INSIDE

What a lovely day for a garden party

By Meg Olson

Twelve of the Point’s gardens opened their gates last month, showcasing traditional favorites and new innovations.

In a cluster of gardens near the marina, garden architecture was a highlight. Dorothy and Darrel Sutton’s new nautical home is surrounded by a dune environment dotted with raised beds. In the center is a bamboo fountain adding the sounds of water trickling to the garden’s serene atmosphere.

Down the street Gene and Faye Miklossy moved more than 60 tons of rock to create a dry stream and lake bed that flow around their Japanese-inspired garden. Faye said they invited a Feng Shui consultant to help them create a harmonious design. “The left is wealth and things are grouped in threes,” she said. “The right is love, and things are in twos.”

Joyce Connolly, with the help of gardener Nancy King, has created a quiet courtyard garden whose shade and stillness are a perfect contrast with the bright beachside plantings. Visitors to the garden saw unusual plants in the courtyard area, including giant nicotianas.

Roses were the highlight of the garden of Margaret and Bruno Moras, where dozens of rose varieties thrive in the sun. The bright red blooms of Opening Night earned Bruno’s special praise. ”It’s my favorite rose because of its long life,” he said, adding he has kept blooms in a vase for two weeks, still looking freshly picked.

The “Ebb Tide” rose in Barbara Bradstock’s garden was another standout rose variety, with a heady perfume and otherworldly dusky purple color. Barbara’s new garden also features a small orchard and a fully automated watering system.

A traditional garden tour favorite, the garden of Dick and Effie Abrahamson was a crowd pleaser again, bright with Effie’s gigantic hollyhocks. “I’ve never bought a single seed,” said Effie, a devoted hollyhock fan, boasting of the vigor and ease of growing her hollyhocks, which self sow liberally. Her entire collection came years ago from a packet of seeds she was given. “To think it all started with one brown packet,” she said. She was handing out her own packets of seeds during the July 16 tour but quickly ran out.

Show stopping dahlias were the highlight of Jean and Dennis Becker’s garden, with many blooms as big as soccer balls. Dennis’ innovative ball-shaped planter covered with hens and chicks and a succulent wreath had many visitors taking notes. “I was inspired by one a neighbor saw at VanDusen Gardens and described to me,” Dennis said.
While some gardens were memorable for a special feature or a special plant, others stood out as an experience. Carol Fuegi’s small Maple Beach garden is centered on a creek and pond surrounded by dense jungles blooming in pinks and purples. The busy neighborhood street seems miles away.

On the other end of the spectrum Karen and Tom Bradbury’s garden spills from Marine Drive down to the beach. “We started from the bottom,” Karen said, with the dining pavilion beside the beach and worked their way up through six-foot high blackberry bushes. Today a sleeping cabin anchors the ivy-covered slope and visitors climb through varied plantings to the main house and entryway bordered with giant grasses.

Chuck and Shirley Cannon’s small garden mixes flowers and vegetables with chickens, who routinely get a little time on the lawn in their “chicken tractor.” The garden is home to a host of other small innovations, such as jugs of water that deter roaming dogs by sending out a flash when the sun hits them.

Sandy and Jeff Raine’s woodland garden was also the place to get garden questions answered by three of the Point’s master gardeners, Curt Bush, Doreen Trudel and Bunny Meikle. “This is a kid garden and a dog garden,” Sandy said. “A real place.”

Bert Gendron was handing out lettuce and carrots in his flourishing vegetable garden. “I’m the harvester,” said Eleanor Gendron, also the master preserver. The Gendrons grow peas, beans, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and squash, for starters.

This year’s garden tour was the first organized by the new Point Roberts Garden Club and participants rate it as one of the busiest. “So many people came,” said Effie Abrahamson. She also had high praise for tour organizers, who she said made it a pleasant and easy experience for the garden owners. “They were a wonderful group,” she said.

Garden club president Maggie Ritchie said they sold over 425 tickets to the tour. “We were selling them as fast as we could print them,” she said. The next step will be to decide which charity to donate the funds to, which Ritchie said they will discuss at the next garden club meeting. “Some of it we’ll keep aside for a beautification project,” she said. “Maybe some daffodils along Tyee Drive in the spring.”