Coeur d’Alene Garden Club’s self-guided garden tour offers green thumbs and admirers the chance to give back

Turning into the gate at Sowing Joy Farm in Post Falls took me back a few years when I used to spend a lot of time on local family farms. The outside world disappeared and I was surrounded by flower beds and the gentle hum of insects and flitting birds. A bit of peace and beauty away from the rest of the world.

Sowing Joy Farm provides that same peace and beauty to a much broader world. Owner Ondrea Kidd is a nationally known flower designer whose arrangements have graced the tables of many celebrations across the region and beyond. For Kidd, growing and designing with flowers is her way of bringing joy and beauty back to her community. As part of her desire to help the community she partners with 12 other local flower farms to collectively market their flowers.

This reason for giving back to her community is the heart and theme of this year’s Coeur d’Alene Garden Club’s Garden Tour. The self-guided tour will be on Sunday, June 28, and will feature six exceptional, community-focused gardens across Hayden, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls. The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $21.72 with a service fee when ordered online at the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club website at cdagardenclub.com. They are available at selected local nurseries. Children 12 and younger are free.

Beyond the arrangements that Sowing Joy Farm sends across the country, they also open their farm for classes, you-pick Sip and Snip events and the occasional murder mystery production. Annually they host their Grape Escape event with Safe Harbor Coeur d’Alene to raise awareness of human trafficking. Check them out at sowingjoyfarm.com.

Connie Ashby’s garden in Hayden celebrates the joy of giving back by inviting gardeners to explore their creativity and options and take the ideas back to their own gardens. Ashby’s garden is an example of how what was raw land in 2020 can be turned into a garden full of whimsy, playful garden art, musical wind chines and unexpected plant pairings.

Also in Hayden, Karen and Matt Roetter’s garden tells a story of partnership, adaptions and healing where sustainable plantings and garden design have replaced high maintenance plantings and productive vegetable beds provide tasty sustenance. Colors have been muted and blended to create a serene and restful environment. At the center of the garden, a young dogwood serves as a remembrance of their daughter Katie.

In Coeur d’Alene, Alex Long and Todd Hoffman’s garden is an example of revival of an old landscape forgotten with time. Using creativity, determination and a modest budget, they carefully edited the old landscape and revived the garden’s vitality with layered borders, bold perennials and a sense of joyful abundance. An heirloom vermillion rose that came from Hoffman’s great uncle’s garden ties the past and present together. Vegetable and fruit plantings add to the garden’s overall celebration of providing space for growth that begins with faith in possibilities.

The Shared Harvest Community Garden in Coeur d’Alene’s Garden District was created in 2008 when neighbors wanted a space where their community could gather to grow and share food, friendships and what it means to be a community. This unique and beautiful community green space provides shady spaces and paths for relaxing and meeting other community members. The grounds also offer a gathering place with picnic tables, benches, a performance stage, walking paths all in the shade of 100-year-old oak trees. All the produce grown in the garden is donated back to the community. Check them out at sharedharvestgarden.org.

Jim and Gerry Wilson’s garden in Post Falls offers a gentle reminder that beauty need not be complicated. Here generations are linked together by cherished heirloom plants passed down from family gardens. Nature is an integral element of the garden that along with carefully chosen sustainable perennials has resulted in a low maintenance and sustainable landscape that is accessible and deeply meaningful.

The tour is the key source of funding the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club uses to support horticultural projects throughout Kootenai County. Over the years, the funds have supported gardens at schools, Canopy Village, Shared Harvest Community Garden and others.