PORT TOWNSEND — Some of the most beautiful gardens in Port Townsend will open their gates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday for a rare peak inside during the annual Secret Gardens Tour, hosted by the Jefferson County Master Gardeners.
The tour this year is themed “Art in the Garden,” with works by local artists complementing the eight gardens on the tour.
Gardens on the tour include three public gardens and five private ones.
The public gardens are at Umatilla Cottages, New Song Community Garden and the Christian Science Blessing Garden.
The Christian Science garden was created over the past two years by Jo Yount and garden tour organizer Judy Johnson.
Yount said they got the idea to create the garden because “there was too much beautiful lawn that wasn’t producing anything but more work,” she said.
Deer proof
The garden includes both flowers and vegetables, with a 50-by-80 foot enclosed “deer proof” vegetable garden, and that much again unfenced with flowers and more vegetables.
Yount said the vegetables include a variety of greens, onions, peas, raspberries, blueberries and “potatoes both where we want them and where we don’t want them.”
Vegetables are enjoyed by the church members and donated to the Port Townsend Food Bank.
Flowers include lilies, dahlias, campanulas and ornamental grasses.
This is the first year the garden will be on the tour, which is in its 15th year.
Identity of the private gardens is listed on the tickets.
Artists exhibiting their works in the gardens are sculptor Ray Hammer, painter Gary Griswald, painter Linda Holbrook, painter Roger Davis, sculptor Sandra Stowell, painter Gary Rainwater, sculptor David Lesser, artist Lucy Congdon-Hanson and fused-glass artist Jolly Wahlstrom.
The tour is self-guided and gardens may be visited in any order.
Master Gardeners and garden owners will be on hand to answer gardening questions at each site.
Carpooling from the Haines Place park-and-ride lot at 12th Street and Haines in Port Townsend is encouraged.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 on Saturday.
They are available at garden centers in Port Townsend and Sequim through today, then at a ticket booth at Haines Place on Saturday.
In Port Townsend, they can by purchased at Henery’s Garden Center, 406 Benedict St.; Gardens at Four Corners, 321 Four Corners Road; and Secret Gardens Nursery and Landscape Supply, 13570 Airport Cutoff Road.
In Sequim they can be found at Henery’s Garden Center, 1060 Sequim-Dungeness Way, and McComb Gardens, 751 McComb Road.
Ticket sales go to support the Master Gardeners Grant Program, which provides funding to countywide community efforts that support environmental stewardship and horticulture-based, sustainable projects.
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Features Editor Marcie Miller can be reached at 360-417-3550 or marcie.miller@peninsuladailynews.com.