Peony Festival garden tour previewed

Van Wert independent/contributor content

Six area homes will be featured in this year’s garden tour.  The event will take place Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday, June 5, from 1-3 p.m.  The theme for this year’s parade and events is “Friends and Neighbors” and Garden Tour homes are those of neighbors and friends.

The first garden is that of Darle and Linda Baker, 16087 Dull Robison Road in neighboring Ohio City.  The landscape at the Baker farm is a family project spanning many decades. While building up their farming homestead in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, the Bakers developed windbreaks and planted many trees.  Their middle son, Seth, planted the front entrance as a 4-H project back in the ‘90s.

In 2001, while pursuing degrees in horticulture science and landscape architecture, Seth Baker designed the back landscape in an informal, cottage garden theme, filling the beds with old-fashioned perennials.  Summer nights around the fire ring are punctuated with the scents of old-fashioned roses and honeysuckle. Linda Baker followed with a hosta bed and adds new hybrids to her collection every year.

Both Seth Baker and his brother, Aaron, spent summers between college years tending area gardens, which resulted in bringing home many divisions of plants, especially daylilies from the home of Dr. and Mrs. John Perchalski.  So a dedicated daylily bed was formed along the barn stocked with over one hundred daylilies. Also a row of burgundy Karl Rosenfield peonies lines the driveway.

Peony trees, irises, climbing hydrangeas, Asiatic lilies, and many butterfly-attracting plants unify the gardens. Aaron and Linda Baker enjoy experimenting with new annual and succulent hybrids in containers, creating unusual plant combinations, while Darle Baker maintains an attractive and vigorous lawn, using his agricultural expertise in fertilizing and applying herbicides.  And, of course, a sizable vegetable garden completes this well-kept farm.  All of this gardening creates a reliable source for Linda’s composting system.

A country neighbor distance away is garden No. 2: the home of Clair and Arlene Dudgeon, 6822 Wren Landeck Road, Ohio City. The Dudgeons began their gardening projects in 1984 after an ice storm destroyed a decorative tree in their front yard. In its place, they thought, why not build a water wheel? Later, a local farmer hit a rather large rock in a field while ditching. That rock, weighing 8,600 pounds, became the centerpiece of their first garden and serves as the waterway to feed the flume that turns the water wheel.

The Dudgeon gardens cover more than 15,000 square feet and were designed and built by family members.  Beginning with the 1984 project, and the addition of a new garden every year through 1993, the gardens continued to take shape. Gardens behind the Dudgeons’ home include a gazebo, serpentine walkway with elevated gardens, a hammock house and an area that they call “boarders” that was featured in County Woman Magazine in 1994.  Another award came in 1996, when the Dudgeons received a “National Beautification Award.”  It’s not really work when people enjoy gardening, the Dudgeons say.  Family, friends and visitors are always welcome to visit and enjoy the many resting stations throughout the gardens.

The tour’s third stop will bring people to Van Wert and to two neighbors on David Street.  Ready to welcome tour participants are Tom and Nancy Sink, 1229 David St. The Sinks have been in their current home since 1992 and have made several changes to the landscaping over the years — the most dramatic taking down over a dozen trees.  The outdoor area most enjoyed by the Sinks is the back patio. Last year, a friend custom-made a bench/planter box for them that adds interest and color to the patio area.

Just down the street is the home of Joel and Peggy Penton, 1205 David St. The Pentons’ beautiful white colonial is another labor of love.

The Pentons have spent 22 years moving plants around their garden, learning as they went. Peggy Penton is a Southern girl and delights in the flowers and plants she grew up with down South.  A favorite of hers is a crepe myrtle tree that blooms in August. Pansies, Williamsburg-type flowers and vegetables all grown together in this peaceful setting can’t get anymore neighborly then next door.

Next on the tour is Mary Yackey at 1132 Rosalie Drive. Yackey is a teacher at St. Mary’s School and has been gardening for years trying to create a place that is unique, yet inviting to a variety of critters, including her students.  At least once a year she tries to bring her class to her backyard for an afternoon of Science lessons.  She lets them dig in the dirt and explore.  Many plants are present for attracting butterflies, such as milkweed for Monarchs and dill for Swallowtails.  Her garden spaces are ever changing.  She tries to bring in new plants every year to add variety and color.  Her gardening friends and neighbors have given her starts from their gardens so that she can enjoy their beauty too.

Next door at Jim and Marcia Smith’s, 1138 Rosalie Drive, tour participants may want to sit and relax and enjoy the small fishpond from the couple’s patio.

The backyard is enclosed with a hedgerow of bushes that add a lot of privacy. Many of the perennials in the Smiths’ yard came from their former home, while most all of their plants were given to them from family and friends over the years. Annuals are added throughout the yard for color, along with pots of flowers on the patio that also add color.

Admission to the garden tour is free and it will be held, rain or shine.

Following the garden tour on Saturday, stay in town for the Peony Festival Grand Parade, which travels south to north on Washington Street, beginning at the Fairgrounds at 5 p.m. and ending at Jubilee Park.

For more information on the garden tour, call Emily Riley at 419.238.5028.