Gardeners are natural teachers who love to share what they’ve learned with others. This year’s garden tour theme highlights the concept of growing plants that enrich our own gardens and enhance the natural environment of Orcas for plants, animals, insects and people.

The Orcas Island Garden Club invites you to join us at our 2022 Garden Tour on Saturday, June 25th and Sunday, June 26th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Tickets for the tour cost $20 and can be purchased at Darvill’s Bookstore and Driftwood Nursery in Eastsound, online at www.orcasislandgardenclub.org or at each of the six tour gardens. Supervised children age 12 and younger are free.

All the gardens are open both days. Throughout the tour, we’ll be offering different fun activities for guests at each garden, such as: free succulent starts, a noxious weed expert, local ukulele musicians, raffle baskets featuring birds, bees and more, demonstrations, garden art and Master Gardeners featuring their Native Plant garden.

As you explore each of the six lovely tour gardens, enjoy all the beautiful plants and learn how each garden reflects the garden owner’s unique vision and island location.

Gardens on the Tour 2022

As you wander through Laura Ludwig’s delightful garden, you will be amazed at the incredible variety of flowers, veggies, fruit trees and herbs tucked into all of the spaces. Look for hydrangeas, lilacs, David Austin roses, peonies, irises, phlox, hostas, columbine, veronica and allium. Beds of veggies offer squash, peas, broccoli, garlic, asparagus, herbs, spinach and cauliflower. Enjoy the fruit trees that include peach, pear, fig, plum and hardy kiwi and check out the new greenhouse.

A dramatic Japanese Tori gate welcomes you to Patricia Flores’ charming hillside garden designed by Robin Kucklick. Enjoy watching water tumble down a water-carrying sculpture that turns figure eights into a pond surrounded by deer-resistant plants. Stroll past clematis, lilacs, golden chain trees and bamboo. Learn how this garden has been transformed and rejuvenated with new plants and design.

Located in a picturesque valley, Crazy Crow Farm demonstrates how permaculture can enrich the land and produce healthy organic fruits and vegetables. In the orchard, look for apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees. Raised beds produce veggies such as beans, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, kale, broccoli and herbs. Interspersed throughout are a variety of perennial flowers. See the rain catchment system that uses a big pond to irrigate the gardens and explore the large greenhouse.

When you enter the gate to Stefanie Susol’s garden, you are surrounded by a lovely garden bordered by large cedars. Follow the pathways to explore a variety of flowering perennial beds that feature clematis, fuchsia, hydrangea, weigela, roses and zinnias. Spend some time with the crown jewel of the garden – dahlias. See different varieties and learn how to plant, grow and stake dahlias. Don’t miss visiting the charming pond with its resident goldfish.

Through the All Hands on Earth program at the Christian School garden, students learn how to care for plants and grow food under the guidance of Alex Tamayo-Wolf. Students start seeds and help to raise a variety of perennial flowers, veggies, herbs, and berries as well as apple, pear, peach, quince, olive, and plum trees. Food harvested from the garden is shared with their school cafeteria and with the community.

The Farm to Classroom program at the Orcas Public School garden teaches elementary students about sustainable gardening methods under the direction of Lydia Dennee-Lee and Colleen Stewart. Using a variety of mini-gardens, children learn how to create beautiful plants for birds, bees, butterflies and people. They learn to plant seeds, eat what they grow, and use plants to make tea and dye fabric. Visit the medicinal herb garden and native plant garden and stroll past berry and veggie beds as you enjoy the colorful wall mural. See the pizza oven, meet the resident chickens and explore the greenhouse and worm bin.

We hope you can join us at the garden tour as we welcome summer and celebrate our love for plants.