A strong partnership: she’s the boss of the garden; he’s the builder. She gets an inspiration. He draws up the plans and makes it happen. They’re solid partners in the garden, and they have one amazing backyard to confirm it. A strong partnership. He meets with clients and consults. She crunches the numbers. He analyzes financials. She prepares the documents. They’re solid partners in business, and a growing business proves it.
Dan and Carmen Hoefs of Fargo have figured out how to build a business together and also create an “oasis” at home. The Hoefs own Padgett Business Services—The Small Biz Pros in the 25th Street Market in Fargo. Their business provides assistance to small businesses to realize profit and growth, while helping with monthly financials, payroll, taxes, and business consulting. Dan and Carmen work together every day. They say they are a “good fit” and complement each other.
“We each play to our strengths and cooperate on the direction of the business,” Dan says. A “meeting of the minds” in their office each day, Dan goes on to share that he and Carmen “see an awful lot of each other.” He went on to explain that this is an extremely good thing. They get to share highs and lows together on a daily basis both at work and at home.
Dan and Carmen have been married since 1986, and have worked hard at creating a comfortable home and family life with their two children—Adam, 20, and Christine, 17. When spending time with the Hoefs, one can easily sense that Carmen is the free spirit and Dan is the analytical mind. They create a near perfect partnership at the office, as well as when it comes to gardening and doing projects in their beautiful 6000 square foot backyard.
Some people have lake places, but the Hoefs have chosen to have this one incredible yard in south Fargo instead. The Hoefs bought their home in south Fargo in December of 1993. When they bought it, there was virtually nothing in the backyard—just a weeping willow tree, another couple of trees, and a playset. It didn’t take long for Carmen to start dreaming of what “could be” in the yard.
Carmen, a master gardener through NDSU, does not describe herself as an “even” gardener. Her organic space is constantly changing. If Carmen sees a new plant or tree that she likes, she buys it. Only when she gets it home does she decide how she will incorporate it into the garden or yard. She looks for unique plants, shrubs, or trees with interesting flowers, bark or properties. She looks for quality in what she buys, and believes that supporting small businesses in town is important. Throughout the summer, one can catch her checking out the local nurseries and garden facilities looking for that new special something that would go perfectly in the yard.
When entering the Hoefs’ yard from the patio doors in the kitchen, it instantly feels like a different world. The sound of flowing water soothes the spirit. Perennial flowering plants including rudbeckia, day lilies, monarda, echinacea and columbine greet you while ornamental grasses rustle in the breeze. Hen and chicks of several varieties pop out, and sedums, Carmen’s favorite plant, grow throughout the backyard. It is a garden space teeming with life.
Carmen’s green thumb and love of nature might just be genetic. Dan jokes that, “She is her mother’s daughter.” Her mother has four gardens and grows her own vegetables. She spends hours in her gardens in Richardton, ND, watering and caring for her plants daily. Carmen lightheartedly jokes that her mother doesn’t come to visit in the summer because she’s worried that her plants will miss her while she’s gone! Perhaps that’s why Carmen loves spending so much time in her garden space as well.
Carmen is inspired by garden magazines, websites, and books on anything having to do with flower gardening. She is especially drawn to structures and specific plant varieties, like sedum. She loves dreaming and planning how she might incorporate a new idea into her garden space while reading about the “how to.”
Partnership and collaboration make their way to the garden. The Hoefs’ Koi pond is a fantastic example of this. It all began as a hint being dropped by Carmen in a conversation with Dan—“Honey, I’d sure like a pond.” Thus began a two-year process.
The little pond ended up a much larger project in scope than Carmen had envisioned or expected. In Dan’s words, “You ask for a pond. You get a pond with a capital ‘p.’” This “go big, or go home” philosophy has also made its way to the “Shed with a capital ‘s.’” When asked why everything is bigger than expected, Dan shared, “If you’re going to build a pond, build it big enough to winter the fish. If you’re going to build a shed, build it big enough that you don’t regret it later.”
Dan maintains that Carmen is the “boss of the garden.” She is passionate about gardening, and Dan likes to build and create things that complement her space. He jokes that he is “just the strong back.” Big projects in the Hoefs’ backyard usually follow the “two year rule”—the first year is research and planning, and the second year is the nuts and bolts of building. In the process, the projects “tend to grow,” says Dan. He believes in doing things right the first time, thus the use of his engineering background to diagram each project on graph paper to scale, laying everything out exactly, and calculating the precise amount of materials needed for each project. Carmen is always amazed at how little is left in materials when it’s all said and done. Dan’s measurements and predictions are usually right on mark. An industrial engineer by trade (it was his first career), Dan uses his skills to execute the backyard projects to near perfection. But he makes it clear that a person doesn’t have to be an engineer to do these types of projects. “It isn’t essential, but it has helped,” Dan shares.
