September 25, 2024
In Memoriam — Ernest Van Helsdingen
Ernest Van Helsdingen
Born on November 22, 1940 in Bandung, Indonesia, Ernest moved with his family to the Netherlands in 1949.
After his studies in Horticulture he immigrated to Canada in 1964.
In 1967 he started his garden maintenance and landscape business and incorporated shortly thereafter under the name VanHolland Landscaping Limited. The landscape maintenance department included residential, commercial and later provincial contracts; while Ernest’s heart was in designing and creating gardens with rock and water features, in later years, the company did large tree planting jobs along hi-ways as well as street planting for municipalities.
Right from the start, Ernest was actively involved in, and served as a board member of the Ontario Garden Maintenance and Landscaping Association (OGMLA) and was also one of the founders of Landscape Ontario. Ernest was a lifelong member of Landscape Ontario and he rarely missed Congress and still went as recently as two years ago.
Ernest was also very much interested in environmental issues. He soon decided to only quote on maintenance jobs that no longer demanded weed spraying, and he got involved with revitalizing urban landscapes using native plant materials and did some work for the Conservation Authority in Durham on a naturalization project.
Ernest’s family also decided to build an earth-sheltered home using 90 per cent recycled materials. When their property was expropriated it was decided to out fit the next house with solar panels and install geothermal heating and cooling.
Ernest lived life to the fullest. He loved people and all that nature had to offer, in particular, plants and animals. He grew trees, orchids, mushrooms (only recently) and a huge variety of vegetables ( during the last years donating most to "Feed The Need”). Over the decades, the family kept goats, chickens, geese, ducks and peacocks. Duncan, a black Labrador retriever became a beloved member of the family.
Travelling the world and canoeing on the rivers in northern Ontario were other passions the whole family shared. Ernest loved adventures, and he went sailing and scuba diving whenever he had the chance. He was a photographer, and was interested in history, politics, science and philosophy, always looking to expand his knowledge.
Over this last year, Ernest faced many health challenges, but he always responded with optimism and humour. He worked up to two months ago on his beloved 'bobcat'. When he could no longer walk along the forest paths he had created over the past 13 years, Ernest used the riding lawn mower as his mode of transportation.