A true labor of love

COEUR d’ALENE — Tucked behind Dorothy Gohl’s home is a magnificent garden no one would realize is there. She tends the garden daily, though it has been more difficult these past months.

Gohl’s garden is literally a labor of love.

Gohl and her late partner Chuck built the home in 1991, and together they created a garden paradise sprinkled with trees, perennial and annual blossoms, vegetables, multiple benches, a fountain, a pond and a shade-house.

“We had a true love story,” Gohl said of Chuck, who passed away in October.

“Everywhere you look, there are flowers,” Gohl said. “This was how we spent our days.”

The beauty of the space is evidence of the many hours spent there, creating the garden and enjoying it.

Gohl has photos of the process from start to finish, she said. “With everything we did together, Chuck wasn’t able to finish — time ran out,” she said.

A walking path weaves its way through roses, petunias, marigolds, peonies, daylilies, blanket flowers, gladiolus, pansies and iris.

Wooden and stone benches are placed throughout.

A mature Chinese weeping willow drapes it’s feather-like leaves over the pond while the gentle sound of flowing water fills the background.

It is a peaceful oasis.

“Everywhere I look, Chuck is around,” Gohl said.

Chuck was a “renowned stonemason” who created this “showplace” for he and Dorothy to enjoy together.

Gohl said the two of them traveled all over to bring things home for the yard. They called it, “God’s Garden.”

“And you enter with love,” Gohl said.

Our dream was all perennials,” Gohl said. “But every time we saw an annual we liked, it had to come home.”

Now Gohl saves the seeds from many of her flowers. She dries them and saves them for the next year.

She will place some seeds in envelopes to share with her neighbors.

Gohl said she doesn’t know what she would’ve done without her neighbors after losing Chuck, who she calls “the love of her life.”

A beautiful rose bush sits in the center of the garden, just next to the pond. With it’s golden yellow blooms, the variety is named “Caring.”

The rose is the last bush Chuck planted for her. She said she looks out her kitchen window now and she “sees his caring” in its lovely blooms.

A vegetable patch grows zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and potatoes.

Chuck always planted the vegetables, she said.

“This garden was his pride and joy.”

“There was always plenty of vegetables for all of our neighbors and plenty for ourselves,” she said.

This year, Gohl said she planted two zucchini plants, and only one came up. She planted two tomatoes and two cucumbers and, again, one of each came up.

“Chuck always said he’d take care of me,” she said. “And he has given me what I need.”

"It’s God’s work,” she says.

Gohl is partially blind and suffering from a terminal illness.

“I’m slowly continuing the garden, as best I can,” she said.

She could use help straightening posts, making repairs to the shade-house and applying fresh paint, she said.

“I’d like to restore it to its former glory,” Gohl said.

“There’s so much in our world that brings tears,” Gohl said. “But God shines on you if you open your eyes.”