A Peek Behind the Garden Gate

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Lexington Council Garden Club gears up for biennial Bluegrass Living Garden Tour

Have you ever caught yourself wanting to sneak into someone else’s garden paradise? Gardeners and garden voyeurs alike will have a unique opportunity to do just that early next month, during the Lexington Council Garden Clubs’ Bluegrass Living Garden Tour. The tour, which has been held biennially since the 1960s, has been dubbed “Peek Behind the Garden Gate” this year and will showcase nine diverse gardens from urban, suburban and rural areas.

The Lexington Council Garden Clubs is an umbrella organization composed of seven clubs throughout Lexington, including Down to Earth, Fayette Rose & Garden, Gardenside Green Thumb, Hoe ‘n Hope Inc., Lexington Women’s Club Garden Dept., Rafinesque, and Soil Mates. In addition to the Bluegrass Living Garden Tour, the LCGC hosts the annual Lexington In Bloom Contest, which allows homeowners, businesses and organizations the opportunity to submit their gardens to be judged in a contest. The LCGC is also a co-sponsor of the Bluegrass Flower and Vegetable Show and manages a Monarch Waystation Program to educate the public about the Monarch Butterfly.

The LCGC chose gardens on this year’s tour to represent a variety of landscapes and garden styles.

“Everyone is given a piece of land, and it’s what they have decided do with it,” said Linda Ransdell, LCGC Tour Chair.

While some of the landscapes have been designed by professionals, many have been designed by the homeowners themselves. Some of the features that participants will have a chance to see on the tour include a rain garden, an urban garden with vertical garden elements, a fairy garden and even a chicken coop.

“I hope everyone enjoys seeing how many unique gardens there are in Lexington and will take home ideas they can use in their own landscape,” said Ransdell.

Tour participants will also be helping the community through their ticket purchase, with proceeds funding scholarships for college students and beautification projects throughout Lexington. Scholarships will be given to students majoring in horticulture and related fields, such as landscape architecture, forestry, sustainable agriculture and environmental studies; funds will also go toward grants for civic projects in Lexington. Funded projects from previous years have included a Monarch Waystation for the Tates Creek Public Library, a vegetable garden for the Veterans Affairs Hospital, landscaping for the Hope Center and the Ronald McDonald House, the Cardinal Hill Hospital therapy garden and historic preservation at the Waveland State Historic Site and the Hunt Morgan House.

The tour is self-guided, with representatives from the LCGC at each site to direct participants and answer questions.

Bluegrass Living Garden Tour

June 6-7. The Lexington Council Garden Clubs will host its biennial self-guided garden tour showcasing nine gardens throughout Lexington. The tour will feature a variety of gardens from urban, suburban and rural areas containing design features such as a rain garden, fairy garden and a chicken coop. Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward scholarships for university students studying horticulture and related fields and grants for civic beautification projects. The event will be held rain or shine 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets may be purchased directly from a garden club member, at select independent nurseries and at any of the locations on the day of the tour.

For more information, visit www.lexgardenclubs.org.

A marriage of form and function

One garden whose gates tour participants will have the opportunity to peek behind is in the Ashland Park neighborhood. Graham Pohl, a principal at architecture and design firm Pohl Rosa Pohl, and his wife, Jane Fields, purchased the home four years ago. They began designing additions for the home and its landscape, which at the time was only a lawn with a few trees.

“When I design an addition for a house, I can’t separate the garden from the house,” Pohl said. “I’ve always developed them at the same time.”

The modern garden features several different levels and seating areas. A large wooden deck off the back of the home leads down to a concrete seating area that feels private and secluded, and a nearby fountain flows into a koi pond that is level with the concrete walkway. Surrounding the seating area is a beautiful serviceberry, a small fountain grass meadow, a magnificent spruce tree and a Japanese maple.

The site and gardens were designed for functionality and ease of movement, from coming home from work or entertaining guests. It was important to Pohl and Fields that they interweave the spaces within the garden to create something whole and functional.

“My philosophy is you work hard to understand what’s there, and you work hard to find the right solution for it,” Pohl said.

When it comes to landscape design, Pohl advises using intuition to put yourself in the space; to respond to the feeling of it and find the opportunities that are present. One of the opportunities in his own garden was the potential for privacy while also feeling part of a community. While he enjoys being able to see the tops of other homes as they roll around the curve of DeSha Road, Pohl allowed that opportunity to create a niche of privacy within the garden. Privacy was created by using rows of hedges, such as a line of Foster hollies along a fence, while still allowing a view of the rooflines of the homes.

A more private garden and deck area at the side of the home is located near the dining and living room areas, perfect for entertaining. Once the doors are opened to the indoor spaces, guests can flow through one larger room. A cluster of magnolias grows up through special cutouts in the deck that light up at night, providing both ambiance and privacy.

“It’s such a small space; it was necessary to exploit all of the opportunities available,” Pohl said.

Pohl worked closely with Bill Henkel of Henkel Denmark on choosing plant and design materials. Some of Pohl’s favorite plants include the Taxus baccata ‘Repadens,’ Japanese maples (genus Acer), and a cultivar of sumac (genus Rhus). Located in the front yard is a small grove featuring a sumac cultivar. Pohl remembers as a child playing in groves of sumacs, whose growth habits create a green canopy on top and bare branches below.

Several of the Japanese maples in his garden were started from seed by his son from a tree they had at their previous home, and Pohl enjoyed the opportunity to literally plant this memory into his own garden.

“We had this fabulous red Japanese maple at our last home, and our son began collecting its seeds,” he explained. “We ended up with six that survived. It’s fun to have that memory.” cc

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