Coeur D’Alene Gardens Open For Public Viewing

Fri., June 25, 1999

Six private Coeur d’Alene gardens will be open for public viewing Sunday during the annual Coeur d’Alene Garden Club Garden Tour, titled “Art in the Garden.”

Tour hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and tickets and maps are available at the North Idaho College parking lot west of downtown Coeur d’Alene. Tickets are $8.

True to the theme, all of the gardens on the tour will feature art of some sort, ranging from formal art works to artistic efforts using growing materials.

Following are some of the features of the six gardens:

Jim and Barbara Sinsley incorporated ornaments and antiques as well as birdhouses and feeders in their yard. The plantings range from vines to grasses, perennials and vegetables. The yard has a pond and is a designated Wildlife Habitat.

Both Bill and Elaine Philips are artists, so naturally their yard reflects their many creative efforts. Visitors will first notice the old locomotive in the front yard. Around back there’s a berry patch, potting shed, a one-hole golf course and an orchard.

John and Donna Schwandt wanted their yard to resemble a park and with a collection of exotic trees and shrubs, they achieved this effect. They planted what amounts to a small forest with a collection of more than 150 types of plants and trees. This yard, too, is wildlife-friendly.

Silda Pollard gardens adjacent to Fernan Lake so great blue herons are frequent visitors to her yard. The grounds around the house are terraced and planted with roses and perennials. This yard is also a designated Wildlife Habitat.

A year ago, Bob and Lee Ray began turning a weed patch into a natural park-like garden and in its second summer, the garden structure is in place. The Rays built a brook and pond, surrounded by boulders and native trees and perennials. The focal point is a totem pole, carved from a tree which died after a recent storm. Herbs and vegetables are grown in raised beds.

Visitors will be greeted with the fragrance of lavender at the Post Falls home of Dick and Judy Kurth. Indeed, the front yard is a field of lavender. The property also contains trout ponds, totem poles, wooden sculptures, an orchard, vegetable garden and a spacious deck from which to view the landscape design.

The Coeur d’Alene Garden Club Tour benefits the Kootenai Humane Society and Tubbs Hill Community Project.

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