Master Gardeners Tour showcases excellence in landscaping

Eleven garden enthusiasts showcased their horticultural havens at Saturday’s annual Master Gardeners Garden Tour. The tour raises funds for the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Association’s various educational events, including the annual conference.

This year, exhibits were located in Douglas, Lemon Creek, Thane and downtown Juneau. The gardeners and docents guided visitors, dispensing bits of the property’s history as well as gardening tips and information about each species.

“It’s really fun to go and see what other people grow and get ideas and spark designs,” said Jaqueline Fowler, president of the SEAK Master Gardeners Association. “It’s for us to provide educational opportunities, and that’s what this is, and that’s why we have docents here, is because they’re dispensing information and gardening advice and promoting gardening.”

This year’s colder and rainier spring dampened development, especially in flowering plants, Fowler noted.

“We picked this date because I thought it would be the peak of the peonies and they’re late,” Fowler said.

Gardener Chris Urata managed to circumnavigate the peony problem. Her garden, across from Twin Lakes, featured two mature peony plants, both sporting vibrant blooms.

“She has been working so hard to get it to bloom, and it did,” said docent Nanci Spear.

Urata said her garden was somewhat of a team effort, with landscaper and Master Gardener Ed Buyarski designing the space and planting many of the trees and shrubs, and friends helping maintain the yard.

“Ed put in a lot of it. And then my dad built a bridge there, the original bridge to go over the stream,” Urata said. “My husband built the rest of the little bridges.”

Primroses are scattered in all corners of Urata’s garden. The colorful plants prefer moist, forest-floor-like conditions, which Urata’s forest-side yard provides.

Neighbor Vickie Basset is definitely familiar with garden planning in Juneau’s unique climate. Basset started gardening as a young child in Illinois, and her passion for plants has been a lifelong commitment.

“No matter where I am, in an apartment or something, I’ve got a pot,” Basset said. “And when I first came to Juneau in the late ’70s, they had the garden conference then, too. And I went to that because plants are a little particular about their environment. So you learn what grows for Juneau.”

Familiar Southeast Alaska varieties, such as ferns, nagoonberries and bunchberry dogwood, fill the spaces between fragrant, cultivated flowers like columbines and rhododendrons. Friends have given her plants such as wild strawberries for ground cover, and she has a fruiting holly tree at one corner of the property. To preserve the native plants and soil, Basset and her husband, Eric Olson, minimized disturbances to the yard as much as possible when building their house.

“When you look at that Rhodie, it’s planted on what was a great big old tree with rotten wood,” Basset said. “I didn’t haul in any of the wood or any of the dirt. This was all here. The plants have been added, but there’s already the native stuff.”

A similar project is in progress on Douglas Island. Pam Varni and Bob Funk reside in a red and green home with swirling white trim, which some locals have dubbed the “Christmas House.” Funk is a retired electrician, so the couple goes all out for the holiday season, lighting up their entire property in red and green.

Varni and Funk have remodeled the main house, installed new pathways and railings, reinforced the creek running through the lot, and raised the grade of their front yard. Now, they’re adding more plants to the landscaping.

“We added this golden chain three years ago,” Varni said, pointing out a tree with yellow flowers. “And my husband’s brought in ferns and things along the creek.”

As they sat on their porch overlooking the creek, a squirrel affectionately named Speedy scurried onto Funk’s lap to beg for peanuts. Birds and squirrels frequent the property and appear to enjoy the landscaping.

Animal visitors aren’t quite as welcome at Koren Bosworth’s downtown vegetable garden. The battle against porcupines in the strawberry patch became so intense that an electric fence was installed around the area.

Bosworth has made the most of her space with raised vegetable and herb beds, along with a 20-foot by 30-foot high tunnel for more delicate plants, all surrounded by a natural privacy fence of shrubbery and trees. Prized espalier apple trees flourished inside the high tunnel, which was rebuilt after it collapsed under the weight of snow in 2022.

“They’re seven years old and it’s the first year that they’ve actually made apples, so she was super excited,” said Sierra Lammers, who has been helping out in Bosworth’s garden since March. “There’s some tiny little apples on the ones in the middle.”

The garden also has fennel, lettuce varieties, tomatoes, cucumbers and arugula. Lammers grew up gardening in Iowa. She said it’s a labor of love to maintain the plants and harkens back to her Midwestern childhood.

“I just remember hanging out inside the tomato plants, picking tomatoes or digging up potatoes, and definitely, it’s nice to get back into it with this place,” Lammers said. “The greenhouse is amazing because it’s so big and a nice retreat. When it’s raining, you can come in here and just relax and do some weeding.”

The Thane Community Garden was another edible stop along the tour. Founded in 2023, the plot provides area residents a more ideal spot to try their hand at gardening.

“A lot of us are on pretty steep slopes out here, and we have a lot of shade. And this site had been empty for years,” said Sally Bibb, a Community Garden. “There used to be a hatchery here, so we had this great big open space here with pretty good sun exposure, proximity to water, parking, and it was flat.”

Gardeners still have to contend with cold winds coming off Sheep Creek and the Gastineau Channel, so many use hoop houses and other coverings to shield their plants. They have the most luck with kale, potatoes, lettuce and other hardy species, and this year, garlic is doing well.

“Every year, people are trying little different combinations of things,” Bibb said.

While each volunteer has their own garden beds and plots, community patches of rhubarb, strawberries, and raspberries are a group effort.

“It really brings together people from our neighborhood. I’ve lived out here my whole life, and I’ve met neighbors here who I’ve seen, but I’ve never had conversations with. I’ve met them here in this garden. So it’s been a really nice addition to our neighborhood,” Bibb said.

• Ellie Ruel can be contacted via editor@juneauempire.com.