Tour showcases local gardens
Bonnie Hannigan’s garden is a mix of
food and beauty.
She mixes her peas and peonies. Her
spinach and sunflowers mingle. Nary a patch of grass can be
seen.
Hannigan is in the fourth year of
turning her yard and formerly gravel driveway into a garden. She
has created a garden filled with vegetables and flowers that
surrounds her home.
Like many gardeners, Hannigan likes to
show off her work and she likes to discuss growing tips and
techniques.
“It’s a passion of mine,” she said. “I
love to have people come over. People love to talk dirt.”
With that in mind, Hannigan decided
that what Whitefish needed was a garden tour. So she has created
just such an event with a good cause.
The 2011 Whitefish Garden Tour features
nine gardens on Saturday, July 23. The event is a fundraiser for
the Whitefish Community Garden and will help the garden raise money
for its water bill.
“It will be like a progressive garden
party,” Hannigan said.
Owners of the gardens will be on-hand
during the event to answer questions and talk about different
styles of gardening and plant choice. The tour includes
professionally landscaped gardens, private individually-designed
gardens and a local urban farm.
“It can be super overwhelming when you
first start,” Hannigan said. “Different people address gardening in
different ways.”
The garden tour begins at the Community
Garden. Participants can then travel to the different gardens
throughout the day.
In addition to Hannigan’s garden, those
on the tour include Elden Gardens Dahlias, the garden of artist
Karen McKendry Minton, Scott and Cari Elden’s garden, the garden of
David and Jen Elden, Parker Beeson’s garden, Good Medicine Lodge
and Purple Frog Gardens.
Each garden offers a different
design.
Elden Gardens Dahlias is a commercial
dahlia farm, which grows more than 1,200 plants of 270 dahlia
varieties for show, weddings, florists and direct sale.
McKendry Minton describes her garden as
a hard working kitchen garden — practical and planted with things
she loves to eat. Beeson’s garden is described as a shabby chic
do-it-yourself backyard garden with everything from asparagus to
zucchini.
Scott and Cari Elden’s garden is a
professionally landscaped residential garden that includes
odd-shaped small gardens all around the house. While, David and Jen
Elden’s garden is both compact and full of edible delights.
Good Medicine Lodge is a bed and
breakfast. It uses its gardens to grow an abundance of herbs used
daily in food preparation and as part of its living space.
Purple Frog Gardens is the family-run
farm of Mike Jopek and Pam Gerwe. They sell a wide variety of
fruits, vegetables and eggs to the local community and use many
innovative techniques to extend their growing season.
The Garden Tour is from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. The tour begins at the Community Garden at 1150 Wisconsin Ave.
Maps for the tour $2 per individual and $5 for families. Maps grant
admission to all the gardens. The Purple Frog Gardens will only
give tours at noon and 2 p.m.
For more information on the 2011
Whitefish Garden Tour visit www.whitefishgardentour.com or contact
Hannigan at 253-6008.