Clermont 160-acre homestead a labor of love

CLERMONT - Susan Kuennen Massman and Jim Massman bought a 160-acre farm in Clermont together late in life in 2010.

They spent many long hours landscaping a variety of gardens in what she describes as the beautiful rolling hills of 'highly erodible soil with a wide diversity of ecosystems ranging from woodlands, wetlands, Bell Creek, springs, crop land, rock, sand, clay and prairie.”

Today, the homestead still is a labor of love. Now, though, Susan's labor is both for the love of the land and for Jim, who died from brain cancer in 2011,

'Jim and I were like painters with a fresh palate and new canvas ... dreaming, creating, and planting together,” she says.

She continues the work - planting, fertilizing, weeding, watering, and mulching - they started together.

They built four Leopold benches for sitting together. They established a vineyard with 18 various grape vines, which Massman later enlarged to 70 vines with five rows, each one 105-feet long.

They planted apple, cherry and plum trees with four various orchards of four to five trees each.

'Jim and I planted raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, about a dozen hostas each around 12 trees near the house and about 15 varieties of hostas around the perimeter of our backyard,” she says. 'Jim helped me plant the Cana's around the fuel barrel, cleared a small hillside to plant a variety of lilies, lilacs and other perennials.”

The work continues.

'Last year I cleaned up brushy area, saving the jack in the Pulpit, Blood Root and other natives to extend the shaded area now know as the 'Garden of Knowledge” aptly named because of old college text books being utilized for mulch,” she says.

In 2013, her son and his fiance helped plant 50 red oak and black cherry trees. This spring she planted 100 oak trees from Winneshiek Pheasants Forever.

She added to her garden beds, too.

'I have planted over 150 varieties of named hostas, tree lilies, Asiatic lilies, Oriental lilies, over 200 named, hybrid day lilies and calla lilies,” she says.

Her gardens are orchestrated and organized, all clearly labeled.

A wide variety of flowers bloom from early spring until frost. Certain plants, shrubs, grasses and trees add winter beauty and food for her songbirds.

Then there is the vegetable gardens that offer sustenance for Massman and others from summer and into fall and winter.

She grows a vast amount of vegetables in her 80-by-25-feet garden along with lots of different flowers.

In another area she bent hog panels into a dome for climbers like squash, cucumbers and gourds.

She has pumpkins, watermelon, strawberries in two raised cattle feeder bunks that look right at home on her farm, and are perfect for not having to bend down to weed and harvest.

Between the house and summer kitchen is her herb garden with a variety of mints - chocolate, apple, spearmint, peppermint, sweet mint, pineapple, orange and more - stevia, tarragon, garlic and onion chives, cilantro, sage oregano, basil and others.

She gives the fruits of her labor away to friends and family and also to a place called Hope Lodge in Rochester, Minn., a home for families to stay with the patient who is undergoing chemo/radiation therapy for cancer treatment.

'Jim and I stayed there for two weeks in August of 2011 when he was receiving treatments,” she says.

While this modern day pioneer lady is busy with her flowers, fruits and vegetables, she also thinks fondly of her late grandmother Anna (Hackman) Schmitt.

Schmitt saved flower seeds every year, especially yellow tomatoes. She would save the seeds on a newspaper and when dry, she would fold it up, tie it with the string from a flour sack, mark and date it.

'My grandmother Anna Hackman Schmitt was a first cousin to Helena Hackman Ott, the grandmother of Diane Ott Whealy, the co-founder of Seed Savers near Decorah,” says Susan with a smile.

A master gardener, Massman encourages lifelong learning.

'Continue to educate yourself by joining a garden club, sign up for a Master Gardener workshop through Iowa State University Extension services, attend garden open houses, expos, visit a nature center, enjoy programs on wildflowers, attracting birds and butterflies to your yard,” she says.

While Massman's homestead provides ample opportunity to practice what she preaches, she also grows a variety of willow she uses to weave pioneer baskets.

She weaves those baskets in her Bell Creek Basket Weaving Studio beneath a curtain of Grandpa Ott's Morning Glories, which climb along the twine Jim attached to the old summer kitchen's roof line.