Walk reveals secrets of four Lisle gardens

Just in time to inspire summer gardens, the Lisle Woman's Club Garden Gait Walk will feature four private gardens that offer visitors a plethora of ideas.

The annual tour begins at the Museums of Lisle Station Park between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, June 14, in downtown Lisle.

A large tent on the grounds will have more than 15 vendors offering an enticing assortment of garden items, artwork and baskets. A raffle of four large gift-filled baskets, complimentary tea and cookies are available. The museum buildings will be open.

Tickets, $17 at the door, are available for $15 in advance from club members or at eight local merchants. Details are at lislewomansclub.org.

Each garden on the self-guided tour offers eye-catching plant materials and unique design concepts. Allow 30 minutes to view each of the four gardens. Addresses and directions come with the Garden Gait 2009 ticket, but here is a sneak preview.

Karen Gecic and Richard Brooke

Sitting on a 3/4-acre lot, the gardens of Karen Gecic and Richard Brooke are a work-in-progress that began six years ago when the couple moved to Lisle.

"The key is to buy a plant for your spot and not just because you like it," Gecic said. "Don't be afraid to move something if it's not doing well where you planted it."

Eye-catching flower boxes trim the home's windows. A row of peonies and a patch of irises welcome visitors to the backyard.

A gathering of artistic metal frogs jam a silent melody while a collection of birdhouses adds a sense of whimsy. Blue sage, white daisies and orange poppies intertwine their bloom time near a string of grapevines.

Prolific apple, cherry, peach and pear trees line the rear of the property.

"I've been told that my garden is a self-sown cottage garden because I plant whatever a friend gives me because I have the room to give it a try," Gecic said. "This is a hobby that does not need to be expensive."

Gecic grew up in a family that had a large vegetable garden but still learned the hard way one summer that 47 tomato plants would make 30 gallons of sauce. This year, seven tomato plants and a few pepper plants are in the area where someday the couple hopes to build a gazebo.

Various lilies, spiderworts and sedum are sprinkled throughout the flower beds. In a small shade garden, a table and chair with attractive mosaic leaf and dragonfly designs offers a gardener a reprieve from the hot summer sun.

Lynda and Pat Sarb

Experimenting with a variety of plants is something Lynda Sarb does in her garden to better help her clients. As a professional gardening coach, Sarb enjoys helping homeowners understand their gardens.

Twenty years ago, Lynda and Pat Sarb's yard had typical foundation plantings and two trees in the backyard.

"Every year, we expand the garden," Sarb said. "Eventually, we would like to have no lawn except for a small piece in back."

As a certified horticulturist, Sarb believes in mass planting and mulch to choke out weeds. She values color, contrast and form to create her living art. A play of leaf textures and shades of color add to the total design.

In the front yard, visitors can appreciate the "wine and roses" weiglia, multibranched forest pansy redbud and black lace sambucus. A gold smoke bush's bright foliage makes a stunning contrast to surrounding greenery.

Learning about plants continues in the side- and backyards. Visitors are in for a treat to see the 2009 debut of a yellow knockout rose called "Sunny."

"Roses love companion planting and I recommend catmint as an accompaniment because it keeps rabbits away from the rose," Sarb said.

In the side yard, there is a grouping of raised beds for the vegetable garden with tubs of potato plants.

A large pin oak tree commands the shade garden where a number of Jack-in-the-pulpits and Jills are in flower and a bed of bleeding hearts adds a touch of humor.

The blend of hostas - On Stage, June, Gold Standard and Revolution - give weight to the scheme while a wooden porch swing invites quests to sit and savor.

Gabriella Pope and Bob McDonald

Trees and a white picket fence lined with cheery-colored plants convey to visitors to the home of Gabriella Pope and Bob McDonald that the busy road that fronts the property is far removed.

Twenty-eight years ago, the couple began with a few blue spruces at the back of the lot.

"A lot of my plants I received from friends and family, which is very special," Pope said. "The irises were from my father-in-law and a customer shared with me a little piece of a Japanese peony."

A tropical theme accents hot colors and cool shade in the rear garden where bright pink flamingos bring a splash of color to the early summer garden.

An outdoor room, which is easy to maintain and fun to arrange, provides visitors a slice of paradise. Focal points include a wooden blue porpoise, hand-carved sailing vessel, seashell wind chimes and a tiki-hut service area.

Expect to see the unexpected. Bold colors draw the eye to the stripped awning that is commercially made to shade farm animals. Several garden glass gazing balls are surprisingly unbreakable kids play balls that offer the same look. Milkweed plants provide a wonderful whiff of fragrance.

Pope enjoys the adventure of finding a lot of her garden accents at garage sales and Goodwill stores. Each comes with a story.

Elephant ears, variegated cannas, ribbon grass and red morning glories vary foliage and interests. The gardener enjoys the life and soothing sounds ornamental grasses bring to her garden in a gentle breeze.

Beth and Tim Corrigan

Beth and Tim Corrigan's garden began fifteen years ago when the family moved to its present home where only a few evergreens grew. Today, the cottage garden thrives with four-season interests.

Native plants, such as blue beech, spicebushes, fringe tree and smooth hydrangea, thrive in the front yard under a large silver maple where perennials epimedium and sweet woodruff cover the ground.

Along the drive is a blend of mock oranges, chokeberries and peonies intermixed with perennials favorites. An oak-leaf hydrangea and a bleeding heart plant live under the branches of a large overhead pine.

A vegetable garden catches the southern sun along the garage although other veggies are found intermixed in flower beds and pots. In the rear yard, art pieces are sprinkled around for interest.

A real conversation piece is the unique Fallopia Japonica Variegata. The 4-foot tall plant has green-tinged white leaves and blooms in August. During the winter, the plant will die down as several viburnums in the area add winter interest.

Flower beds surround the yard with climbing roses, boxwoods, mullen, variegated sedum, common daisies, astilbes, ornamental grasses and Canadian ginger. An interesting bush clover lespedeza is a plant that will grow to 4 or 5 feet tall during the summer and blooms profusely in the fall.

"A garden should include bulbs in the spring so you can smile when the snow is leaving," Corrigan said. "In the summer, you can play with colors and bloom times of the perennials. For fall and winter, you have to have structure and interest when nothing blooms. So leave the seed heads for the birds, as well as ornamental grasses and different twig colors to give you pleasure when you are looking through seed catalogs."

• Joan Broz writes about Lisle. E-mail her at jgbroz@yahoo.com.