Garden tour teased all the senses

By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY

Staff Writer

 

The Arrowhead Arts Association held their annual garden tour on June 27, a beautiful sunny, summer day in Lake Arrowhead. All the smells, views, colors, design and textures of the gardens touched the five senses during the tour. The music in the gardens made the day move quickly and blended it all together into a tapestry of wonderment.

After a check-in at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church – with a walk through their beautiful garden featuring the Stations of the Cross – seven more gardens were toured. There were three more stops on the day-long drive through the beautiful streets of the area, including the community garden at Kuffel Corner and the reception at ALA’s Grass Valley Park at the end of the garden tour. Many gardens had information or gifts to place into guests’ garden bag as they traveled between the gardens.

Maps were handed out a map with each garden represented by a flower; each garden had a special name or theme. There was the “Celebrate 250” all in red white and blue, “Tranquility Garden” and “A Garden Planted with Prayer,” which explained the family’s long love affair with Lake Arrowhead since childhood, and how the ponds and gardens with the bird songs gave the family a sense of peace in their lives.

Many ponds and streams were featured in the gardens, giving a relaxing sound and feel to the fabulous gardens. Some of these private gardens were larger than others, some were on hillsides and it was amazing to see how even a small garden and the deck gardens were abundant in colors and blooms. There were veggie gardens and seed starter stations. Many of the gardens had printed statements from the owners on how and why the gardens were created. Some of the homeowners were present.

Diane Gladwell was at her home demonstrating her gopher removal system using Gopher Hawks. She had a printout of her experiences of what works and what doesn’t work in a mountain garden. She’s tried broken glass, gum, chocolate chips, hot sauce, cheap wine, none of which deterred the gophers. Her lessons learned include remembering to plant everything in gopher baskets, paying attention to the sun needs of plants and having a dedicated watering system. She had a planting guide and recommended using mountain garden centers as they have plants more adaptable to the local growing situations such as weather and soils. She even had a list of those plants that thrived and those that didn’t. The gophers even thought her foxgloves were delicious and, although not eating the daffodils bulbs, the critters did relocate them after deciding not to eat them.

The Lori Pearson Demonstration Garden at Tavern Bay was wonderful with its pamphlet explain the various local plants and their needs. This garden is always available for ALA members to visit but this was a special event and all who were on the garden tour were allowed beyond the new rolling gate to see it this day.

The hummingbird ponds and gardens of mountain native Gene Johnson were amazing. He created relaxing steams and ponds on a hillside with a special, reflective memory rock and garden for his daughter, who has passed. He grew up on the mountain and is a Rim High grad. He and his father, who has lived on the mountain for 53 years and lives across the street, explained the nighttime conflicts they have had with the neighborhood bear, who keeps knocking over the fish food dispenser and occasionally munching on the fish in the pond, too.

This garden tour was perfectly timed as the flowers were in spring bloom, the sunshine was out, but the heat wave had broken, making for delightful strolls through the gardens.

This fundraiser supported the many projects that Arrowhead Arts Association offers. Currently their older strings students are playing concerts in cathedrals and other locations in Italy, an experience previous groups have commented were an event that changed their lives, expanding their world view, giving them confidence in their musical abilities.

Other upcoming events include their upcoming Aug. 1 flute quintet concert at Mt. Calvary church at 4 p.m. The August 29 concert at Mt. Calvary will feature the Whist Duo.

The fall concert on Sept. 20 at Our Lady of the Lake Church will feature the AAA’s string program which was established 22 years ago and the demonstrates the results of their musical program which are spectacular. The Arrowhead Arts Association Philharmonic Orchestra will once again perform under the direction of Maestro Tomasz Golka. Community donations are what make this all possible.

The annual Classics by the Lake – a concert by invitation only – will take place on Aug. 15 at 3 p.m. at a private home.

For more information on all the AAA events, visit their website at ArrowheadArts.org.