July 14, 2004

Garden walk offers fragrant summer stroll

Friendly Garden Club fundraiser showcases six unique Old Mission Peninsula gardens

By
Herald staff writer

      Roses are red - and yellow, and pink, and just about any other color you care to name - in Schmidt's Rose Gardens, one of six gardens featured in the Friendly Garden Club's Summer Garden Walk on Thursday.
      For the 22nd year, the Friendly Garden Club will host visitors at private gardens, this year located on Old Mission Peninsula.
      "It's an honor to be asked to have your garden as part of the Garden Walk," said Karen Schmidt, who along with husband Kurt, put their five-year-plan for their rose garden into place in less than two months after the invitation from the Garden Club.
      "There is never enough time to get things done, but then a garden is never finished and that is the joy of it," Schmidt noted.
      In addition to the Schmidt's rose garden, visitors are invited to take in:
      - Jennie's Sunset Garden - an informal cottage style perennial garden designed to enjoy the sunrise and sunsets while providing natural bird habitat.
      - Zwemer's Woodsy Garden - a four season garden filled with perennials and annuals, ground covers and bushes all in a woodsy setting.
      - Barber's Garden Rooms - a garden designed with low maintenance featuring sunny beds, hillside and rock gardens, natural boggy area, fruit orchard, asparagus and blueberry patches and a secret garden.
      - Brys' Garden Acres - a white picket fence sets off a Williamsburg style flower garden with perennial beds and grapes in their extensive vineyard.
      - Donna's Sunny Garden Beds - look for roses, grasses, poppies and an espaliered pear tree in this standout garden.
      The Friendly Garden Club began hosting the Summer Garden Walk as a way to raise funds and awareness at the same time.
      "We like to encourage the love of gardening and civic beautification," said club president Sue Loney, noting that funds raised by the group are used for projects such as the logo garden in the Open Space, Senior Center planting, junior gardening projects and scholarship awards to environmental school.
      Tickets for the Garden Walk are $7 for adults, 16 and under are free. For more information, call Laura Swire at 946-9178 or Pam Yeager at 947-0163.