Two area garden walks inspire nature lovers

Consider de-stressing this summer by immersing yourself in beautiful gardens - one day at a time.

You can certainly visit public places like the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, but a more unique opportunity exists when you visit charitable garden walks that showcase private citizens' gardens. When else can you traipse around the incredibly landscaped yards of strangers and enjoy the fruits of their hard work?

Two such walks are right around the corner.

The 16th annual Barrington Country Garden & Antique Faire is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, June 17 and 18, and the seventh biennial Fox Valley Garden Walk will be held Saturday, June 25, on the west side of Elgin.

The highly anticipated two-day Garden Faire in Barrington Hills raises money for the Hands of Hope charity, which is dedicated to meeting the critical needs of women and children in Africa by addressing education, economic development, clean drinking water and health services. The Fox Valley Garden Walk raises funds for the Elgin Area American Association of University Women's (AAUW) scholarship program for adult women in the Elgin area.

The Barrington garden walk is Hands of Hope's signature fundraiser, attracting an average of 1,000 people each year, said Vicky Wauterlek, Hands of Hope founder. Wauterlek estimates the walk has raised about $3.75 million for Hands of Hope over the years.

In total, the group has raised more than $6.5 million dollars to build schools, dig wells and provide Zambian farm families with resources, methods and tools to increase farm productivity and improve their overall standard of living.

This year's Garden Faire proceeds will be used to provide clean drinking water to 20 needy communities; build a conveniently located new health clinic in an area where people have had to walk more than six miles to get desperately needed health care; and train more farm families.

The AAUW, which the Fox Valley Garden Walk benefits, is a national organization that was founded in 1882. The Elgin chapter, which today boasts more than 100 members, was founded in 1920. Its mission is to seek advances and equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. Money raised by the garden walk provides scholarships to adult women who are returning to college and are enrolled in an institution within 50 miles of Elgin, said Mary Navin, a member of the group.

Navin said their garden walk generally attracts between 300 and 400 people and they usually raise about $5,000 through admissions and sponsorships.

The Garden & Antique Faire will cover three private estates in Barrington Hills, including expansive floral and vegetable gardens, inviting swimming pools, antique adornments, unique architectural details, beautiful bronzes, a fairy tale gypsy wagon playhouse and more. Shuttle busses transport tour-goers to the locations. Parking is available at Barrington High School, 616 W. Main St. (Hart Road entrance) on Friday; and across the street at 800 Hart Road on Saturday.

The first garden is located at Uplands Farm, a charming equestrian estate that includes a 150-year-old country house, a colorful pool house, a winter "bank barn" and an impeccable stable/tack room. It is set amid 50 acres of savanna, riding trails and pasture.

Attendees may follow the smooth bluestone path to the pool house, stopping to explore the border gardens of astilbe, black-eyed Susan and purple cone flower. The pool house pergola provides shade from the summer sun for beds of hosta, ornamental grasses and bee balm, as well as the hydrangea climbing on the guesthouse walls.

Closer to the main residence there are less formal plantings of nepeta, hosta and roses, which enliven the hillside under a majestic oak. New pergolas and stone walls provide the backdrop for the more formal gardens designed with boxwood, hydrangea and penstemon, accented by bronze statues throughout the property.

The kitchen garden boasts its own beds of boxwood, coralbell and foam flower. You can also view the pristine stables and walk past the winter "bank barn" to get the real flavor of this Barrington Hills estate, complete with donkeys and horses in the pasture, a vegetable garden and a gypsy wagon playhouse.

Next on the tour is the Place de la Musique, a 57-acre estate filled with old growth and ornamental trees, well-maintained perennial beds and objects of interest collected from bygone eras.

The bus will drive through ornate iron gates, down the long winding drive lined with century-old street lamps from Milwaukee and past the stunning Second Empire-style residence, said Greg Leifel, executive director of the estate. Tour-goers will also be able to enjoy the 18-foot-tall, tiered Italian fountain and the terra-cotta ornamentation on the main entrance facade, salvaged from the old Granada Theatre in Chicago. The copper finial atop the tower is from the Schlitz Brewery in Wisconsin.

The bus will then stop at the Carousel Pavilion where guests may enjoy beautifully restored American and European fairground and dance hall organs. The star of the show, however, is the grand Eden Palais Carousel. Built in 1890, the fully restored marvel is the most complete example of a European salon carousel in existence. Guests will be offered rides that day, Leifel said.

Other treasures will also be available for attendees to view, including a sizable display of steam engines, a large Victorian clock tower and a luxuriously restored Pullman Palace Car, which tour-goers will be welcome to climb aboard. There is also an 1881 Grant railroad locomotive used by Henry Ford.

