Julie Glazier enjoys gardening around the southwest Lawrence home that she shares with her husband, Chad, and two sons, Tanner and Mason. Im constantly in the dirt," she says. "The boys are into sports, so the weekends that we are not on a ball field, Im

Julie and Chad Glazier abandoned city living eight years ago because Julie needed room to grow.

And grow and grow and grow.

Of the 5 acres the Glaziers now call home, at least one is chock-full of perennials. Winding pebbled paths flanked by larger stones slowly meander through a haven of poppies in bloom, full peony buds and irises in a dizzying array of colors.

The Glaziers have probably joined you for dinner without your knowledge in the form of a steaming Rudy’s pizza. The pair met while attending Kansas University – Chad was working at Pyramid Pizza, and he heard about someone selling a slew of pizza ovens. He made a low offer, and Rudy’s Pizzeria was born.

Julie says she and Chad originally thought they would travel the world after college, but life had other plans for the dynamic duo and soon they had two children, Tanner and Mason, and a thriving restaurant to fill their days.

I’m a little early for my tour of Julie’s garden. She greets me shrouded in a thin blanket of sweat from weeding on this wet morning, and rubs her muddy hands on her yoga pants. Her face is framed by blond, damp hair, and she wears no make-up. Her blue eyes are kind as she welcomes me to her garden, not appearing the least bit annoyed by my early arrival.

Just by looking at Julie, you can tell she lugs her own bags of mulch, unearths deep-rooted weeds and loves every minute of her long, toiling days in the garden. In fact her license plate reads “LV2GRDN.”

“I’m constantly in the dirt,” she says. “The boys are into sports, so the weekends that we are not on a ball field, I’m here gardening.”

Guided by nature

It quickly becomes clear that, outside of motherhood, gardening is Julie’s full-time job. When the family moved into the home eight years ago, the landscaping consisted of a couple of hostas and that was about it.

Now, literally everywhere you look there’s a thriving perennial, a homemade arbor built by Chad, a hand-built path or water feature – there’s not a single empty nook. Julie admits that creating the lush atmosphere has not been without its challenges.

“I thought I was an experienced gardener, but out here in the country sometimes it feels like I am cultivating an acre of weeds,” she says. “And the wind is different than in town, as are the bugs; they are bigger and like nothing I had ever seen before.”

An enchanting wooden fence with a wrought iron gate reminds me of a country cemetery. Luckily there are no grave stones on the other side. Rather wonderful raised beds placed symmetrically with an English garden flair await. A New Dawn rose bush has taken over the back part of the rectangular fence, and next to it is a totem pole made by Chad from wood and metal.

The couple originally thought they’d have vegetables and raspberries in the raised beds, Julie says.

“But instead we have larkspur, zinnias, bachelor’s button, hollyhocks, iris, lilies and dill,” she says. “We tried edibles, but we just ended up competing with these giant insects, deer and critters. We eventually gave up, and now it is a perennial garden.”

Garden surprises

The Glaziers’ garden also boasts a huge variety of daylilies. This is not by accident, Julie says.

“I worked out at a daylily farm by Vinland Valley, and for payment I’d get daylilies,” she says. “I worked out there for two summers. I’d even recruit the boys to come help.”

She claims this spring’s hard frost was devastating to her garden, but to me it looks amazing – strong and unyielding, much like the gardener who tends to the plots. Julie amended her soil with horse manure that a neighbor was giving away, and her plants seem bigger and sturdier because of it.

A male mulberry tree provides shade with its contorted limbs that stretch out to the edges of the garden, and propped in a cranny is a rustic tree house that Chad built for the boys. Near the tree house is a beautiful pergola – also crafted by Chad – that adds to the flow of the garden, summoning visitors to take this path and discover yet another area.

Scattered throughout the landscape are interesting pieces of garden art, stone sculptures, concrete chalices, urns overflowing with annuals and a bevy of metal pieces.

“We got a lot of this metal art from a machinist who made great stuff,” Julie says. “If you look closely at his work, you’ll notice the found objects, like nails for the porcupines spines or chains for the caterpillar’s body. He was very creative.”

Frankly, I want to take a closer look at everything in the Glaziers’ garden. The plants were all lovingly selected, sown and tended by Julie; the hardscapes mostly have been incorporated by Chad’s skilled hands. The garden just emits a can-do spirit and wild sense of whimsy.