Tour to showcase local gardens, art

Local News

July 11, 2010

By Tim Mandell Register News Writer The Richmond Register Sun Jul 11, 2010, 12:00 PM EDT

RICHMOND — Local residents are putting their gardens and art on display for the general public during the Richmond Area Arts Council’s (RAAC) garden tour.

The tour is Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 the day of the tour. All proceeds benefit the RAAC.

The tour begins at the art center, where Tim Weckman will display a bonsai garden exhibit.

From there, participants will receive a map and a list of each site and can visit the homes at their convenience.

Art will be on sale at all locations.

“At each garden, there will be an artist exhibiting and having their work for sale,” said Jan Tunnell, a member of the RAAC board who will have her garden on display. “It’s an opportunity to visit the gardens and see what the artists are doing. A good gardener likes to share their garden with other people, so it was easy to find the gardens.”

This is the first time the RAAC has conducted the tour.

“It’s something new and different,” Tunnell said. “I think people are very interested in it and we hope that we’ll have a nice turnout. We’re looking forward to having future tours.”

During the tour, participants should expect to see glass artwork, jewelry, pottery, water color and acrylic paintings, photography, gourd sculptures, painted gourds, watercolor paintings and a plein air painting demonstration.

“We’re avid gardeners,” said Emily Jarosz, who along with husband Dan will display a garden that have spent about four years working on.

Debbie and Charlie Sweet also are showing their garden.

“We’re just hoping to take people around and let them look at the plants in the yard and explain some history of them and why we like them,” Debbie said. “We have a secret garden, a gazebo area, a strawberry patch.”

“It’s my therapy,” she said of gardening. “We enjoy it. We’ve done our own landscaping and put plants in and flowers and trees.”

Advanced tickets can be purchased at the RAAC Center on the corner of Water Street and Lancaster Avenue.

Tour Schedule

(three more sites are expected to be added)

Jan and Ken Tunnell, 1053 Idylwild Drive

This mature garden is designed to have plants blooming from spring to fall. The large garden that borders the back contains an array of plant material, including mandevilla at the arched gateway entry. Beds are filled with hydrangeas, tall phlox, vinca, butterfly bushes, Rose of Sharon, lamb’s ear, coreoposis and coneflowers, among many others. A side shade bed contains hostas, while a sun bed features roses. Mark Johnson will display his glass artwork and Myra Johnson will show her jewelry underneath a canopy on the spacious lawn.

Emily and Dan Jarosz, 389 Highland Lakes Drive

The goal for this compact and well-planned garden is to feature low-maintenance plants that provide color at every season. A variety of holly, spirea, boxwood, firepower nandina, rhododendron, hydrangea, kerria, viburnum, clematis and yew, among many others, are lavishly displayed in the yard. Arbovitae are placed strategically for privacy. A small vegetable garden includes beans, carrots, onions, herbs, spinach, peas, lettuce, tomatoes and squash. Plants benefit from the camouflaged compost area in the back yard. Potter Buddy Dobbins will exhibit his creations at this site.

Ellen White,

1060 Bay Colony Drive

This terraced garden with curved brick-bordered beds provides spectacular views from the lake as well as the home. Wide vistas showcase many flowering plants and trees, including butterfly bushes, various kinds of hydrangeas, crepe myrtles, hostas, black-eyed Susans, daylilies, roses, a strawberry bed and a small orchard with apples, peaches and blueberries. Many plants derive from her mother’s yard in Chicago and her brother’s in Atlanta. Diana Arnold will show her watercolor and acrylic paintings, as well as hand-painted T-shirts.

Jo Helen and

Ewell Cobb,

230 Lancaster Avenue

Nestled in a courtyard behind a house built in 1938 are two fountains shaded by a tall maple tree surrounded by bamboo and lariope. This small garden is enclosed by walls covered in ivy joined by another wall painted with ivy by local artist C.O. Whitesell when the house was built. The back wall is composed of taxus. Baskets of fern hang in three niches on one side. Photographer Kim Owens Gulley will display her work in the carport area, which can be accessed from Breck Avenue.

Andrew Jones,

528 West Main Street

Clustered around the 100-plus-year-old house are large taxus bushes, complemented by ferns, Rose of Sharon, hydrangeas, Norfolk pines and daylilies. Bordered with creek rock gathered from throughout Madison County, lush foliage and flowering plants frame the house and mark the border of the property. The back features a fountain pouring into a small container filled with fish and surrounded by majesty palms, white begonias and ivy. A towering tulip poplar with an ivy-covered trunk shades the area. Artist Deborah Cain will exhibit her acrylic and watercolor paintings in a shaded section of the lawn.

Dr. Alan and

Michelle Richards,

1525 West Main Street

Designed by Dr. Richards to feature colors for every season, this drought-tolerant garden intermingles a formal center with natural borders. Boxwoods, lavender, ornamental grasses, daylilies, clematis, knockout roses and a myriad of other plants are complemented by a gazebo, a fountain and a pergola. Shade specimens such as little-leaf rhododendrons, hydrangeas, coral bells, hostas, astilbe, ferns and white azaleas populate shaded portions. Dwarf peach trees and tomatoes are also included. Artist Pat Banks will display examples of her watercolor paintings.

Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@

richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.

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