Garden Walk is July 8

If you like flowers, you are in luck. The Daughters of the American Revolution have organized a garden walk in which four Washington homes will showcase their well-kept flower beds and lawns.

The four homes on the garden walk belong to Shirley Steele, Gary and Jeanne (Prochaska) Kos, C.J. ?Griff? and Vivian Griffith, and Steve and Tammy Roth. The flowers around the Alexander Young Log Cabin are also part of the tour. All five properties will have an open house from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 8. The money raised at the garden walk will go toward restoring the Alexander Young Log Cabin.

Steele?s garden is located at 609 S. Third Ave. Steele has over 60 hostas around her house and many ornamental grasses, rosebushes and perennials. Her Asiatic lilies add to the garden?s nice balance of color.

The Kos residence is at 615 W. Adams St. and includes much more than a garden. The 1.2-acre lot features a labyrinth in the backyard. A hand-painted mural adorns the retaining wall in the water garden. The perennials, knockout roses and daylilies and other flowers have been a fixture of the residence since the home was built on the bare property five years ago.

The Roths have livened their courtyard by placing boulders around a pond with waterfalls and water gardens. The garden includes a berm, fragrant Lantanas and sedum to attract butterflies.

The Griffiths have lived at 1512 N. Third Ave. since moving to Washington from Keithsburg, Ill. in 1998. Vivian and Griff had a large lot in Keithsburg with dozens and dozens of plants. They couldn?t stand to leave the plants behind, so they brought them to Iowa.

?We moved 100 plants and trees from the other property,? Griff said. ?We had a big lot in Illinois. The soil was sandy and it was easy to dig in.?

The Griffiths? current home was just an empty lot when they moved here.

?There weren?t any trees here when we moved,? Vivian said. ?There was not one little sprig in this yard. There was a pile of dirt here, and I said, ?Please leave that for a berm.??

The Griffiths brought four blue spruces to Washington. The trees were just a few feet long when they arrived but are now pushing 15 feet and still growing. One of the spruces is in the front and the other three are clustered in the backyard. Vivian trims one of them so it doesn?t grow into the red bud tree planted next to it.

Much of the Griffiths? backyard is dedicated to their trees and flowers. Vivian sprinkles pine bark around the plants to keep the weeds down and preserve moisture. The Griffiths? plants extend even to their house itself. A beautiful purple clematis vine can be seen growing up the side of the home.

Marj Lins, a member of DAR who has organized the garden walk, said there has not been a garden walk since 2005. Mary Levy organized a garden walk to benefit the Washington Historical Society for years. Lins began working on the garden walk last winter by contacting people with extravagant gardens.

?The four gardens are entirely different from one another,? Lins said. ?Each one reflects the personality of the homeowners. For instance, Steve likes these big boulders and big water things. He likes to go over the top, which is great.?

Steele?s garden has been on earlier garden walks, but Lins said it?s important to remember that gardeners change their flowers regularly so you never look at the same garden twice.

?Jeanne was on the tour before, too, when she was at a different home,? she said.

Lins said it?s too soon to say if there will be a garden walk again next year, but she is hopeful. She knows that a lot of work goes into maintaining a garden.

?All of these people work very hard,? she said. ?You don?t just plant a garden. There?s a lot of trimming, fertilizing and a lot of care that goes into these. All of these gardens reflect that.?

Lins said the money raised during the garden walk will go toward repairing the stairway in the log cabin and other needs the cabin has. Jim Wood has volunteered to work on the stairs so that visitors to the cabin can access the second floor, which has been closed to the public.