Gardening brought Batavia couple together, now family joins in

Debbie and Geoff Rempert are particularly successful gardeners.

A garden in Batavia brought the couple together and helps them raise their children. And oh, yes, a stint on The Oprah Show figures in this love story, too.

It all started about nine years ago when Debbie, a big Oprah fan, answered a call for people who wanted to use their hobby to help others. The next thing she knew, she was building a garden for an elderly couple in Montgomery.

Her minute or so on the national show led a co-worker at Ball Horticulture in West Chicago to say, "I didn't know you did that, could you help my son who just bought a home? He really wants to get into gardening but doesn't know how to start."

After one peony bush, some coneflowers and day lilies from Debbie's own garden and about two years the couple was married.

Now it's hard to recognize the house that Geoff bought. Adding on a second floor to the 1940s Cape Cod went so well it inspired him to start his own remodeling business.

And the lush garden with ornamental grasses, blooming prairie flowers and punches of colorful annuals bears little resemblance to the few sedum and evergreens that Debbie found when she first visited the front yard.

Which brings us to the next generation of Rempert gardeners - 5-year-old Matthew and 4-year-old Rachel.

"We're old-fashioned," said Debbie Rempert. "We don't let them watch much television, and they don't play video games. We keep them centered in nature, learning about plants and skills and getting interests. The garden feeds our souls, and we want the kids to get that."

Matthew, believe it or not, likes his jobs: picking up sticks and weeding. He started picking up sticks in the yard when he was 3, said Geoff.

"Every morning when we're eating breakfast he looks out to see how many sticks might have fallen down. He gets so excited," said Debbie.

And how does he know which is a weed?

"The little pointy things," said Matthew.

"That's the crab grass," explains his mother.

Now that he's almost 6, Matthew can use a weeding tool and even a smaller pruner that Geoff bought for Debbie. This is exciting because he loves all tools, even shovels.

His father helps Matthew list his favorite plants - black-eyed Susans, carrots, beans and sugar snap peas.

Rachel is the flower girl. She likes to pick blooms and water and plant seeds.

"We love black-eyed Susans," said her mother. "Rachel can pick as many as she wants, and it doesn't do much damage."

Debbie tells her children stories about each plant, and the one about the peony fairy is especially fun.

Did you know that when peonies bloom, the peony fairy makes pennies shoot out from the flowers?

"Since the peony is one of the first plants blooming, it gets them into the garden and looking around. I want to create some magic for them. And since each flower has its own fairy, they learn the names."

It's easy to involve children in the garden, and they really like being "in charge" of something, she said.

"We just go out ourselves to work in the garden, and they want to be outside, too," said Geoff.

As for Geoff, his passion is the vegetable garden.

"I wish I could expand it further. Every year it gets just a little bit bigger," he said. "We used to have a huge one when I was growing up. But we've gotta keep green space for the kids to throw the ball around. I built the sandbox, but we opted not to have a swing set."

Debbie said the family walks and bikes to a nearby park instead.

And of course, the children love harvesting those vegetables. While they can't pull out carrots yet, they can pick those tomatoes and rhubarb for Matthew's favorite: rhubarb-strawberry pie.

"Families gardening together is an amazing gift," said Debbie. "It's a great way to spend time together."