Six gardens with exciting design ideas, lots of veggies and the latest new flowers

NORWALK — Six wonderful gardens. The gardens chosen for the annual Norwalk Area Master Gardener/Historical Society Garden Tour this year are full of lovely flowers, luscious veggies and clever styling. There's a wonderful entertaining garden complete with eating spaces and attractions for the kids. There are gardens of beautiful flowers, clever garden art, amazing unusual plants and lots of creativity. From a modern prairie style home landscape, to gardens with veggies in every nook and cranny, you are sure to enjoy touring the gardens. Hosts this year are Mark Swabley, 26 E. Quail Hollow Dr.; Jim and Carmen Polek, 24 E. Quail Hollow Dr.; Judy Emmons, 244 E. Main St.; Dave and Becky Halliwell, 393 S. Norwalk Road; Ed and Cindy Casselberry, 401 S. Norwalk Road; and Susan Essex, 3 Jamie Way. The tour is planned for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 9. Tickets will go on sale in Norwalk at Schild's IGA Supercenter, 171 Milan Avenue. On tour day, beginning at 9:30 a.m., you can still get tickets at the museum on Case Avenue, located behind the Norwalk Public Library. A garden location map will be provided with the ticket. This is a self-guided tour, rain or shine, and will cost $15 each which benefits the Firelands Historical Society. For more information, contact 419-872-0124, or dabristols@wcnet.org Mark Swabley is a vegetable gardener first and lots of other plants next. He is a good cook and tries to eat healthy, plus he cans lots of stuff. Every year he does it a little differently, just as an experiment to see what the deer like best, so he says. His garden is near some wooded land and the deer stop by as needed. He has electric fencing, but not quite perfect yet. Other animals get in for lunch. He raises sweet potatoes by cutting off slips from his purchased plants and rooting them in water for more plants. He has almost every little nook and cranny devoted to veggies. Although his goal is lots of veggies, he has some flowers also. Out in front, his brick house is complemented with a welcoming porch, pots of flowers and and easy chairs. As for flowers, a friend, Clint Hartline, talked him into trying big dinner-plate dahlias and glads. Hartline runs the glad show at Lakeside, each year, with specimens and designs. Consider making a trip over there at show time, to see the hundreds of glads exhibited. Anyone can enter the show, so look it up online for details, and try entering a design or a specimen glad. The other growers bring extra glads to entice more people to enter designs, as designs add spark to the show. Jim and Carmen Polek live next door to Swabley and they are veggie lovers, also. A similar setup with electric fencing and lots of veggies. Three rows of asparagus is a lot of asparagus. He has tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, beets, beans, squash, peas, all of the good stuff. When you read about staying healthy, all the authors say eat lots of veggies. These gardeners on the Quail Hollow Cul de Sac should be the healthiest in town. Neither had any weeds, is there a little competition there? The Polek house is tan trimmed in brown with yellow roses and marigolds to provide the contrast. The plantings are nicely mulched and there are shrubs and grasses to add drama. A beautiful wreath on the door adds charm to the whole welcoming picture. The back of the house has some interesting windows, be sure to see them. Judy Emmons, a Master Gardener, has been on this tour before with her collection of perennials, annuals and bulbs. Since we last toured, there are lots of native plants added to help with the pollinators, insects that find food in native areas and pollinate the rest of the vegetation. Not just honey bees, all the different insects in the bee family, wasps and hornets, and moths and others work together to pollinate. So many of our fence rows in the country have been eliminated with spraying, that native plants are not as plentiful. Newer plants from different countries or new hybrids unfamiliar to our bugs, do not provide food and shelter for our native pollinators. The Emmons' brick house is imposing, vintage (1871) and a wonderful foil for roses and flowers. Platt Benedict Ivy is grown in front with rosy toned periwinkle on each side. "Limelight" hydrangeas are also in front and "Home Run," a bright red shrub rose by the sidewalk is full of bloom. To the right side, a lovely red bud with bright burgundy leaves repeats the rosy tones. Every year, 200 more spring bulbs are planted to greet the season. The pond in the back was rejuvenated for the Emmons 25th anniversary and her story of tearing it apart and rebuilding it is amazing. It is a lovely spot with water lilies, goldfish, koi and lots of singing toads looking for mates in the spring. At tadpole time, it is alive. She says it is a great place to relax, watch the birds and read the paper. When Dave and Becky Halliwell throw a party, it's a great one, for both kids and adults as they have the stuff. Out back, there's a hot tub, lots of tables and chairs for guests and feasting, a tree house to enchant the kids, along with a slide and a playhouse. Farther back you'll find the veggie garden with giant tomatoes and other goodies. Out front, the landscape does not hint at the play places in back. The tan house with burgundy trim is sedate and inviting, with a nice setting for a maple, a Red Bud and a Japanese maple. Around the deck, the plantings are beautiful; hydrangeas, iris and others provide color while solar-operated star bursts of light anchored in the flowers add drama. The Halliwells own a flower shop in Willard, so clever ideas are found here. By the drive way, a dry stone waterway leads water runoff through the stones to the road drain. Nearby, a clever giant metal flower, marks the house for you. Enjoy this stop; your kids will. A lovely entrance, focusingon pink/rose flowers with great blues from ddelphinium and salvia, interspersed with hostas, greet you at the home of Ed and Cindy Casselberrry. Repeating the color scheme are rosy astilbes by the red-leafed weigela, "Wine and Roses." True to the color scheme, balloon flower and rose-colored verbenas capture your eye. In the back, the same colors glow and mix. Comfy lawn furniture pieces invite you to sit and visit. All the tables are charming with small miniature succulent arrangements in baskets and containers. The large lawn has a story book feeling with three little charming storage sheds at the edges, also landscaped. A big surprise is the wide band of that invasive devil, "Bishop's Weed" used so well to mark the end of the lawn and the beginning of a vegetable garden. This one is gorgeous used this way and is controlled to never get into the flower beds or veggie garden. Beautiful idea, most gardeners are struggling to kill it; this gardener has joined forces with it. You'll love it and maybe dream up your own clever idea; perhaps grow it around the barn. better than ivy as it won't climb. Susan Essex's landscape is a lovely shaded setting for a house custom designed by a Norwalk native working with a Chicago firm. Its modern prairie style, open and large, reminds one of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Sheltered walkways are surrounded with subdued but beautiful plants, not heavily planted, but showcased with mulched soil. A replica of a cemetery statue from the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is featured in a quiet area. There is evidence of scores of bulbs, adding color in season. Hostas in full glory and other large somewhat architectural plants are featured. A giant tree, perhaps "River Birch" is very commanding with its shedding grayish bark. Comfortable lawn furniture in shaded areas add a peaceful, quieting aura to the landscape. To the back of the property, an area around a fire pit suggests a cathedral ceiling. Tall, tall trees circling the pit are pruned that no leaves hang low in the center but empty space soars to the sky; greenery closes in on the sides. Two wire/vine frame deer watch from the shadows near the pit. Evergreen trees, perhaps arborvitae, with swirling branches and leaves seeming almost carved, are on the other side of the house. The large lawn sweeps around the house and ends in front with various shrubs and bushes. This whole property is a lesson in design and fits the house perfectly. When viewing the gardens on South Norwalk Road, you are encouraged and invited to park in the Christie Lane area and take a short walk. If you have questions or want to offer your garden for next year, call Anita Bristol, 419-872-0124. Peggy Case is a Huron County Master Gardener, and works with Ohio Association of Garden Clubs as an instructor, flower judge and is a past president. She has a small apple orchard and sells cider.