Marty's Weekly eNewsletter

This week, please enjoy a guest article written by my cousin, Greg Rule!

Before moving to California and stumbling into a music career, I was a kid in Wichita who spent summers working at Crystal Lake Beach rocking out to fun-in-the-sun songs such as Van Halen’s Beautiful Girls and Dance the Night Away. 

I had just graduated from Wichita High School North, and my summer destination was to be Eikenlaan 12, Bennebroek Holland. My parents, along with the Heemskerks (Jon Heemskerk was our Dutch Bulb supplier at the time) had arranged for me and their son Niels to trade places for the summer.

My best friend and I headed up to Manhattan the summer of 1975 to attend Kansas State University. Ed was in Architecture school; I was in Horticulture. We met at North High School here in Wichita, and also went to West Side Christian Church together.

Nothing says fall gardening like winter hardy pansies and violas. These blooming annuals give us three-season color in the landscape like no other color option we have. From early fall, through the winter months and until they are replaced with our summer bloomers after the last frost, we are able to enjoy the vibrant colors planted now.