Petals & Pathways
What: Master Gardeners’ annual home garden tour highlights peninsula gardens
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 23
Where: Six Port Angeles homes
Tickets: $15 prior to tour, $20 on tour day; available at various local locations (see story) or at www.brownpapertickets.com
Sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Clallam County, the 2018 Petals and Pathways Home Garden Tour highlights six beautifully landscaped home gardens in Port Angeles from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, June 23.
These gardens are carefully selected by Master Gardeners of Clallam County for their diversity in gardening and landscape techniques, design and accessibility. There will be something to delight and enrich everyone who attends from gentle relaxing ponds with water features, to aviaries, perennial terracing, vegetables and natural wildlife preservation areas.
Tickets for the self-guided tour include descriptions of each garden and driving instructions. The gardens may be visited in any order.
Tickets are $15 prior to the tour and $20 on tour day and can be purchased from local Master Gardeners and at the Clallam County WSU Extension office, Airport Garden Center, The Greenhouse Nursery, Port Book and News, Over the Fence, Sunny Farms, Nash’s Organic Produce, Peninsula Nursery, Wild Birds Unlimited, The Co-Op Farm & Garden, and New Dungeness Nursery.
Tickets are also available online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3405178 and at the gardens on the day of the tour.
Proceeds from the tour help to maintain the Woodcock Demonstration Garden on Woodcock in Sequim and the Fifth Street Gardens in Port Angeles, and the foundation’s numerous community services such as the Youth Enrichment Program, Boys & Girls Garden Club, Saturday lectures at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden and Brown Bag lectures in Port Angeles.
About the gardens …
1. The Money Gardens
This garden is one that must be viewed up close and personal, beginning with the plant grouping at the corner of the lot. The main feature is a tall black bamboo that helps to camouflage the utility pole.
Scattered throughout the front planting beds are variegated iris, oregano, Virginia creeper, oak leaf hydrangea and carnations. A specimen cork screw willow gives a nice contrast to the bamboo.
Near the blueberry, blackberry and raspberry fenced raised beds is a Fan-Leafed Cedar on one side with a Black Lace Elderberry on the other. Stepped plantings on the north side include a wide variety of ferns, hostas, ligularia and lilies. The backyard includes a “grape” arbor over the seating area with the soft
sound of moving water providing a soothing background. A wealth of fuchsias, primroses and other perennials give splashes of color all over this backyard.
It’s easy to see how this garden was given the 2017 Green Thumb Award by the Port Angeles Garden Club.
2. The Pendergrass Gardens
Are you looking for the perfect outdoor living space? Look no further than house number two on the PA Garden tour.
As you walk through this perfectly manicured front yard to reach
the back-yard oasis, note the rock retention pond in front and the cement art work etched into the sidewalk. The backyard is surrounded by a bamboo fence providing privacy, security and noise control. The low maintenance back patio could easily accommodate an entire dance team and features outdoor heaters and contact lighting making it perfect for year around entertaining.
This city oasis is surrounded by interesting pots, a decorative bridge, a fountain, and loads of fun yard art. Don’t miss it.
3. The Schouten Gardens
Layering links with nature, this garden boasts a rich, multi-layered habitat that shelters and feeds a variety of wildlife.
Meander along pathways and trails; take in the sights and sounds of waterfalls and ponds; view waterfowl from a northwest tea house and admire the rock terrace plantings. This wooded habitat draws you in to explore and enjoy Arnold and Debbie’s passion and energy to create a special place for wildlife.
Woodland gardens have a natural setting and the landscape’s many water features and native plants create sanctuary for their winged guests including hummingbirds, swallows, red-winged blackbirds, wild ducks, band-tailed pigeons, ravens, great blue heron, hawks, eagles, bats, butterflies, and bees. Four-legged creatures including turtles, rabbits, raccoons, flying squirrels and deer are also welcomed year-round visitors.
Humans find quiet solitude and harmony in this inviting hidden paradise nestled within a secluded forest.
4. The VanCalcar Gardens
A contemporary home: The owners have overcome a steep-sloped sandy lot using many rock walls and stairs. The result is a meandering garden full of fruit trees, berries, ornamental shrubs and food for the table.
This lovely garden has an inspirational view of Port Angeles Harbor. The home offers a lovely deck overlooking the garden conveniently accessible to wheelchairs.
The house is on a dead-end street. Perpendicular parking is available across the street. Parking guides will be available.
5. The Fitzsimmons Gardens
If you were fortunate enough to view this garden on a past tour, you can now compare the newly planted to mature. The old boat is barely visible on the corner as the plants have filled in and are flowing over the sides.
Try to find the split rail fence, almost hidden, amongst the grasses, euphorbia, clematis and nasturtiums. The arbor is covered with a honeysuckle vine.
The water in the small pond with goldfish is recirculated by an old-fashioned hand pump. Splashes of hot color, throughout the garden, catch your eye in the various window boxes and containers with coleus, nasturtiums, and geraniums. The raised beds are overflowing with a wide variety of vegetables.
There are pear and apple trees, along with Japanese maples and a huge Gunnera on the north side.
6. The Taylor Gardens
A residence off the beaten pathway showcases pristine woods filled with native trees and plants in their natural habitat — and the wildlife they attract.
Carved out of the forest, the grounds are populated with familiar Pacific Northwest flora. Among them are Western Red cedar, Douglas fir, Western hemlock, Grand fir, alder, Oregon grape, fireweed, huckleberry, honeysuckle, thimbleberry, snowberry, Nootka rose, sword fern and plenty of nature’s groundcover and salal.
Bearded iris, daffodil, California poppy and Darwin’s barberry are among the plantings chosen to achieve a color palette of purples and blues, oranges, lavenders, hot pink, and brilliant yellow.
New features complement the ambience of the natural setting. Creating focal points that replicate the “patina of age” helped achieve that goal.
Organic materials such as old tree trunks, weathered logs, and large boulders were collected over time; all placed to mimic the randomness of nature. Old cedar logs became small sections of ‘broken down’ snake fence and weathered logs and boulders became important elements for the man-made pond.
The hardscaping was designed to blend with the natural landscape by softening the edges of the courtyard parking area and tinting the concrete a mottled green and found hanging in the trees, chandeliers provide an element of the unexpected.
