‘Gardening with the Masters’ tour to feature local stops

Jessica Selby
Posted 6/22/15

Ever wonder how your neighbor gets their split leaf Japanese maple to grow so big and lush, or how the colors on their roses are so vibrant?

What about that house up the street from yours, with …

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‘Gardening with the Masters’ tour to feature local stops

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Ever wonder how your neighbor gets their split leaf Japanese maple to grow so big and lush, or how the colors on their roses are so vibrant?

What about that house up the street from yours, with the vegetable garden so enormous it could probably feed a small community? How do they do it?

On Saturday and Sunday, the University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners will host their “Gardening with the Masters” statewide tour. As part of the tour, more than 30 homeowners from around the state will be opening their yards to the public so inquisitive gardening minds can tour their properties, ask questions about plant life and growth and gain enough knowledge to attempt to replicate the designs they see in their own backyards.

Several local gardens will be part of the tour, including that of Kathy Schnabel of Cranston. The all-organic garden at her 190 Albert Ave. home has been certified as a wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, and is filled with native Rhode Island species.

“Rhody natives and woodland wild plants abound: toad lily, blood root, Jack in the pulpit, mountain mint, blueberries, chokeberry and viburnum fruits,” reads a description of the garden, dubbed a “suburban oasis.”

The front garden sits as a buffer to the street, and a curved, grassy path is bordered with colorful perennials, holly trees and evergreens as it passes small garden vignettes and leads to a shady woodland covered by a canopy of maple trees.

“Gardening is my passion,” Schnabel said. “The trees just add so much in the summertime … It’s like my own little park.”

As part of the wildlife habitat designation, the Albert Avenue garden serves as a haven for birds, butterflies and beneficial native insects. Schnabel said the garden draws local and migratory species year-round.

As visitors arrive over the weekend, Schnabel said she will share information about her habitat and how other homeowners may attract, and provide for, wildlife such as birds and butterflies.

“I think it’s important to open up your eyes and see what’s around you. We all are living together … so we have to adapt to try to protect [wildlife],” she said.

Susan Legault, who owns the home at Robert Circle, said she will be spotlighting shade gardens during the tour at her house.

“Things have changed dramatically with my gardens since we bought the property in 1988,” Legault said. “When we first moved in, this was a brand new plat that had been stripped down of every single tree. But now I have so much shade I have had to redevelop and react my garden to the current landscape.

“I know everyone loves flowers in their gardens and that is what they are coming to see, but you can’t force a rose to grow in a shade garden, so my goal is to show people that you can still get that beautiful flower feel with all the different textures and coloration options with the shade loving plants that I have,” she continued.

Currently, Legault’s lush shade gardens are home to more than 50 varieties of Hosta, an oversized split leaf Japanese maple, picnic turtle heads, hydrangea, blue mouse ears, low bush blueberry bushes, wisteria, angels trumpet and coleus.

Guests to her Johnston home garden will be led through her vegetable garden that sits on the side of the property. A short walk to the rear yard, accessible only through a tunnel of vegetation, opens up to a tranquil setting where ferns cascade down a steep slope making way for the small natural pool at the back of the house. On the opposite side of the property, she set up a raised patio area surrounded by hydrangea, mountain laurel and more Hosta that is approachable through a wooden arbor at the front of the yard that has been decorated with illumination begonia, a truly dramatic cascading flower.

Underneath a pergola at the rear of the house, Legault has set up a small table and chair, which are surrounded by a variety of potted annuals – the color scheme of which blends with her shade-loving varietal of perennials in the yard.

“Typically annuals love the sun, but I have to pick some for the pots that like the shade because I don’t get much for sun back here,” Legault said. “So I try to get that color through a variety of foliage and textures.”

Although Legault does not typically have the items in her gardens labeled for identification, she said that she plans to do so for the tours. And in addition to providing information about the many options available for shade gardens, Legault said she also plans on talking with visitors of the tour about the advantages of dividing of perennials and propagating hydrangea.

“After a while, you will find it can get expensive, so I am always looking for ways to save money with the gardens, and when you propagate a hydrangea you take a shoot off of the mama, lie it on the ground, place a rock on the shoot and leave it so that it starts to develop its own roots and then you will have two,” she said. “It could take a year or more to be successful, but it should work saving you the money of buying a new one.”

According to MaryAnn Buckley, facilitator for the URI Master Gardeners tour this year, the goal with the event is to spread ideas and concepts about gardening – much like the propagating of hydrangea.

“This is more than just a garden club tour,” Buckley said. “Master gardeners will be available at each location to talk with visitors about what they are doing in their gardens, whether the questions are about soil issues, composting or vegetable gardens. Our goal is to share our information and teach our techniques to other people so that they can make their gardens as beautiful as the gardens they are visiting.”

The “Gardening with the Masters” tour runs rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21. Tickets to participate are still available at various locations around the state, at a cost of $20.

A complete listing of locations can be found on the URI Master Gardeners website, www.urimastergardeners.org, but local sellers include Yard Works Inc. at 1309 Warwick Ave. in Warwick, Twice Told Tales at 2145 Broad St. in Cranston, Casino Greenhouses at 640 Dyer Ave. in Cranston, The Good Earth at 1800 Scituate Ave. in Cranston, and Hattoy’s Nursery at 315 Blackrock Road in Coventry.

All proceeds from the event will benefit the educational programs of the URI Master Gardeners Association.

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