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Tour five Lisle yards during Garden Gait event

Posted June 12, 2015 6:00 am

Joan Broz

A multilevel serpentine wall runs almost the entire width of the Kwaks' garden. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Creating a personalized and welcoming design is the goal behind each of the five gardens selected this year for the annual Lisle Woman's Club Garden Gait. Each garden offers unique ideas that work well in both sun-filled local gardens and those with dense shade.

The self-guided tour on Sunday, June 14, begins at the Museums at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St., Lisle. The museum campus will host music, food and a craft fair, as well as outdoor garden items, the village rain barrels and the Illinois Extension master gardeners from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The gardens showcased in the Lisle community will be open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tickets for the walk are $15 in advance and $17 Sunday. Purchase tickets in Lisle at The Nook, 4738 Main St.; Tina's Closet, 4738 Main St.; Wild Birds Unlimited, 1601 Ogden Ave.; and The Country House, 2799 Maple Ave., as well as the Growing Place, 25W472 Plank Road, Naperville, and Anderson's Bookshop, 5112 Main St., Downers Grove. Addresses and directions to the gardens come with the ticket purchase, but here is a sneak peek.

Kaczor garden

Chris and Renata Kaczor like to sit listening to birds while enjoying their morning coffee as the sun comes beaming across their lush front yard. In the evening, the pair retreat to their backyard where the sound of trickling water gently cascades over rock edges into a pond the pair designed and constructed over the 10 years they have owned their home.

The garden was arranged to include plants the couple likes, especially those that flower and those that attract hummingbirds. A special Lenten rose blooms white to pink and to green.

“We do everything together,” Chris Kaczor said. “We keep moving things around and try to stagger the bloom time and carefully place each plant to look nice.”

A 20-foot raised garden provides the family with the usual tomatoes, onions, garlic, green beans and peppers, but also bushes of raspberries, currants and blueberries, and lovely floral plants that grow fava beans.

Three large Norway weeping pines and a wild petunia define the garden's entrance that invites guests to pass under a wooden arbor Chris constructed.

Kwak garden

Carl and Karen Kwak call their outdoor deck “the beach” because so many neighbors and friends enjoy the ambience the family's backyard offers. First, there is the massive stone waterfall and pond that transverses the six- to seven-foot drop from the farthest point of the rear yard.

Second, there is the two-level serpentine stone wall that runs almost the width of the backyard. The third component is a multilevel deck, sauna and fire pit.

The change of the terrain allows visitors to see the total bouquet of flowers at its best.

The family brought in 16 tons of cobblestone to work their magic on the rear yard. The lower bed features deep, rich-toned annuals while wild geraniums, dianthus and a flower Carl calls “snow” cascade from the upper levels. Mission arborvitae, red twig dogwood, red bud and cypress trees trim the uppermost rear garden. Carl's grandpa's sculpture of a deer keeps an eye on the flowers.

This garden is still a work in progress, but it is a process Carl completely enjoys.

“This is my cheap therapy at the end of the day,” he said. “It is something to play with that goes back to my grandparents, who ran a successful flower shop. (Grandpa) would always bring in something from his garden.”

Rodi garden

Mike and Karen Rodi began their garden from a pile of mud when their home was constructed 21 years ago on a ¼-acre pie-shaped lot.

“We started with a parkway tree and a couple of bushes,” Karen said. “I love flowers, lots of colors and easy-care, low-maintenance plants.”

Warm tones and infinite shades of green are found throughout the garden accented by electric blue pottery and lovely metal artwork. A row of white-trimmed hostas from Karen's childhood home line the entrance to the rose-covered arbor that guests pass through to enter the enclosed rear yard.

Places to sit and relax are set throughout the garden and on the large wooden deck. Species of hydrangeas include Quick Fire, Little Limelight and Incrediball.

“We have friends who love gardening, so every spring we put it out if someone needs plants like ferns, hostas and coral bells and we all share,” Karen said.

Visitors find charm in the dense shade under the spread of a blue spruce where some variegated Jacob's ladder grow and with the novelty of a small water feature created from a delicate glass tea pot, cup and saucer.

Seastrom garden

Sandy Seastrom's small lot may offer a lot of dense shade, but also a beautiful garden that holds an amazing surprise. Do not miss the view skyward into a flowering jack-and-the-bean-stalk-sized climbing hydrangea vine that uses a stately oak tree for support.

