ESKO — When Sue Northey lost her sister, she knew she had to find some way to honor her memory. Linda Rust, Northey’s sister, died after battling cancer for two years in 2012. Soon after, Northey decided the best way to honor Rust’s memory would be to plant a garden in her front lawn.
“Linda had a passion for gardening,” Northey said. “She and my mother were the ones who started the Western Garden Tour with the Norton Park (United Methodist) Church as a fundraiser for the church. Linda had the original idea, and it’s continued to grow from there.”
Now, 13 years after losing Rust, her memorial garden will be featured on the Western Garden Tour she started for the very first time.
Linda Rust will be memorialized as attendees visit a garden in her honor during the Western Garden Tour on Aug. 2. Rust died in 2012.
Contributed / Laura Rust
Visitors to the garden can expect to see a lot of yellow, as that was Rust’s favorite color. Northey said gardens change a lot over the season and gardeners need to plan to have different plants that bloom and peak at various times. Around the tour, several patches of yellow flowers and plants will be at their peaks.
“Most of these are perennials that were given to us by members of the church after Linda passed,” Northey said. “Gardeners are great sharers, and everyone wanted to contribute something to make this garden happen.”
While a lot of the garden came from friends and church members, some items have longer histories. For example, there is a patch of soon-to-bloom purple phlox in the front of the garden that came from Northey and Rust’s father’s childhood farm near Ashland.
The garden dedicated to the late Linda Rust in her sister Sue Northey’s front yard in Esko features several flowers and plants that turn yellow throughout the season, as that was Rust’s favorite color. A few other colors not yet blooming should peek through by the Western Garden Tour on Aug. 2.
Teri Cadeau / Duluth Media Group
Rust’s three grandchildren are also represented in the garden by a pair of blue orbs and a pink angel figure. Northey said they often invite the grandkids over to play in the garden and take pictures with it every year.
“Gardening is something that you pass on from generation to generation,” Northey said. “Linda would love the garden; she’d love the color, and she would love watching her grandkids run through it.”
Both Rust and Northey’s parents put a lot of work into the garden. Northey said it was therapeutic for both to work in it after losing their daughter. Northey’s father has since died as well, but Darlene Johnson, Northey’s mother, still comes over to see and work in the garden.
A rock in Sue Northey’s Esko garden honors the relationship she had with her sister, Linda Rust.
Teri Cadeau / Duluth Media Group
“Even with some limitations, my mom still likes to come and sit here in the garden all day. She still finds so much joy in it at 89,” Northey said.
Northey said she felt it was finally time to open the garden to the tour this year. The tour has also expanded far enough to include the Esko-based garden. Initially, the tour didn’t stretch farther than western Duluth, but has since grown into other neighborhoods.
The Western Garden Tour starts with the continental breakfast of homemade muffins, fruit, juice and coffee at 9 a.m. Aug. 2 at Norton Park United Methodist Church, 436 N. 79th Ave. W., Duluth. There will be time to “ask a master gardener” questions during the breakfast, and garden and craft items for sale. The self-guided tour runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and tickets are available at the door. The tour runs rain or shine.
Teri Cadeau is a reporter for the Superior Telegram. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area, including the Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle, Duluth News Tribune and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader, crafter, dancer, trivia fanatic and cribbage player.
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