July 5, 2018 Coming Soon: the Annual Kettle River Garden Tour

For over 20 years, the Carlton County Master Gardeners, in collaboration with area gardeners, have hosted the Kettle River Garden Tour.  The tour is a very popular event, with attendance at about 150 each year. This year’s tour will be on Tuesday, July 17 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, rain or shine.

In the past, the self-guided garden tour has profiled annual and perennial gardens. The tour has expanded to incorporate many aspects of gardening: bees, vegetable gardens, water features, native plantings, and other alternative gardening techniques.

Local Master Gardener Kathy Wieditz visited each garden and set up the tour.  Her descriptions are so intriguing and inviting!

·      A gardener who is working toward self-sustainability on a compact city plot with containerized and raised gardens…and chickens.

·      An avid gardener, one of many in his family, who has moved well beyond his original plantings of potatoes and sweet corn. He says that he has to see his shadow in the garden for an hour each day for it to do well.

·      A gardener who, inspired by her mother, seeks out low maintenance perennials that bloom at different times. She has lovely gardens featuring a footbridge.

·      A gardener whose property is graced by a Victorian farmhouse with a pond. Her gardens are mostly perennials, with annuals in pots, washtubs, and…some unexpected containers! The gardens are decorated with glassware and other treasures.

·      A gardener who has early memories of weeding in the rows of the huge family garden. Now she grows her entire garden (except for the fruit trees) in raised beds, pots and planters. She is always trying new seed varieties, and new ways of preparing them.

The tour is free and visitors are welcome to take photos. While the tour is self-guided, the garden hosts and master gardeners will be on site and available for questions. What a great opportunity to visit with, learn from and admire the hard work, creativity, mastery and experience of our neighbors. Thank you so much to the hosts for graciously and generously opening your garden doors!

Maps and a flyer are available at the Carlton County Extension Office, 317 Chestnut Ave. in Carlton; the Tower Tap, 3964 Main St. in Kettle River and on the Master Gardener Extension Facebook page.

Hope to see you on July 17th!

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be in a garden to know it.

                                                                        Rumi