July 27, 2005
City stroll pretty garden party
Friendly Garden Club walk features eight gardens in Boardman neighborhood
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Shade found, easel set up, pastels arranged in a burst of color on her tray, Judy Pechur set out creating a tranquil garden scene.
Inspired by the gardens and architecture around her, the plein air artist was living her work.
"Outdoors is my favorite way to paint," said the summer resident of Traverse City. "I just liked the little shed and the canoe."
Pechur and ten other plein air artists from the Art Center of Traverse City painted, sketched and created throughout the afternoon of Thursday's Garden Walk. Featuring eight gardens in the historic Boardman neighborhood, the walk drew an estimated 1,000 attendees throughout the day. The walk also featured demonstrations on decorative plantings.
The first time the artists have participated in the Garden Walk, they attracted a lot of attention and fielded many questions. The group, which meets regularly on Thursday afternoons, jumped at the chance to enjoy the gardens in their own way.
"When you're outside painting, it is just imprinted on you," said Mary Ellen Thero of Traverse City. "And it's not like when you take a photograph, you never forget it."
For the past 23 years, the Friendly Garden Club has created and hosted the walk to share interesting area gardens, inspire other gardeners and educate attendees about all aspects of gardening. Every year's walk has a theme and this year featured city gardens, more modest displays in smaller spaces that nevertheless amazed visitors with their creativity and style.
"I like the ideas this gives me," said Dorothea Carlson of Grayling, who attended with two fellow members of the Beyond the Garden Wall Club there. "There are so many things we can't grow because we're zone four and this is zone five."
This is also the first year that the Garden Walk stops were completely walkable. This allowed the club to feature an unusual cooperative effort: three neighbors who have let their gardens flow together.
"It's a neat idea because you have a harmony of gardens and colors," said Laura Swire, co-chair of the event. "It's nice when neighbors are cooperative and enjoy the same things."
For eight hours on Thursday, at least 50 volunteers guided attendees, answered questions, doled cookies, poured lemonade and shared all things garden. The homeowners, or a renter in one case, were also on hand to answer questions.
"It's been fun to share it, it really has," said Maxcella Latimer who created one of the featured gardens.
Latimer is the first container gardener the Friendly Garden Club has included on their walks. A renter, she has transformed the large, shady backyard to include more than 70 containers of flowers plus a handful with vegetables. Latimer's eclectic collection of containers inspired other gardeners, motivating one to bring her a gift.
"Someone is going to give me a six-foot antique wooden watering trough," she said.
The Garden Walk is also a fund-raiser for the Friendly Garden Club, providing money for garden related or beautification projects in the region. These include Arbor Day tree plantings, a junior gardening program and a scholarship award to an environmental school near Higgins Lake. They also donate commemorative books to libraries, give landscape awards to businesses, support gardens at local schools and fill grants for gardening projects.
Club members also donate time and materials to maintain the logo garden at the Open Space, plantings at the Senior Center and the Children's Garden at the Traverse Area District Library.
"We had a very successful day, people enjoyed it and I think people also had a chance to learn from the gardens especially having the chance to see how compact they could be, how expressive they could be," Swire said. "From the comments I heard, people loved the gardens and loved the walk, appreciated the chance to stroll through, liked the artists. Of course they always love our cookies, homemade cookies."