Secret Garden Tour 2021
Saturday June 19, 2021 was the Day!
A surprising day in which we were given good weather, good attendance, great gardeners and wonderful volunteers (Keep scrolling!)
This year we had 9 great gardens for visitors to admire and see “up close and personal”!
With maps in hand, visitors were given information on how to take the tour, and a short description of each of the gardens. All were encouraged to visit the gardens in any order, as it was self-guided.
We do the same here, in our virtual “Secret Garden Tour 2021 – Revisited!” Enjoy!!!
All donations from the tour went to support our Garden Club Student Scholarship Fund!
Enhanced information for each of the gardens was available using a QR code that was at each garden. The same information is available here, for your enjoyment. Instead of using QR, simply click on each of the gardens listed here.
Please note that this page is enhanced even more with a plethora of images from each of the gardens. Our collection is growing as people send us more and more from the tour. Thanks to all that have contributed to this memory!
A VERY BIG THANK YOU to all the Gardeners that graciously allowed the Garden Club to show their gardens. The amount of work, love, and planning for each was and is quite evident!
Garden A
Tall Century Oaks, Tulip Poplars, White Magnolias, and Norwegian Spruce surround this impressive circa 1929 Federal Style Southern Colonial brick home with its stately white pillars, large floor-to-ceiling windows and oversized shutters.
The home’s exterior architecture is magnificent and a must see! In many ways this home and garden feel like they were plucked from Colonial Williamsburg. Guests will note the front door is actually on the side of this home with brick pathways, wrought iron work, and includes an old-fashioned wellhead. A tall brick wall, with multiple serpentine curves, was designed by the original lady of the home after visiting the University of Virginia. This unique wall has been benchmarked by numerous landscape architects and was then made taller by the lady to preclude her neighbors viewing.
Oversized Boxwood provide even more privacy! As you enter the garden, a unique Magnolia with its low curving branches is the strategic spot for the gardeners’ young daughter to climb and sit. A four-corner flowerbed is surrounded by the circular drive—perfect to ride their bikes and trikes. Weeping Cherries, Day Lilies, and Golden Euonymus add softness to the five-tiered formal fountain. Hostas and a Japanese Maple feel right at home amidst the understory. A generous size white pergola with hanging baskets and tall Pampas Grasses add comfort and privacy to the family pool and vegetable garden areas.
It is easy to imagine yourself sharing family stories around the fire pit while roasting marshmallows after fun day swimming and even ziplining! What fun for kids of all ages!
Garden B
It is very hard to imagine this garden began in 1974 with a bare landscape and only one tree. Each year thereafter, this experienced gardener and traveler creatively designed herself this one-of-a-kind garden of gardens taking inspiration from Henry Shaw’s Missouri Botanical Garden.
A majestic Olympic Oak firmly grounds the front garden and one will be impressed to learn this gardener started this rare oak from seed. Artistically placed berms add vertical dimension as well as structure to an expansive list of rare sun and shade loving specialties from around the world.
The shade garden includes a Norwegian Spruce, Gingko, Paper Bark Birch, Red Bud, and Japanese Pines, which protect the understory of Cornus Mas, Chinese Witch Hazel, Japanese Maples and a rare Dwarf Conifer collection. An heirloom Clematis welcomes you through the garden arbor where the pebble path winds in-and-around Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Star Magnolias, Lenten Rose, Solomon Seal, Bishop’s Hat, Coral Bells, and 100+ different Hosta varieties.
Nearly 30 years before they became popular, this pioneer gardener created a rain garden and goldfish pond beautifully ringed with different perennial varieties blooming all season long. Your experience continues as you marvel at 100+ different varieties of prize Day Lilies.
Take note from how well this private sun garden is accented by both sculptured and miniature ornamental evergreens. Then around the corner, find the secret garden within and take a moment to rest in the shade and reflect on how well this gardener fully embraces Mother Nature’s abundant beauty.
Garden C
A romantic bistro table for two is nestled under a sculpted Japanese Maple. A large bed of Solomon Seal and Hosta really stand out amidst the brick lined garden bed which wraps around the home. As you round the corner, the flowerbed “aperture” opens up and expands out into a most spacious back area with both sun and shade loving specimens.
Imagine yourself sitting in the Adirondack chair under the covered family entertainment patio sipping lemonade, admiring the wide variety of specialty Daylilies and Iris, while musing over the mini pond which provides a home for Japanese “Rice Fish.”
The stone path leads you past a charming garden shed and to a bridge which spans most unique rock-lined dry creek bed. A perennial shade garden and understory bushes line the perimeter of the lush rolling lawn—perfect to run and play.
From the back of the property one can truly appreciate the gardener’s vision and how all of the garden beds highlight this beautiful two-story home. An open gate and tree-canopied garden path beacons you to further explore!
Garden D
These gardeners will tell you, “We just love to see things grow and try new ways of growing things!”
And in this garden, you will see how wonderfully they have incorporated within their beautiful urban landscape a wide variety of seasonal annual containers starting with Pansies in the Spring, then rotating with Lantana, Sweet Potato Vine, Zinnias, Spikes, Coleus in the Summer, and Mums in the Fall.
Then, this couple took a Square Foot Gardening class from the Lebanon Garden Club and discovered how they can incorporate a huge number of vegetables in a small space—BONUS!! Imagine yourself in the kitchen and needing that fresh herb for your new dish. Voila! Within reach of their kitchen door, these gardeners have over 15 fresh herbs from which to choose—Rosemary, Tarragon, Oregano, to name a few!! Also, fresh Garlic, Shallots, Peppers, Eggplant, Tomatoes, Beans and so much more—a gourmet chef’s dream!!
