When Sonja Pawliw wakes up in the morning, she doesn’t pour herself a bowl of cereal or crack an egg over a frying pan. At the start of the day, without fail, she steps into her garden.
She walks under a wooden archway covered in one long grapevine. Last summer, her daughter took home 60 pounds of grapes from the vine. Pawliw kept 30 pounds and made jelly.
Pawliw gently touches her white lilies, which have won her countless prizes at flower competitions.
She makes sure the tomatoes, sweet peas, cherries, cucumbers, and kiwis are growing nicely. Most of them are safe to eat.
“I make several rounds before I make breakfast,” she says. “You want to know how everything is doing.”
Pawliw’s garden is a testament to her hard work and dedication. It’s been a Yorkton staple for years. Hundreds of visitors flock to it every summer. Now, Pawliw’s receiving national recognition for her green oasis.
Pawliw is a recipient of the “Canada 150 Garden Experience” award. It’s a certificate that acknowledges the best gardens across the country. A Toronto conference judged hundres of green beds and narrowed the field down to 150 winners.
When Pawliw heard she’d been nominated, she didn’t think it was real.
“I phoned my kids and I said, ‘Do you think [this award] is a hoax?’” she says.
Once the conference concluded, the jury emailed Pawliw to congratulate her. At that moment, Pawliw knew it was true.
Pawliw is one of four winning gardens from Saskatchewan. The other three are owned and operated by governments, universities, or societies. Pawliw stands alone as the sole creator of her garden.
Of course, Pawliw doesn’t see herself as a big star. She’s just doing what’s comes naturally.
“Flowers and gardening [were] in my blood...since I was knee-high to a grasshopper,” she says.
When she was a child, Pawliw would spend her weekends watching her grandmother tend to her garden. When she got older, Pawliw built her own garden, always giving flowers preferred treatment. Pawliw thinks everybody should have at least one pot of flowers to tend to.
“Flowers and gardening is a soul feeder,” she says.
Pawliw appreciates the award, but she hasn’t let success go to her head.
“It’s a nice sort of pinnacle to my gardening,” she says. “It kind of makes me unworthy because I was [gardening] for myself. I wasn’t doing it...for glory.”
Randy Goulden, who works with Yorkton Tourism, has pointed tourists to Pawliw’s garden for years. She’s thrilled for Pawliw.
“I was pretty excited for Yorkton, but more for her because she’s getting some of her well-deserved recognition,” Goulden says. “She’s a treasure.”
Pawliw is an honorary member of the Yorkton Horticultural Society. When they found out she’d won, they surprised her with a red-and-white cake.
“We were proud of her,” says Liz Jones, president of the society.
Back in her garden, Pawliw tends to her plants. She doesn’t have time to admire her award. It’s August and she has a lot of work to do. She closes the garden in September, which means uprooting and moving dozens of flowers and vegetables. People come to take the roots off her hands.
“In the spring, I want something new,” she says.
Pawliw will rebuild the garden, entirely different, but still with that personal touch.
