Regina Ingle was born and raised in Honduras and moved to the United States after marrying Paul Ingle, a Peace Corps volunteer
Planting a palette ; Garden offers reminders of home
Aug 28, 2004
Topeka Capital Journal
by Dianne Y. Lawson Capital-Journal
The colorful flowers in her North Topeka garden remind this transplanted Honduran of home.
Regina Ingle was born and raised in Honduras and moved to the United States after marrying Paul Ingle, a Peace Corps volunteer.
Honduras has only two seasons, Ingle said, the hot dry season and the wet season. There are no winters in the Central American nation.
"Honduras has colorful flowers year around, and that's why I need color in my garden," Ingle said. She primarily has plants that have colorful flowers or leaves.
Ingle lives with her husband and their 11-year-old son, Ryan, in a home surrounded by almost 2 acres of gently rolling hillocks. The back yard rises from the house in ever-higher rolls of ground.
"Most gardeners will say that you have to plan, but I never plan," Ingle said. She falls in love with plants and has to bring them home. Once home, the plants go into empty spaces in her yard.
Ingle's love of gardening has grown gradually, but she said she is now obsessed with plants.
"I want more and more and more," she said, "I love variety."
In sunny areas, Ingle has planted black-eyed Susans, daylilies, zinnias, lilies, verbenas, cleomes, dahlias and roses. She has many plants specifically to draw butterflies; she said they like the butterfly weed and butterfly bush the best. She added fennel and dill to attract butterfly caterpillars.
This year, she added petunias to the mix.
With several trees close to the house, including a large elm that has a tree house on its branches, Ingle has shade gardens close to the house.
"I learned the hard way," Ingle said about which plants would flourish in shade. In these areas, she has hostas, coleus, sweet Williams, ferns, iris, lisianthus and caladium. She said she particularly likes the bright leaves of caladium, which remind her of gardens in the Honduras.
Ingle's mother had a garden in Honduras and especially loved roses, Ingle said. When Ingle was in the sixth grade, her class planted flowers in the schoolyard and used small machetes to chop up the cow manure to use as fertilizer, she said.
The house has large windows on all sides, enabling the Ingles to look out over their yard. The breakfast nook has windows on three sides, providing views of the back and side of the yard. At the back of the house is a patio where Ingle loves to sit and enjoy her back yard.
Ingle has collected interesting objects and placed them at various locations in her gardens. Among them are a Tin Man from Oz hanging from a tree, a small metal chicken and, Ingle's favorite, a clay girl blowing bubbles.
Wildlife frequents her yard. Ingle has counted up to 70 wild turkeys in the back yard at one time and has seen deer, raccoons and many birds. Ingle feeds hummingbirds in the summer and other birds in the winter.
Regina and Paul Ingle married in 1988 and moved to the United States in 1989. They both attended Kansas State University, living in student housing. They rented a plot of ground where they planted vegetables, especially tomatoes.
After they completed their master's degrees at K-State --- hers in agricultural economics and his in natural resources conservation - -- they moved to Pierre, S.D. It was there that she joined her first garden club. She wrote the club newsletter, so she had to research before she wrote. At first, she said, she didn't know the difference between an annual and a perennial or that the United States had different planting zones.
In 1997, the Ingles moved to Topeka. Regina joined the Ward- Meade Garden Club, which she said has taught her a great deal about gardening. The first office she held in the group was vice president, and last year she was president.
Much of Ingle's identity comes from gardening. She is also a parenting specialist with Early Head Start of Community Action Inc., where her position allows her to help young children and their families grow and flourish.
Dianne Y. Lawson is a freelance writer in Topeka.
She can be reached at Cappie0113@aol.com.
