Annual garden event spans west metro area

The Lakewood Arts Council’s annual Garden Tour has grown steadily for several years, and it’s about time for it to flower again with spotlights on seven gardens featuring a variety of themes and styles.

The tour, which ranges across the western metro area, will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, June 27. Attendees drive to each garden on their own, which allows them to move at their own pace.

“My favorite thing about it is we get to involve people from outside the council,” said Marje Walsh, an arts council member. “It’s a great opportunity for us to bring in gardens not only from Lakewood, but also Golden and Wheat Ridge.”

1. Variety of features: The tour highlights gardens that incorporate unique features or design elements, Walsh said. This ranges from an historic estate garden, two community gardens, a garden with a working glass studio, model railroads and a bonsai garden.

Visitors can talk to gardeners, ask advice, take photos and get inspired.

2. “The bonsai master”: Darrell Havenner and Martha Price’s home and garden features bonsais of all kinds –; some Havenner has been working on for decades. Havenner is the “bonsai (pronounced like bone-sigh) master,” according to Henry Anderson of the arts council, and Price works on flowers and vegetables.

“When we first moved here, there were only two crab apple trees here,” Havenner said. “The picture of what we wanted evolved, and the design work here is both of our doing.”

3. Bonsai basics: Bonsai is a Japanese art form that uses miniature trees and shrubs in small or shallow trays and containers to create an aesthetic different from potted plants, Havenner said. Almost any tree can be used in bonsai, but trees with smaller leaves usually work better, Price added.

Most of the trees and shrubs Havenner use have to be hardy enough to survive Colorado winters. “Watering is the hardest part of bonsai,” Havenner said. “They dry up very quickly.”

4. Continual process: All gardening is a time commitment, and Havenner’s and Price’s gardens have plants they have been maintaining for many years. Some they’ve purchased, others have been found around their home and the country.

“There are unlimited places to find subject matters,” Price said.

5. Tour information: Tickets are available for purchase at the Lakewood Art Council’s gallery, 6731 W. Colfax Ave., or at each garden on the day of the tour and cost $ 18 for advance purchase or $ 20 the day of the event.

Price includes lunch and demonstrations by Urban Roots at the gallery. For more information, call 303-980-0625 or visit www.lakewoodartscouncil.org.

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