The rear garden is devoid of all grass, but offers guests winding flagstone paths past a multilevel, bird bath-sized pond, huge hostas in chartreuse and forest green varieties, painted Japanese ferns, and floral astilbes.

“I like to keep things as natural looking as possible with some organization,” Seastrom said. “It is hard to get color here, so the interests and colors come from the foliage and pots.”

Sweet William, trillium, Lilies of the Valley, Bishop Weed and coral bells add to the natural look of the multi-leveled garden.

Seastrom said her best advice to gardeners is “to read the labels” on all plants before purchase. “Part shade and part sun” plants simply will not work in her total shade rear garden. She also stays with successful plants in clusters rather than a hodgepodge look of too much variety.

Triggiani garden

Joan Triggiani purposely designed her small garden enclosed by a small white picket fence to be warm, comfortable and inviting.

“Everyone loves to come and have tea in the afternoon, and listen to and watch the birds,” Triggiani said. “I love nature of all kinds.”

A variety of bird houses and water dishes are found throughout the yard.

Tall Rose of Sharon bushes line the rear yard where colorful annuals overflow hanging pots. A small raised vegetable garden offers the basics, along with fresh herbs and an experimental area where a pair of tree peonies grow.

Two floral climbing crimson Mandeville vines trim the two outside corners of the wood deck, where a table is set for six guests. An inviting pair of chairs and circle bistro table is set in the garden with its own tablecloth, china tea pot, cups and saucers for two.

Roses are Triggiani's specialty. She no longer grows tea roses but instead searches for hardy roses that can survive in zone four.

“If the roses can survive in Canada, then they are the roses I grow,” she said.

Lessons from gardens are plenty on this year's Garden Gait tour. For further Garden Gait information, go to lislegardengait.net.

• Joan Broz writes about Lisle each month in Neighbor.

Chris and Renata Kaczor enjoy spending evenings listening to the sound of water flowing gently into the pond in their Lisle garden, which is part of the Lisle Woman's Club Garden Gait. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Guests to the Rodis' garden pass through a rose-covered arbor to enter the backyard. Courtesy of Joan Broz

The Kaczors' garden pond, which the couple built by hand, features a waterfall. Courtesy of Joan Broz

On the Garden Gait tour, visitors can see the Kaczors' raised vegetable garden, featuring common food plants as well as floral plants that grow fava beans. Courtesy of Joan Broz

A gazebo on the deck leads to wide stairs opening into the garden of Mike and Karen Rodi. The garden is part of the Lisle Garden Gait. Courtesy of Joan Broz

A variety of plants - including a white-flowering one Carl Kwak calls "snow" accent -spill over the serpentine wall in the Kwak garden. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Mike and Karen Rodi have used a teapot, cup and saucer to create a water feature in their garden. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Lenten rose blooms white to pink and to green by the pond in the Kaczors' garden. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Flowers flow over the serpentine rock wall in the Kwaks' garden, one of five included in the Garden Gait. Courtesy of Joan Broz

There's no grass in Sandy Seastrom's shady backyard, but a stone path leads visitors past a variety of foliage. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Joan Triggiani's yard is always ready to host tea for two. Her garden is features on the 2015 Garden Gait in Lisle. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Hydrangea vine climbs an established tree in Sandy Seastrom's yard, part of the Lisle Woman's Club's Garden Gait. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Potted giant crimson Mandeville vine climbs a trellis to accent Joan Triggiani's deck. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Sandy Seastrom's small garden holds surprises, such as a tree stump used as a pot. Courtesy of Joan Broz

In Joan Triggiani's Lisle garden, an asparagus fern sits in a white wicker chair. Courtesy of Joan Broz

The Rodis' garden accents shades of green with colorful pots and garden art. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Sandy Seastrom's garden beckons birds to a small pond for a drink or a bath. The garden is part of the Lisle Garden Gait. Courtesy of Joan Broz

Joan Triggiani selects hearty varieties of roses for her garden, watched over by a guardian angel. Courtesy of Joan Broz

If you go

What: Lisle Woman's Club's Garden Gait garden tour

When: Expo is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 14; gardens are open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Expo is at Museums at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St., Lisle; garden addresses come with tickets

Cost: $15 in advance, $17 at the expo

Info: lislegardengait.net

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