Home

About

Garden Fair

Garden Tour

Volunteers

Resources

Garden Forums

Newsletter



web design

2009 PROJECT GREEN GARDEN TOUR
Sunday, July 12
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
$5.00 admission for adults;
children under 16 are free

Enjoy a walk through four large gardens this summer, along the edge of woodlands and into the woods! All gardens are located north of Interstate 80, off Dubuque Street. Wear comfortable walking shoes—one property covers nearly four acres and another includes a steep pathway. The weather may be hot and buggy, so bring along a bottle of water and perhaps some bug spray!

DIRECTIONS TO THREE OF THE GARDENS: Off Dubuque Street approximately 2.5 miles north of Interstate 80, turn east onto Stewart Road. Drive .9 miles to the stone Woodland Valley Estates sign, turn north (left). (Do NOT turn north at the wooden “Woodland Heights” sign, but travel further east to the stone sign labeled “Woodland Valley.”) Oak Park Lane then angles off to the east (right). Oak Park Place is straight ahead.

PARKING: Please park only on the east side of Oak Park Lane to visit both the VanOel and Hobbs gardens. Please park only on the east side of Oak Park Place to visit the Welter garden.

Maggie VanOel, 8 Oak Park Lane NE: After moving into the property in June 2001 and confronting a determined family of deer, Maggie decided to give up gardening. But she just couldn’t do it, so she continually experiments with deer-resistant plants.

Maggie created a garden berm with soil scooped from the site where a concrete patio now hugs the house. She has discovered trusted “survivor plants” that include peonies, grasses, wild bee balm, butterfly bushes, lamb’s ear, bluebells, dead nettle, and ferns. Companion annual plants such as zinnias and lantana also survive the deer’s snack time. Everything else is “iffy”!

Maggie designed her garden in a sun-filled expanse where human-created structure blends with nature. A brilliant, 50-foot-long water feature with a series of waterfalls runs through a limestone-lined ravine at the back of the house, built by her friend Kent George. Shady plantings along the stream’s edge include Japanese painted fern, lamium, and blue spruce. She loves to sit on her porch and listen to the music of the water while watching the birds, chipmunks, and toads.

The VanOel property slopes off to the Iowa River valley just south of the Coralville Dam, and Maggie gardens with wildlife in mind. She is always on the lookout for plants that attract butterflies and birds, especially hummingbirds.

Please use caution, but walk the mown path through a sunny meadow and down a fairly steep incline to the base of the water feature. (Besides the incline, the grass might be slippery.) There you will find a private and secluded spot just perfect for a fire in the stone firepit under the moonlight.

 Twila and Dick Hobbs, 9 Oak Park Lane NE: Right next door to Maggie, Twila and Dick began developing their newer garden with handsome limestone terraces, steps, and walkways. When they moved in, in August 1999, the minimal landscaping was badly damaged by deer—often appearing two dozen at a time in their backyard. Research led to the planting of deer-resistant shrubs and plants, but numerous cans of deer-repellant spray have helped Twila through the trial-and-error process!

A colorful garden bed in front of the house hides their utility box, and another flower bed is shared with Maggie. These beds have been planted with columbine, juniper, daylilies, hydrangea, heuchera, blueberries, and highbush cranberry.

At the back of the house off the deck, Twila and Dick have laid a flagstone patio with a red Japanese maple that shades a small pond, home to koi and floating waterlilies. In a new fenced-in garden, Twila is creating berms filled with lamb’s ear, iris, artemisia, salvia, clematis, silene, lilies, peonies, yarrow, asters, monarda, and more. A half-log found in the woodlands was hauled up to the patio to be become a planter for lettuce.

The Hobbses obtain mulch and compost from the county landfill, and haul their own rocks from S&G Quarries and the Stone City “bone pile.” A secret garden with comfy chairs, a hammock, and a firepit can be found at the edge of the woods.

Even the battle with deer—along with pesky raccoons, opossums, and the occasional coyote or fox—has not dimmed the Hobbses’ delight with the turtles and numerous bird species, including wild turkeys and eagles, that drop by. A scrapbook of before-and-after photos will be available for visitors to track their progress over the years.

Bill and Michele Welter, 15 Oak Park Place NE: Bill has transformed their one-acre property of treeless field grass into beautiful garden beds—many alive with an astonishing variety of 500 daylilies! His favorites vary, and he looks forward to his first view of the most recent variety that he has planted. Sunny companion plants include coneflowers, black pussy willow, black-eyed susans, helenium, grasses, and shrubs such as oakleaf hydrangea and smokebush.

The many trees Bill has planted—including tricolor beech, weeping purple beech, variegated tulip tree, Japanese maple, ginkgo, evergreens, a magnificent birch and more—produce encroaching shade that now dapples some of the formerly sunny areas. Here Bill has created areas for hosta, golden carex grass, and other shade-loving plants that add even more variety to this very attractive garden.

Bill says he developed his interest in gardening from his mother. His focus on daylilies began after numerous visits to the late Frederick McDowell’s garden, and over the past 22 years Bill has slowly accumulated his astonishing number and variety of daylilies. Deer fencing keeps all but the most determined does from munching his garden to the ground.

A beautiful metal sculpture obtained from the Chait Gallery in Iowa City graces one of the curving flower beds. A large water fountain sited just outside their screened porch creates soothing background melodies for relaxing moments.

DIRECTIONS TO THE PODHAJSKY GARDEN: About 1.2 miles north of Stewart Road (about 3.7 miles from Interstate 80), turn east onto Cedar Drive.

PARKING: Cedar Drive is a short street that ends with a turn-around at the bottom of the hill. Parking is limited to one side on Cedar Drive, but a neighbor will have a golf cart available to help transport people up the hill to the Podhajsky home.

Pat and Stan Podhajsky, 3817 Cedar Drive NE: Garden sections are dotted throughout four acres of wondrous woodland, and the Podhajskys have spent the last 15 years expanding their efforts throughout the property. Curving beds along the side of the house are planted with heuchera, weigela, iris, daisies, and a spectacular climbing hydrangea. The sidewalk leads to a fenced perennial and hosta garden shaded by an ancient spreading oak that reaches over their deck and patio. Limestone-edged paths circle three central flowerbeds graced with wooden tuteurs and sculptures by Judy Allen and loaded with daylilies and daisies.

Outside the fenced area to the south, visitors will encounter a curious depression in the ground that was once a bison run! Further down through the woods (but off-limits) is a large pond, host to a multitude of singing frogs.

Garden sections are joined by mulched wood paths, and in a clever spin to personalize their property, the pathways are named after family members! Down the hill outside the fenced garden, tour-goers will discover a charming two-story playhouse built by Stan for his grandchildren. Nearby is a firepit with stump seats alongside a small spring-fed creek. Cross the bridge—named the Bridge over the River Why—into the neighbor’s property (yes, it is allowed!) where you can meander along the stream’s edge to another bridge that will lead back to the Podhajskys’ wren house village and mum garden. Don’t miss “Stan’s Village” that consists of artfully constructed storage outbuildings—including a house for his garden tractor—all of which display their own “barn quilts.”

The Podhajskys’ vegetable garden yields a bounty of onions, peas, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, pumpkins, tomatoes, and a crafty scarecrow. Also check out lilies, phlox, spirea, gladiolas, mums, and a beautiful Carolina allspice.

What do they do about deer? The vegetable garden and “edible” perennial, annual, and hosta plantings are protected from the deer by either a 6-foot galvanized fence or a 6-foot decorative one. Outside the fenced areas, seasonal deer-resistant plants include daffodils, lycoris, grasses, mums, and small shrubs.

Click here for a map of the tour.