Elmhurst Garden Walk and Faire gives visitors ideas
One way to enjoy an enchanting garden discovered while exploring a faraway vacation spot is to replicate it in your own backyard.
That's just what one Elmhurst homeowner has done in the green space surrounding the resident's abode.
"It reflects the homeowner's love of Colorado and the Wisconsin Northwoods," said Penny O'Neill, general chairwoman of the Elmhurst Garden Club's 23rd annual Garden Walk and Faire, coming up Sunday, July 8.
The garden, with its blend of two scenic inspirations, is one of five private gardens and one public garden featured on the walk.
Ticketholders each will receive a garden guide book, map and addresses of participating gardens, plus historical information on each location, O'Neill said. They'll be greeted by homeowners, garden club members and volunteers eager to answer questions and share gardening tips.
"It is the premier event of the summer," O'Neill said. "We have everything from small rain gardens to very large plantings."
Another garden on the tour grows outside of a house purchased, in ready-to-assemble pieces, through a retail mail order catalog and shipped via rail.
"The house is an original 1920s Sears and Roebuck kit house," O'Neill said. "It sits on a nice piece of property. The landscaping is just outstanding."
The land features a small stream that O'Neill said complements the house's aesthetic.
"I would call it a more classic garden. There is a very sedate shade garden that leads one back to a sunnier garden," she said. "It's absolutely stunning."
A newly established public garden also is among the walk destinations.
"Park district personnel will be there on the day of the walk," O'Neill said.
The Faire, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., an hour past the end of the walk, will bring more than 60 vendors to Wilder Park in downtown Elmhurst. There is no admission fee for the Faire.
Garden-related décor and art, along with a selection of jewelry and artwork, will be for sale. Plants will be for sale from Red Barn Greenhouse, an annual fixture at the fair for about 20 years, and from the Northern Illinois Iris Society, O'Neill said.
Proceeds from Garden Walk tickets benefit the Elmhurst Garden Club's Mildred Hartney Scholarship Fund. The fund has provided a total of $150,000 in tuition assistance for undergraduate and graduate college students pursuing studies in horticulture, botany and environmental sciences, O'Neill said.
"We have quite a stringent application process," she said. "And they have to be Illinois residents."
Last year, she said, the club awarded $2,500 in scholarships.
The Garden Walk and Faire are well-attended each year, O'Neill said, enabling more scholarship funding.
"We get 500 to 600 at the Garden Walk and well over 1,000 at the Faire," she said.
Tickets are available for $15 at several Elmhurst stores through noon Saturday, and will be $20 on Sunday in Wilder Park.
If you go
What: Elmhurst Garden Walk and Faire
When: Walk is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 8; Faire is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Wilder Park, 175 S. Prospect Ave., Elmhurst
Admission: $15 for walk if purchased by noon Saturday, July 7; $20 on walk day; free admission for fair
Info: elmhurstgardenclub.org