Master gardeners open 9 gardens to public

A garden on the Fox River and another tucked in the woods are just the beginning of the diverse spaces ticketholders will see when the McHenry County Master Gardeners open nine gardens Saturday, July 11.

Barb and Rich Normann created a charming garden in front of their McHenry home and show a variety of flowers and shady seating areas throughout the yard. But it's difficult for any of this to compete with the view of the Fox River running behind their property.

Visitors will eagerly take advantage of the Normann family motto: “Come relax, rest and dream and visit with us in between.”

Barb Norman is proud of the front yard where the couple has enough sun under a river birch and other trees for red Knock Out roses, a weeping cherry tree and yucca along with pink spirea, yellow and red lilies and Autumn Joy sedum. These all grow among hostas, hydrangeas and snow on the mountain, and nautical touches like a lighthouse and pelicans enhance the feel of a home on the water.

Visitors will see gardens everywhere on the large lot, including trellises by the garage that hold pink blooms of Dr. Ruppel clematis. Here and there among the dianthus and peonies Barb Normann has tucked a few zucchini and tomato plants. Like many great gardeners, she appreciates the greenery as much as the flowers, for example pointing out the glossy green leaves on her Mexican heather, a plant that also grows purple flowers but will have to move indoors to survive our winters.

She loves whimsy, too, and when she needed a focal point, she chose a tower with a bird house above three flowers that Rich Normann painted red, yellow and orange. But one of her best ornaments is a huge piece of driftwood reminiscent of an anchor up against the fence near the dock.

“We brought it in the back of our van from Pennsylvania,” said Barb Normann. “My brother was moving from his home with 12 acres. This was on the property, and I had always loved it, so he let us have it.”

The paver patio just outside the rear of the house offers just one of several seating areas where the Normanns and their guests can relax and watch the river. Back here are heather, azaleas, lilies and Dragon Wing begonias in hanging baskets.

It's just the couple's third summer building their gardens, and Barb Normann admits she has not figured out how to outwit the rabbits that nibble her favorite plants, seemingly at random.

Despite the little thieves and projects that always need work, she finds her home a very serene place.

In Wonder Lake Susan and Raleigh Kick grow such a sanctuary of rain gardens in the front yard of their chalet-style log house that even a pair of bluebirds has taken up residence with the butterflies and dragonflies.

Raleigh Kick and a few other people built the house almost 30 years ago, and since then they have created a wonderland of arbors, bridges, streams and paths in their front gardens.

“We pretty much do everything together,” said Susan Kick. “I love gardening, and once he got into it he found he enjoys it too. It's very relaxing, and we enjoy sitting on the decking watching the garden, too.”

Rainwater collects in streams that meander through the yard, watering trees and filling the rain gardens. And a touch of nostalgia comes with the “stately and majestic” cinnamon ferns and hostas Susan Kick dug from her late parents' Wisconsin garden.

Tips from these woodland gardeners:

• Susan Kick's favorite plant is Karly Rose fountain grass with its pink plumes. It needs sun and moist but drained soil. Prairie dropseed is a grass that she grows in the shade, along with sedges. Karl Foerster grass presents plumes in partial shade.

• Take two or three hosta leaves, dip them in water and then in rooting hormone you have sprinkled in a saucer. Plant in soil in a clay pot. This also works for geranium leaves, Kick said.

• “Always buy your plants from a good garden center,” she said. Susan Kick has run into people who bought the very popular purple fountain grass at a big box store without realizing it is not hardy in our winters. And she doesn't think a garden center would have sold her the ribbon grass that she just cannot get under control.

• The Kicks' choices for marginal bog plants in wet areas include turtlehead, grasses and sedges and filipendula, a pretty flowering native that draws butterflies. Yellow, blue and red flag iris grow in the water itself.

And Susan Kick is not a gardener who pushes all the heavy work off on her husband.

“I love digging and moving stones. You dig a little and put a little water in to see how it runs. Dig a rain garden and wait till it rains. If it works, expand it a little bit. If it doesn't, tweak it. I have a personal relationship with every rock in this yard.”

If you go

What: McHenry County Master Gardener Garden Walk, featuring nine private gardens

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 11

Where: Tickets and maps at Demonstration Garden at McHenry County College, 8900 U.S. Route 14, Crystal Lake. Use Entrance 3 and go to northeast side of college. The gardens are in Crystal Lake, McHenry, Richmond and Wonder Lake.

Tickets: $17

Etc.: Plants are labeled, and homeowners and Master gardeners will be on site to answer questions and provide information. The demonstration garden hosts a plant sale.

Information: <a href="http://www.mchenry.edu/gardenwalk">mchenry.edu/gardenwalk</a> or call (815) 479-7570