The Hoefs tend to be weekend warriors when it comes to the construction of the large projects in the yard. It becomes a family affair with Dan’s parents joining in on the process. The kids always are willing to help as well, and the labor goes a lot faster when it’s a team effort.
The Koi “pond with a capital ‘p’” ended up being a 900-gallon pond with two waterfalls and a creek flowing to the larger pond. About 20 Koi goldfish live in the pond, along with water lettuce, water lilies, cattails, creeping Jenny and several different varieties of rush. King Tut papyrus creates texture in the rock bed. Ornamental granite and flat rocks were brought to the rock bed with love from western North Dakota one carload at a time. These unique rocks create character in the water feature, each carefully chosen by Carmen from the farming rock piles back home.
Turtles have enjoyed living near the pond, as well as a mother and father duck (affectionately named Fred and Ethel). One unwelcomed visitor was a peregrine falcon from downtown Fargo who was looking for lunch in the fishpond.
The fish winter in the pond. Carmen shared that a stock tank heater is placed in the waterfall to keep the water flowing, even when the temperatures are well below zero. The Koi move to the lowest point of the large pond and hibernate, barely moving for the winter. They do not need to be fed the entire winter. Birds enjoy bathing in the water in the winter, too!
The “shed with a capital ‘s’” is according to Dan, “the largest shed you can build on a floating slab.” The 12-foot by 12-foot enclosed shed sits on a 12-foot by 15-foot slab and has 8-foot side walls. The sliding door has a latch that tightens the door so that snowdrifts do not form in the shed during the winter. It is a great space for storage and for organizing Carmen’s gardening tools. The inside of the shed is lined with the Hoefs’ old fence that was replaced a few years back so that the yard could be rabbit proofed. Carmen adds, “If you are going to invest money in a garden, invest in good rabbit proofing.” The yard is completely enclosed with a beautiful new fence, with special green rabbit wire at the bottom of each section of fence. Dan added the porch on to the shed in the design process so that he could admire the Koi pond in the evening. He can be found most evenings sipping a beverage and enjoying the sounds of the pond.
One of the elements of the yard that has been a staple has been “Mother Willow,” the Hoefs’ willow tree. Most people look at willow trees and think “mess.” Dan and Carmen think “kindling.” The Hoefs like to spend as much time in their backyard as possible and love having fires in their two fire pits using the fallen foliage and branches from Mother Willow.
Carmen doesn’t cut down her shrubs and grasses in the fall so that seedpods stay intact and the wintering plants act as a snow catch. Clean up in the spring does take some time and work, but once everything is growing, time in the garden is therapeutic for her. Maintaining the garden takes a couple of nights a week, mainly watering plants from the 100-gallon rain catch barrel and weeding. “Come home and pull some weeds after a bad day. It just makes everything better,” Carmen shares. Raspberries that grew underneath the fence from the neighbors to the west grow near the fence. They bloom all season long so Carmen laughs and shared, “As I garden, I eat.”
As one meanders and takes in the beauty of the water feature and the huge variety of blooming perennials, unique and interesting accessories adorn the garden. There are rocks that have been carved to have funny faces; a bowling ball that was painted to look like a large red and white fishing bobber; Potted blooming plant gardens; a flower bed framed by a real headboard and footboard from an antique cast iron bed; Carmen’s token tomato plant; and a rooftop from the set of Fiddler on the Roof. There is also a unique walking path leading to the pond with stepping-stones made by Dan’s mother with the stained glass that Dan’s father made. There are designs of a Koi goldfish, keys, a beer mug, the Padgett logo, a compass rose, a yin and yang, and the saying “A Jewel of a Garden.” Such interesting ornaments throughout add beauty and charm to the naturally beautiful landscape.
With the short spring and summer season in our area, Dan and Carmen Hoefs spend as much time in their backyard as possible. They find satisfaction in the blooms of their labor. Before long, the first snow will come, and the flowers will no longer bloom. It will be time to winter the fish and wait for the birds to come and bathe in the pond. Until then, the Hoefs will be working on planning their next project—a rain garden. It’s already been plotted out in the western corner of the yard. “There’s also another flower bed that Dan doesn’t know about yet,” says Carmen. Maybe a few more subtle hints, and the plans will be drawn up to scale soon.
Partnership creates a strong relationship at work and at home. Partnership has created a growing business. Partnership creates the perfect backyard growing space.
If you would like to learn more about the Hoef’s pond and how they came to putting it in click the following link. Outdoor Pond
