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Volunteer efforts have Garden Park on Fourth in fine shape

Gale Tytlandsvik is once again spending her days in the Garden Park on Fourth, making sure it looks great for visitors and for anyone else who sees it while in downtown Estevan.
Gale Tytlandsvik
Gale Tytlandsvik stands next to some of the flowers in the Garden Park on Fourth, and in front of a wall that will eventually have a mural.

Gale Tytlandsvik is once again spending her days in the Garden Park on Fourth, making sure it looks great for visitors and for anyone else who sees it while in downtown Estevan. 

Tytlandsvik is the local green thumb and champion for community beautification who dedicates many hours to the park, located on fourth Street between the Salvation Army and the SaskTel building.

It’s been challenging to get plants this year, because the suppliers didn’t get their normal supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We really scrounged for varieties to put in here, and some of the ones we normally have did not get here,” said Tytlandsvik.

Visitors to the park can find brugmansias, which are in the garden for the third straight year. They have beautiful peach flowers that hang down. Climbing vines were added this year because she wanted something that has height.

Sunflowers, petunias and love loves bleeding flowers can also be found in the park.

“As usual, everything that’s in here has to be drought-tolerant, because the wind whips through here and makes it dry,” Tytlandsvik said.

She’s trying a few new things in there, including colitas flowers.

“Everyone loved the angel wing silver white plant that was in here last year, so I planted it at the back of the garden this year so they’re forced to walk through,” said Tytlandsvik.

The wind has caused challenges, and forced her to replace one plant already. But the winter didn’t lead to the loss of any flowers.

Tytlandsvik is also working on a trio of murals on the Salvation Army’s wall facing the garden. She will start on the south end, clean it with a power washer and start priming.

There will be three separate murals on the wall. They will be similar and flow from one end to the other.

“The first one, I’m thinking, is shades of pinks, oranges and yellows. The second area I’m thinking will be shades of purples, pinks and blues. And then the back area will be shades of blues and greens. It will be more of an abstract landscape. I don’t want to compete with the flowers,” she said.

She is confident she will have the first two murals finished this year, but she’s not sure about the third. Tytlandsvik has never undertaken a project like this before.

“I painted right on the surface at the family centre, with trees and giraffes, but it was also in a controlled environment, and this is not a controlled environment,” she said.

People who would like to make a donation for the mural project can contact her or drop by when she is working at the park. She has sponsors for the planters, but the money will not cover the cost of the mural.

The city provides water and lighting, but the rest of the park is volunteer-run, and it’s not on city property.

Last year the park also had to contend with renovations to SaskTel’s building throughout the season. SaskTel will have some excavation work to do later this year that will affect the western edge of the garden, and take out paving stones and crushed rock. Planters will also be moved to the side.

Tytlandsvik has also announced Coffee in the Park will be back this year. It will be held Tuesday mornings, with the first session at 7:30 a.m. and a second at 9:30 a.m. Some have said they want an earlier session because they have to get to work, while others wanted a later start time, so Tytlandsvik decided to have two gatherings.