the Salvation Army that faces the park, with work scheduled to begin later this month.
“Hopefully I’ll find some paint donations. I’ll start working on that next week … and hopefully can start painting when it cools down a tad,” she said.
The mural will occupy the entire wall, and Tytlandsvik described it as a muted abstract landscape, with land and sky, but she won’t know for sure until she starts painting.
“I think it’s going to fade from a pinky-purple to a blue to a greeney landscape to a little yellow.”
