Guests on this year’s Garden Tour will be invited on a “Journey to the Gardens,” encouraged to flit from blooming country lawns and one-acre parcels of blossoms to cowboy-themed gardens and hummingbird havens.
One such journey will take garden enthusiasts to the lush and peaceful garden of Penny Ragland, who has spent the past 11 years building her 60-acre forested paradise on Wandering Moose Trail in Athol.
“I did everything myself, except for the curbing,” Ragland said Friday.
Some sections are a few years younger, she said.
“I had to bring soil in for every bed because we grow rocks here,” she said, smiling. “Every flower bed has its own soil.”
The first thing she planted was a crabapple tree, which greets guests as they step beneath the wooden arbor into Ragland’s sprawling green gardenscape.
Once through the gate, a fragrant floral aroma catches the olfactory senses, leading eyes to find peonies and white immortality irises that line the walking path.
Ragland explained that immortality irises bloom multiple times in a season, unlike other irises. Hers came from her mother’s yard years ago.
“My mother was 80 years old, and she went into her garden in Las Vegas and pulled them all up because of a water restriction,” Ragland said. “I made a little circle and put them in there, and over the years I’ve just expanded them the whole length.”
Ragland is a past president and past vice president of the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club, which will present the 27th annual Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 29, rain or shine. Although Ragland has previously opened her garden to fellow Garden Club members, this will be the first time members of the public will have the opportunity to wander the grounds.
She said she’s looking forward to guests enjoying her peonies and the beautiful views when everything is blooming.
“And talking with people and sharing my garden with other people,” she said. “I work hard. Growing up, I always wanted a really pretty garden.”
She considers her space to be more of a park garden than a traditional one.
“It’s not your typical cottage garden,” she said.
She walked along a shaded path, where baskets of geraniums hung from low branches.
“That’s a persicaria,” she said, pointing to one plant and then another. “That’s a bridal veil.”
She estimated that a few hundred different species of flowers, plants, trees and shrubs can be found in her various garden beds, plots and planters.
“If you sit on the bench, you can see a long way, the whole thing,” she said.
Coeur d’Alene Garden Club Garden Tour Chair Judy Feldner said Ragland’s garden has been on her radar since she gave a presentation on peonies to the club last year.
“I wanted to come see it,” Feldner said.
With this year’s theme focused on taking a journey and promoting pollinators, she said it made sense to feature Ragland’s garden, which is about 15 minutes from another featured garden in Rathdrum and in line with the spacing of other gardens on the tour throughout Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Dalton Gardens.
“This garden, being within a forest, is a story in itself,” Feldner said.
Ragland’s garden will also feature representatives from WingsRising Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to researching and preserving pollinators. They will have monarch butterflies on site that people will have opportunities to adopt.
“That helps track the butterflies,” Feldner said. “We’ll also have Bartlett Tree Experts here.”
Proceeds from the Garden Tour will benefit local charities, schools and North Idaho College scholarships. Tickets are $20 each and can be bought online or at participating local nurseries.
Info: cdagardenclub.com
Heart of the jungle fronds stand tall among a colorfully arranged planter Friday in Penny Ragland’s Athol garden. Plant identification tags are found throughout the garden, much like one would find in a park.
Penny Ragland talks plant height Friday while giving a preview of her Athol garden, which will be featured June 29 on the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club’s 2025 Garden Tour.
English daisies, seen here Friday, are among the colorful flower and plant varieties in Penny Ragland’s garden on Wandering Moose Trail in Athol.