From 9AM to 3PM Sat., June 8, the Naperville Garden Club will be hosting a Garden Walk, “Through the Garden Gate,” featuring seven private gardens. Two pairs of gardens are adjacent, so in five “stops” you can visit all seven gardens!
One pair of gardens is in Aurora, just east of Eola Road. Longtime friends, they are back-yard neighbors. Barbara began to Zentangle (a form of drawing) recently and examples of this art form enhance the gardens. Neighbors Roy and Elaine installed a working sink near the cottage garden, planted around an oak tree from an Arbor Day celebration.
The other gardens are in Naperville. Ed and Nancy’s favorite project is on-going. At family gatherings, family members decorate plaster hand prints with their names and personal mementos. These are permanently installed. A shaded area near the pond with a waterfall provides a place to sit and think about loved ones- or where the next perennial or shrub should go!
Carolyn and Mel have a garden certified by the National Wildlife Federation, Wild Ones, the Conservation Foundation and the Illinois Audubon Society. Their “no-mow” garden has many eclectic and artful “garden rooms.”
The other pair of gardens are next door neighbors. Backing up to Margaret Mary Church, Kris put in a pathway of Colorado rose limestone from the back door to a gate at the edge of the property. The family walks out the back door, down the path and off to mass! Next door Pete and Betsy have brought in large stones to replicate the outcropping look found naturally throughout the Midwest.
One garden is that of a former president of the Naperville Garden Club. She has mastered the skill of planting the right plant in the right place. Her use of color and texture is a lesson for all who visit her garden.
Tickets are available at two Buikema Ace Hardware stores: North Washington Street and 75th Street and at both The Growing Place locations for $10 until June 7. On June 8, tickets are available at each of the gardens for $12.
