FORT MADISON — Seven beautiful gardens were on display Sunday during the Fort Madison Area Art Association garden tour.
The first stop on the tour was the Fort Madison pocket park, where people could admire the scenery, purchase a ticket for the tour and get a map of the six gardens to visit.
At 1013 Ave. E, Holy Family Parish was one of the closest stops. Some visitors expressed surprise the garden existed, as it is partially concealed by the covered walkway.
Visitors walked the stations of the cross, with vibrant plants and flowers at each of the 14 steps. Many of the flowers were roses. Fort Madison Public Library director Sarah Clendineng was the artist featured at this stop.
Next was the home of Anita Lee. Lee has a green thumb, but went with a unique rock-art garden, with what she calls “industrial strength” artificial plants, as it’s far easier to maintain.
Lee’s home is a 1917 craftsman bungalow — a kit home from Sears. The garden has rock pathways and lots of art. Artist Gin Lammert was stationed on the front porch. Her daughter, Lee said, is a metal artist and several pieces in the garden were acquired from her.
“And other things are just collected pieces that I have gotten in the past,” she said. “My husband broke his back doing this yard so we didn’t have to grow anything.”
Next on the tour was the home of Teri and Glenn Welborn. Visitors were greeted by a pair of skeletons (and their little dog), dressed in gardening gear. The centerpiece of the garden is a pond, complete with fish.
Welborn said the storms impacted her garden.
“We had big tree there where the hostas are. We had to cut it down and then the deer came in and started eating our hostas,” she said. “The pond, we’ve had it probably the whole time we’ve lived here, because we started building it in probably 2001. We have probably about 50 fish.”
In addition to the lush greenery and pops of colorful flowers and garden décor, Welborn grows horseradish.
Despite the challenges, Welborn said she loves getting out and working in the yard. Her favorite part is the pond, and she and her husband enjoy sitting near it at night.
North of town is the home of Trish and David Fedler. Pops of color are interspersed with greenery. The centerpiece of the Fedlers’ garden is a koi pond.
“There’s a little bit of history all over. The koi pond actually started smaller and we made it bigger before we were on the tour last time, about five years ago. We have done all the work on our own,” she said. “Most everything in here is repurposed. We do not have a lot of money poured into it because you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have something like this.”
The pond’s water spout is one of those repurposed items.
“That was actually one piece and his (David’s) uncle cut it into two separate pieces. It housed his sand for a sandblasting business,” she said. “I used to plant vegetables in it but this year we just decided to fill it with perennials.”
The orange daylilies, Trish said, are about 42 years old and came from her parents’ home.
“The big outhouse, my dad built, the little bench was theirs with their koi pond. The garden gate was my mom’s. There’s just little bits of family stuff all around,” she said. “But the pond is our main joy. We have quite a few fish. We have koi in there. The water lilies are my favorite; they were a gift from my dad for Mother’s Day. We’re excited they’re blooming today.”
At Shirley Deck’s home, the plants and flowers seem to surround a large yard. At many spots, Deck had a balloon tied to a stake with a photo of what the space looks like when it’s in bloom, such as the sedum, as it is not currently in season. In March, she had 75 tulips planted in a space, and when those died down, she planted annuals in the same space.
In addition to the wide variety of plants and flowers in bloom, there are several pots, which each have 27 plants in them.
There are Supertunia petunias and red mandevillas on trellises, Japanese irises, daylilies, Rose of Sharon, peonies, different varieties of hydrangeas and hibiscus – including a “watermelon ruffle” which will have dinner plate size blooms.
The former gully has been filled with 40 tons of rock, Deck said.
It takes her “all day every day” to maintain everything, Deck said, including mowing the large yard. She feeds the mown grass to her horses.
Carlene Atwater was doing a painting near Deck’s pool, capturing the reflections on the water’s surface.
At the home of Janelle McCrabb, there was a lot to see. It’s been about an eight-year process, she said. McCrabb said her husband cleared away a lot of brush and planted grass and built structures.
McCrabb said her favorite spot was a little nook filled with plants, but she also loved her art studio.
Her favorite plant, she said, is any one of her 63 roses.
“Anything I like a lot, I collect different kinds of,” she said. “I have many kinds of coneflowers, I have many kinds of lilies. If it comes in different varieties, it’s probably going to end up here somewhere.”
She said her love for gardens grew from the time she was in third grade.
“And then for years, I lived in an apartment and couldn’t have a garden,” she said. “When I met my husband and I planted gardens, he was ‘don’t tell me our house is going to look like an old lady’s yard,’” she said laughing. “So yeah, this is an old lady’s’ yard on steroids.”
The McCrabb garden won the People’s Choice Award.