"We also have some beautiful garden areas and lovely lake. This is such a unique Barrington Hills property," he added.

The last stop of the tour is a 10-acre English-style estate, complete with stately columns of trees, containers brimming with color, formal, terraced gardens and carefree cottage borders.

Formal gardens with English-style boxwood gardens and a brick path lined with white begonias and yews surround the main house. There is also a pool parterre, a formal garden and an ornate pavilion that covers perennials, annuals and roses. A liberal use of containers adds additional color and dimension.

The award-winning potager garden, a French-inspired vegetable, fruit, berry and cutting garden, is particularly impressive. Also, the charming cottage gardens bordering the 19th century farmhouse and guesthouse will have you thinking about new possibilities for your own garden.

This is also the location of The French Market, which brings together a variety of upscale shopping vendors offering unique accessories, decorative items, fine art, jewelry and garden accoutrements. There are also complimentary home and garden presentations hosted by area professionals scheduled each day and both Egg Harbor Cafe and Ambrosia Euro American Patisserie will have food items for sale.

Faire tickets are $55 and are good both days. The Faire is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day unless you opt for Friday's special $80 "Early Buy" ticket because you want to shop from 8:30 to 10 a.m. before the Faire opens. Tickets may be ordered online (through June 15) at www.handsofhopeonline.org or you can mail a check or money order to: Hands of Hope, 800 Hart Road, Suite 100, Barrington, IL 60010. They will also be sold at seven retailers in Barrington, Crystal Lake and Lake Bluff. Check the website for locations.

Seven spectacular gardens will be featured on the Fox Valley Garden Walk, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., June 25. Examples of native plants, explosions of color, new gardens and reinvigorated old gardens will all be featured. Many of the home gardeners themselves will be on hand to greet tour-goers.

"When we first started doing this, we literally went around, knocking on doors and asking people to open their gardens. But now we actually have some people who call us and volunteer. We usually alternate our walks between the east side of Elgin where we show 'city' gardens and the west side of Elgin where we show 'country' gardens. This year we are featuring the country gardens. But in two years we are considering branching out and featuring gardens in Dundee since our event is called the Fox Valley Garden Walk," Navin said.

Among the gardens to be featured is an incredible contoured, terraced and wooded landscape at the home of Peggy Pedone, 40W785 Stoneridge Court, which contains more than 60 trees, four ponds (with koi), two streams and nine seating areas, all punctuated by shrubs, grasses, perennials and two- to four-ton boulders.

When the Pedones moved into their home 12 years ago, the 1.5-acre property was totally flat and devoid of vegetation. All of the gardens, ponds and trees have been put in by the Pedones or under their direction.

"We have a hidden garden in the back that no one would suspect when they drove by the more formal gardens in the front," she explained. "It is very unusual with paths, 65 trees, yard art, ponds, koi and lots of frogs."

Nearby, at 11N600 Hunter Trail, is the garden of Diane Van Wie-Gross, which is also featured on the walk. Thirteen years ago her family had only weeds, prairie plants and clay covering their 1.25-acre parcel.

"We had to make it look like a home so we just started digging and through lots of trial and error, gardening has become my passion," Van Wie-Gross said. "Ninety-nine percent of what I have are perennials, in both the shade and the sun, including black-eyed Susans, peonies, iris, salvia, cone flowers and hostas. The color palette in the sunny portions of the yard, for the most part, is purple, yellow and white, with a splash of pink. In the shadier woodland areas, it is more about foliage color and texture."

The garden also includes more than 50 trees, arbors with climbers like clematis, honeysuckle and hydrangea, little pathways, two sunset seating areas and a large patio with a pavilion covering part of it. There is also a fire pit in the center of the yard.

"I probably spend 20 hours a week working in my yard from late February to early June each year. I really love it," she said.

"The Garden Walk will be wonderful. The gardens are truly an extension of everyone's personality because gardening is such a creative process," Van Wie-Gross said.

The only public gardens to be featured on the walk are the Rakow Branch Library's Zen gardens and its butterfly garden, located at 2751 W. Bowes Road.

Local artists Suzanne Massion and Jean Pechtel will be painting at two of the gardens during the walk for the enjoyment of the tour-goers. In addition, an arborist from Davey Tree will be talking to attendees at the Pedone home about tree trimming.

Tickets for the walk are $15 in advance (at the local Elgin Ace Hardware and Jewel stores and at Heinz Brothers Garden Center in St. Charles) and $18 on the day of the walk at any participating garden except the library. They are also available for $16 at www.eventbrite.com.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/FoxValleyGardenWalk or elginarea-il.aauw.net.