Check out how they are experimenting with sun tolerant Hosta in fabric pots, fruit-producing Thornless Blackberries sculpted as hedges and Goji Berry bushes! Muse over Asparagus which look like topiaries, and stroll to the back enjoy the rolling hills topped with a grove of Cherry and Apple trees. WoW!
Garden E
Seeds entitled “The Joys of Gardening” were planted in this gardener’s heart by both her parents and grandparents at an early age. The gardener’s goal to have a “relaxing and colorful atmosphere throughout the season” is vividly seen in this “elegantly romantic garden oasis!”
A stunning mix of perennials and annuals of Clematis, Carpet Roses, Liaitris, Petunias, Buttercream Daisies, Butterfly Asters, Butterfly Bushes, Phlox and mixed containers all beautifully welcome you to the home’s entrance.
As you come around back and/or view from the home’s majestic living room window, one’s eyes are immediately drawn to the back garden’s key focal point—an Italian-style “Sweetheart” bench which beckons one an all to come sit and perhaps hold hands with your special someone.
Here one will find a gorgeous flower bed with wide mixture of perennials to include Bee Balm, Day Lilies, Black-eyed Susans, Daisies, Verbena, Johnson Blue Geraniums, Torch Lilies, and Hosta. Large containers of Angelwing Begonias and Coleus bring color, texture and tranquility to the back patio.
Garden F
These gardeners have an exquisite eye for home and landscape design! A majestic white brick home forms the backdrop for well over 12 different specialty Japanese Maples— Shin Desojo, Sango Kako, Oridono Nashiki, Bloodgood, and Japonicum Aconitifolium to name drop a few, along with climbing Mandavillas, Morning Glories, Hosta, Sedum, and Phlox.
The back garden is also truly unique in that instead of the walkout on the backside, it is situated on both ends. The results enable a magnificent grand patio directly off of the main family room level—feels like an eagle’s nest in and among the treetops! Wow!
The patio is lined with a spectacular white pergola the gardener designed and built himself with several specialty containers of Petunia and Impatiens. An Italian Style Lion’s wall fountain is a four-season home to two Goldfish and a Plecostomus. Oak, Sycamore and Caster Bean trees provide shade in the back; Ferns line the creek bed below. Tall Norwegian Spruce line the back drive and make sure you check out the 8ft+ high-rise Tomato cage system…and you can easily pick tomatoes even from the top!!
Garden G
A “Perennial Paradise” truly describes this “North Michigan Lake Cottage” design style garden.
This gardener does what most of us wish we can do, design three-season blooming with ONLY perennials on all four sides of their home! Incredible! This is no easy task. Like the cottages near the Northern Michigan seawalls, these beds are beautifully filled with Phlox, Chocolate Geraniums, Indian Summer Rudbeckia, Red Coreopsis, Blue Fortune Hyssop, Stachys Humelo, Tango Hummingbird Mint, Milkweed, Black Knight butterfly Bush, Morden Pink Loosestrife, Orange Hawskweed, and more!!
Imagine family gatherings in the Fall evening around the warm firepit.
Four bird boxes have been homes to Wrens, White Crowned Sparrows, and even Bluebirds!
See how you too can beautifully create a companion garden inclusive of annuals and vegetables. Can you find the Eggplant, Lettuce, and Peppers amidst the Alyssum and Petunia?
Garden H
East meets West in this multi-culturally inspired urban garden. The gardeners lived and traveled in various parts of the globe “Wherever the Air Force sent us!” and thus uniquely incorporate various elements on all four sides of their “Cozy Cottage.”
Jonathan designs landscapes as a hobby and when they moved into this new construction home in 2005, he started sketching designs. The front patio, lined with Cone flowers, Blue Salvia, and Lantana along with brightly mixed annual containers, warmly welcomes all to sit and chat. “Narrow side and back yards are always a challenge—a meandering pathway on all four sides of the home extends the experience.
Every path turn focuses one’s eye on a specified visual interest element and different from each traveled direction.” Asian design elements with bonsaied evergreens, Japanese Maples, and Pines lead one to a Zen Garden atop with a pagoda and a granite bridge from a St Louis quarry spanning a dry creek bed.
The expanded back patio is wonderful for entertaining; pleached English Foster Hollies and an “exquisite” Japanese Pine provides both beauty and intimacy to the area which then leads to a shady mini nature woodland.
The South Garden is inspired by several European-style elements with English Boxwood topiaries, French Lavender, Shasta Daisies, Peonies, Petunias, Butterfly Bushes, Bee Balm, an espalier Honey Crisp apple tree, water elements, and much more! An elevated square-foot vegetable garden bed provides bountiful yield from a small space.
Their love for nature also attributes to their garden becoming officially noted as a “Certified Natural Habitat” for songbirds, hummingbirds, butterflies, frogs and other wildlife!
Garden I
The Mermaid Inn Hotel was built by retired sea caption Lyman Adams and named after the mermaids that he believed in and on many occasion made note of seeing. A simple location, it was one stop of many on the east-west trajectories of weary travelers.
Made famous by a visit from a world-renowned writer, Charles Dickens, who wrote about the Mermaid Inn Hotel in his book, “American Notes”. (See chapter 13.) His group of 14 followers and himself stayed here. Take a virtual tour now, or visit the Mermaid Inn in person. (Contact the Lebanon Historical Society for entry.)
The Gardens
What was once yard, stables, and a sundry of buildings with many purposes – is now a wonderful garden. Take your time, walk in from the street into what a lot of folk don’t know exists.
The gardens are lovingly taken care of by the Garden Club of Lebanon as a group.
Enjoy the quiet tranquility just steps away from a very busy Hwy 50.