Garden Tour
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This very popular self-guided tour of local gardens includes the beauty of colorful flowers alongside the gentle sounds of live music and local artists painting at each location
Tour six beautiful gardens during the Red Wing Arts Association Garden Tour on Sunday, July 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Whether you're searching for new inspiration for your garden, want to enjoy beautiful blooms while listening to live music, or are curious to see how a garden inspires an artist, you'll find it all. Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the Red Wing Arts Association and at Lily's Coffee House. A food vendor will be located near the Depot Gallery, if you want to grab a quick lunch before or during the tour. Master Gardeners will be at each location to answer your questions. Local musicians will be performing at each garden. A different regional artist will be creating a garden-inspired artwork at each location. The artwork will be for sale following the tour.
The tour is self-guided, so you can begin at any of the gardens. Those unfamiliar with Red Wing will find it easiest to begin with the Container Garden at the Arts Association Depot Gallery at 418 Levee Street. At the Depot you can pick up a separate sheet with driving instructions for a pre-planned route to accompany the map that is printed on the Garden Passport.(ticket).
The Container Garden at the Depot Gallery illustrates both the variety of plants that can be grown in containers and how containers can be used to transform an area. You may come just to enjoy the beauty, but whether you have just a small porch or patio or acres of yard, you'll be inspired. May be it's the contrasts, the vivid colors, the different textures or the intriguing shapes, containers make plants standout. The containers are provided by the Goodhue County Horticultural Society, Hallstrom's Florist and Sargent's Nursery.
Muriel and Richard Henderson's Easy Care Garden is made up of perennial plants that require little maintenance. Muriel uses no chemicals and keeps her garden environmentally friendly. Although it requires little work, the payoff is huge, not only in beautiful blooms but also in butterflies, moths, birds and other creatures that visit the garden. The garden flows seamlessly into the native prairie garden of the Bohmbach Property Owners' Association.
A Meander Garden is curvy and flows from one element to the next. The landscape of Pat and Roger Sween's yard is a place to meander. It slopes from a busy street to a quiet woods. Walks circle the borders, planted islands, stepped terraces, a rock garden, and the original oaks. Garden areas feature a harmony of roses and bright annuals; varied hostas and other shade plants; oregano and various herbs; plus flowering and leafy shrubs. New trees mix with those that came first.
Neighbors driving by savor the ever changing tapestry of color in Cindy Peterson's yard. Her Roadside Color Garden is actually a rain garden that receives two-thirds of the runoff from the house. Cindy loves starting seeds and starts both perennial and annual plants from seeds. This is also the place where friends send their rejected and extra plants for new life. There is a cottage garden feel to the flower beds overflowing with color from clusters of annuals tucked between old cultivars.
The main area for Deborah and Mark Wasmund's Mosaic Garden was once just a patch of wind flowers. Now, it is a gorgeous mix of plants and hardscaping with grassy areas separating flower beds, fruit trees and raised vegetable beds. Hardscaping includes a flagstone wall surrounding the fruit trees, a mosaic bench, a decorative trellis covered with grape vines, pastel birdhouses on the perimeter fence posts and the quintessential potting shed. A love of ornamentation and artwork is echoed in unexpected ways throughout the garden from the Da Vinci inspired bed to the mosaic bird house to the brick patio. And, that's just the main garden! Hostas surround the outdoor living space at the back of the house along with ferns and other shade plants blending into the woods. This garden is an ongoing work of art by the owners.
You'll find music and magic in the Courtyard Garden at Hobgoblin Music & Stoney End Harps (www.stoneyend.com). Over 150 feet of retaining wall and raised beds graced by annual and perennial flowers welcome you into the shop where craftsmen produce mountain dulcimers, banjos, bodhrans and harps, which are recognized and accepted worldwide. As you stroll along admiring the blooms, look carefully and you may recognize a fairy door leading into some hidden world. Although the rustic, weathered boards blend into the vegetation, the brass hinges and ornamental knobs will help you to spot the doors.
Master Gardeners in each garden will have prepared information to share with visitors. Master Gardener take a core course of 48 hours of classroom instruction and complete an internship of 50 volunteer hours during their first year. Thier studies and volunteer work continue in subsiquent years, so don't be shy about asking them any of your garden questions. You'll find the Master Gardeners enthusiastic in their desire to share information with others.
For more information call 651-388-7569 or email to rwaa@redwing.net. The proceeds from ticket sales and from the sale of the artwork benefits the Red Wing Arts Association.