SEQUIM — The secrets of private gardens will be thrown open to the public Saturday.
A self-guided tour of eight Sequim gardens is planned from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the 18th annual Petals & Pathways Home Garden Tour, sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Clallam County.
Those on the tour will see a garden that is also a model railroad, another with a playground for dogs and another designed on the principles of feng shui.
The gardens are a showcase of do-it-yourself design and maintenance practices.
Tour participants will see how these gardeners coped with this year’s winter weather conditions by replacing or redesigning parts of their gardens.
Four of the featured gardens are situated on small city lots and demonstrate how limited space can be designed to muffle traffic noise and provide a private retreat.
Proceeds from the tour help support the Master Gardener plant clinics and educational programs.
The programs include the Green Thumb Gardening Tips Brown Bag and Class Act at Woodcock series and Youth Enrichment Program and demonstration gardens, which are open to the public free of charge.
The gardens include the Woodcock Gardens, the Olympic Peninsula Demonstration Garden being developed near Carrie Blake Park and the garden at Robin Hill Farm, which supplies fresh vegetables and fruit to the Salvation Army soup kitchen in Port Angeles.
Master Gardeners, a cooperative program between Washington State University and Clallam County, provides up-to-date information on sustainable gardening practices.
For more information on the tour, visit the website www.petalsandpathways.com.
Gardens on tour
Here are descriptions of the gardens on the tour:
■ 91 Dickinson St.
This garden is a seven-year work-in-progress.
Jan and Gary Chapman are do-it-yourself gardeners who have transformed a 2½-acre parcel of flat pasture into approximately 1½ acres of manicured gardens where 10 planting beds are connected by wandering gravel paths.
Along with a garden shed filled with orchids, the Chapmans have cultivated a range of ground covers, perennials and evergreens and included among their trees contorted weeping birch, purple birch, sourwood, magnolia and apple trees.
A new arbor will be home to two newly planted Cecil Brunner climbing roses.
■ 453 W. Hammond St.
Nestled onto a city lot are the dream gardens of a couple of “weekend warriors.”
Denny and Dan Donovan have transformed their property from traditional lawns to flower beds, featuring in the front yard colorful perennials, shrubs, fruit and vegetable plants, dogwoods, maples, a weeping larch and a yellow plum tree.
A winding pathway leads into a private backyard oasis with waterfalls and ponds, flowering trees and gardens highlighted by waves of ground cover and a rocked fire pit.
Do-it-yourself projects include a garden shed, a wood-clad waist-high raised vegetable bed, a worm bin, bird feeders and mason bee nesters.
■ 45 Marigold Lane.
Since 2007, Lee Sharp and Karen Boorman have transformed flat pasture into a showcase of more than 80 different species of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs — 190 in all — as well as annuals and perennials such as sedums, lavender, heather, coral bells, columbine, lingonberry and blueberry.
McDonald Creek runs through the back half of their lot.
■ 31 Nesting Place.
Welcome to the land of golden retrievers, birds and veggies.
While Marilyn and Don Brenneis designed their front landscape for low maintenance — using plants and boulders intermingled with annuals — their backyard was designed as a playground for their four golden retrievers, as well as a productive garden and relaxing haven for the dogs’ owners.
The dogs’ “mountain,” posted with a “Golden Retriever Crossing” sign, contains a tunnel in which they can crawl.
Raised vegetable beds are easily accessible, with hog wire used to prevent dog-digging.
A swing under a grape arbor, a cascading water feature that muffles traffic noise and variety of bird feeders also are in place.
■ 71 Nesting Place.
Michele Kolker has created the garden she was unable to have in her 15-foot-by-12-foot arid Los Angeles yard.
She was guided by the principles of feng shui, which determined the start date, time and location of the first cut, as well as placement of the water feature and artwork, and collaborated with Bentley Garden Design in developing the plans for her gardens.
Her color palette began with the choice of sunset-colored flagstone for the patio and walkways.
To this, she added plants with foliage colors in a combination of chocolate, apricot, pink and orange sherbet highlighted with blue and purple.
Kolker designed the lighting, water feature and pergola and incorporated the work of local artist Dana Hyde.
■ 302 N. Ryser Ave.
Judy Sensitaffar’s garden, situated on a small town lot, once was a basketball court and a yard full of junk.
Sensitaffar and her daughters created an intimate garden of many outdoor rooms. Flagstone paths lead from one garden room to the next, where one might encounter a swing or gazebo or hammock or waterfall.
Above-ground planting beds surrounding the lot shield garden visitors from street sounds.
Designated as a wildlife sanctuary, this garden is full of the twittering of birds and the hum of bees.
It features cherry, plum, apple, pear and apricot trees, as well as roses planted in memory of friends and family and baskets of hanging flowers.
■ 44 Timothy Lane.
This garden features a model railroad.
Dick and Evelyn Wolf have integrated their passion for model trains into their two-acre Carlsborg landscape.
Combining an enthusiasm for gardening, woodworking and mechanics, over the past 10 years, the two have created a rural fantasy railroad with more than 400 feet of track and 20 buildings.
Reviving a boyhood hobby, Dick Wolf built many of the rail cars pulled by the G-scale engines, as well as the antique buildings in the layout.
The raised track area includes mountains, hills, rock and water features and dwarf Alberta spruce, Blue Star (Amsonia), thyme and Irish and Scotch mosses.
Additional features of the property include expansive lawns, Leyland cypress, perennials, fruit orchard, arbors and a patio with a majestic view of the Olympic Mountains.
■ 4949 Woodcock Road.
Cynthia and David Martin live in a 20-acre park with an old barn, a large home and a view of Greywolf Range.
Nature provided four to five acres of forest, Casselary Creek and a tributary.
The creeks are habitat for many wild animals. The pond is stocked with Walmart goldfish — which not only prosper but also provide meals for blue herons and an occasional river otter.
The fish also keep the pond with a balance of aquatic plants.
The forest provides firewood for the family, while shredded branches and yard waste provide mulch.
