Brandon woman creates backyard oasis with brilliant blooms, gardens

Vic Redlin never realized she has a “green thumb” until she came to America in 2016, more specifically, to Brandon.

“They always tell me, ‘Hey, you have a green thumb because everything you plant will live,” Vic shares. “When you plant something, they will grow, (but) they need attention. They need to be watered and they need to be fertilized.”

It was about seven years ago that her then future-husband, Jim, met Vic online, and when he proposed marriage, he also offered her “the sun, the moon, the stars” – and free rein of his backyard.

‘When we first got together and decided to bring her over here, I said to her, ‘I’m not into flowers. I’m going to till this all up and plant grass unless you want to take care of it,” Jim recalls, adding that his ex-wife had a passion for flower gardens.

From thousands of miles away in Taiwan, Vic assured him that she wanted to take care of the flowers.

Little did Jim know how big Vic’s love for gardening would grow.

“Three years ago, I lost my parents and then I come back here and I see my flowers and it makes me happy,” she says.

The 56-year-old Philippines-born Vic, however, came here with little knowledge about flower gardening.

“Back in the Philippines, we don’t do gardens like this,” she said. “When I got here, we had a lot of plants, so I developed a love of plants by taking care of them. They will bloom for you and it makes me plant more,”

Vic’s love for colorful blooms is evident in the landscaping that surrounds the Redlin home. And a peek behind the backyard privacy fence reveals what many would call, a backyard oasis.

“Happiness. Relaxation. Stress-free,” are the words Vic uses to describe how the flowers and plants she nurtures make her feel.

“For me, it’s rewarding when you plant them from seeds, you plant them in the ground and they grow, and then they bloom. That’s the most rewarding feeling I have and the reason I have for planting every spring and summer. It makes me so happy,” she adds.

Dahlias have rose to the top of her list of favorite flowers. Zinnias and marigolds run a close second. And her reasoning behind that thought process is all three varieties bloom all summer.

“That’s the reason I like them. Other perennials, like the hostas, they bloom once and they’re done,” she said.

The Redlins plans most of their annuals from seed. As for the perennials, Vic is prideful that she’s been able to maintain some of the dahlias for four seasons.

“I hide them in the tubers. I dig them up in October before the first frost, bring them to the basement and cover them up with a towel. In mid-March, I bring them to the other side of the room where there is sunshine in the morning and spray them to activate them. After one month they will sprout and then I transplant them in the ground,” she explains.

She’s learned a lot by trial and error and reading horticulture magazines on how to care for flowers and plants.

“I learn every year,” she said. “The first year I killed a lot of dahlias, because I didn’t know (about them) and we don’t have them in the Philippines where you grow all year-round.”

She estimates she loses about 20 percent of the perennials.

“But that’s OK,” she says optimistically. “There’s still 80 percent, right? So, I will keep buying.”

Vic spends hours in her backyard oasis watering, weeding and harvesting.

“I wake up early in the morning and start weeding, and when I come home from work, I start watering and weeding,” she says. “I love my flowers. I am the protector of them.”

She balances her hobby with a full-time job in the Asian deli at HyVee’s Minnesota location in Sioux Falls, and Jim’s golf hobby.

“That’s the arrangement we made,” Jim says. “My hobby is golf, but the only problem is I can’t golf here, I have to go to the golf course, and she said, ‘That’s fine.’” 

Multiple varieties of colorful blooming buds aren’t the only plants that Vic grows in the Redlin’s backyard. There’s also a vegetable garden filled with two-dozen tomato plants, a variety of peppers, cucumbers, green beans, string beans, zucchini, and two Asian varieties of gourds, bitter and bottle. And there’s a cherry tree, too, that’s now ripe for the picking – and eating.

The Redlins enjoy the fruits of their labors fresh out of the garden and throughout the year by canning. 

“With the tomatoes, we can pasta sauce, so we don’t buy pasta sauce anymore. Cucumbers, we can them. I make pickles and we still have a lot in the basement; it’s only two of us, so I give some to my friends, especially my Asian vegetables, I cannot finish alone and my husband does not eat them,” Vic said. 

Their backyard also attracts oodles of butterflies, bees and birds.

“In August, there will be a lot of bees, butterflies and humming birds,” she said.

Unlike her native Philippines, Vic says it’s important to fully enjoy the six months of “good weather” the Midwest offers.

“Life is so short, enjoy it to the fullest,” she says. “And this makes me so happy.”