June 12 Column: Spokane in Bloom Garden Tour
I think garden tours are one of the most pleasant activities a gardener can take part in. Next Saturday, June 18, the Spokane in Bloom garden tour will feature 6 beautiful gardens on Spokane’s South side. Today’s garden column is a preview of the tour, just to ramp up your excitement! You can read it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Planting ideas. Or you can read the text of my column underneath the video below.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Laynor last week and touring through his lovely garden. It is huge! There are so many interesting plants and delightful vistas. I can’t wait to go on the tour and see the rest of the gardens.
As I explained in this week’s video, I was talking with my husband, Bill, and telling him that I just wasn’t sure what the focus of my video should be. He said, “Since you’re writing about the garden tour, why not give folks a tour of our gardens… and not just the vegetable garden, but everything!” That was a great idea. I hope you will enjoy it.
While I could have shown you much more, I always try to keep my videos to a reasonable length. It’s always hard to truly experience a garden through a video. I did my best, though!
Here’s my garden column:
By Susan Mulvihill
Walking through other people’s gardens is one of the best ways to discover great design concepts and new plants. It’s always a good idea to accomplish this by going on a garden tour since you will be welcomed with open arms during your visit.
On Saturday (June 18), six lovely gardens will be showcased in the Spokane in Bloom Garden Tour. The Inland Empire Gardeners, our community’s largest garden club, will host this event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All of the gardens are located on Spokane’s South side. There will be artists and vendors at each one. Musicians will be performing at many of the locations as well.
Featured garden of the Spokane in Bloom Garden Tour
Tourgoers will take away plenty of ideas from the garden created by Joe Laynor, which is located at 5815 E. 25th Ave. He and his wife, Pam, live on a 5-acre property that they share with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.
“Our homes were built in 2015,” he explained. “A landscaping company put in the big trees first, then the hardscaping. In 2018, I started working on the landscaping and that’s when I realized this was such a massive, blank slate! Since I’m retired now, I have plenty of time to work outside every day.”
Visitors will be greeted with bright flowers and colorful gazing balls at the front of the Laynors’ home. The peaceful surroundings mask the challenges of gardening in a forested location, however.
“After moving here from Georgia, I wanted to grow all of my favorite things,” he said. “I spent $1,000 on plants and the deer ate everything. When I go to nurseries, I now look for deer-resistant or at least deer-tolerant plants.”
In addition to the deer issues, he also has to deal with gophers, chipmunks and turkeys. Even so, the property is now a certified wildlife sanctuary, with feeders and plants for the birds as well as a natural spring that attracts wildlife.
Laynor’s plant choices are very appealing.
“I initially wanted to go with a Japanese theme but I love the colors of flowers so much that I modified my plans,” he admitted. “My favorite color combination is chartreuse and purple because I’ve always enjoyed the contrast.”
He has accomplished this with deep burgundy barberries, purple smoke bush (Cotinus), golden cypress, Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa) and chartreuse-leaved spireas. These shrubs are accompanied by rhododendrons, viburnums, daylilies, penstemons, salvias, catmint and coral bells (Heuchera).
The resulting blend clearly shows Laynor’s love for gardening.
“This is definitely a plant-lovers garden, a hodgepodge of different plants,” he said. “All of the work has been worth it because I can now see the beauty of what I first envisioned in my mind. I encourage folks to just walk around and enjoy the serenity of the area.”
There will be two food trucks at this location to help visitors keep up their energy levels.
Other gardens on the Spokane in Bloom tour:
Walt Woliver and Ashlee Cribb, 1122 E. 20th Ave. _ This one-acre garden, which has been nurtured for almost 110 years, features terraces, splashing water features, rose gardens and pleasant sitting areas to enjoy the surrounding landscape.
Dieter and Julie Lubbe, 1720 S. Rockwood Blvd. _ Visitors will enjoy the masses of colorful flowers and a terraced back yard that includes an impressive collection of evergreens and a large waterfall.
Don and Diana Storey, 1724 S. Rockwood Blvd. _ The homeowners’ travels have inspired their landscape’s design. One of the focal points is a replica of the Japanese bridge found in Butchart Gardens’ Japanese garden, which crosses one of two large water features.
Doris Monson, 4521 E. 56th Ave. _ This landscape has been redesigned over the past dozen years and is filled with a pleasing variety of trees, shrubs and flowers that are deer resistant.
Paul and Ann Hawkins, 7525 S. Regal Road _ A formal, French country garden that features boxwoods and hornbeam hedges will greet visitors here. A colorful contrast is provided with deer-resistant, long-blooming perennials and an iris border.
Proceeds from the Spokane in Bloom garden tour will benefit community service programs.
Susan Mulvihill is author of “The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook.” She can be reached at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com. Watch this week’s video at youtube.com/susansinthegarden.
Tour details:
SPOKANE IN BLOOM GARDEN TOUR
What: Tour features six gardens in South Spokane.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 18
Tickets: $15, available at any of the gardens on the day of the tour, or in advance on The Inland Empire Gardeners’ website at tieg.org, or at the following Spokane nurseries: Blue Moon Garden & Nursery, 1732 S. Inland Empire Way; Gibson’s Nursery, 1401 S. Pines Rd.; Judy’s Enchanted Garden, 2628 W. Northwest Blvd.; Northwest Seed & Pet, 7302 N. Division St. and 2422 E. Sprague Ave.; and Barn and Blossom, 4010 E. Jamieson Rd.