Steve and I love spending time in our garden enjoying our little paradise with friends and family. On July 9th we will share our garden with more people than ever as part of the Soroptimist’s Secret Garden Tour (see page 93). We are excited about this occasion, and honored to support this benevolent organization that does so much good locally for women and girls.

Being part of this annual event is a rewarding experience as we discovered in 2007 when the garden at our previous home was featured in the tour that year. We had surrounded our colonial style house with an interesting landscape that featured many perennials, as well as a formal rose garden.

To prepare for the 2007 event, we met with Soroptimist members who helped us plan a tour route through our landscape. This included where the volunteers would be stationed on tour day to ensure our visitors did not miss any feature.

Steve and I wanted our garden to look its best, so we devised a plan to ensure everything would look fabulous on the big day. We added plants, and followed a continuous routine of dead heading perennials, weeding, watering. and fertilizing. Steve worked hard to beautifully edge each bed and border. Our efforts paid off and on the day of the event our garden looked better than ever!

Hundreds of people visited our garden that day and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We met so many kind and enthusiastic garden lovers during the event and enjoyed sharing tips and ideas with them. 

Fast forward sixteen years…

We are preparing to share the garden at our current home as part of this year’s Secret Garden Tour! This garden is very different from the one we shared in 2007, as it is designed to complement our contemporary style house.  Once again, we have put together a plan to get our landscape in top shape, as well as improve on existing features and adding some new ones. 

I will say no more, no spoilers here!

What I will say is…

Steve and I are as excited about this tour as we were in 2007 and hope to see you there!