Picture an old-fashioned country garden overlooking an expanse of blue sea. Or a backyard garden alive with birds flirting between Japanese maple and dwarf conifers.
These are a couple of the gardens that will be drawing a 1,000 or so visitors during the ever-popular Whidbey Island Garden Tour.
Five gardens, from Coupeville to Bayview, will be on this year’s tour, which is set for Saturday, June 20.
Tickets are available at Bayview Farm & Garden, Chocolate Flower Farm Store, Flowers By The Bay, Sally’s Garden and Lavender Wind Farm’s Coupeville store. Tickets are limited to 1,000.
South Whidbey resident June Davis is on the garden selection committee and also agreed to open her own yard to the garden tourists.
She said the gardens were chosen to showcase a variety of sizes, designs and styles so they should be something interesting for just about everyone.
It’s not difficult for the group to find great gardens for the tour year after year, she said. She said people tattle on folks with remarkable landscapes.
“If you have a great garden,” she said, “people know and then they turn you in.”
She said it’s a perfect event for local gardeners, who love to share their gardens and to visit other gardens.
“If you’re going to have a garden, the best way to learn is to go on a garden tour,” she said.
It’s also a great way to raise some money for the community. Small grant are given out to “causes and non-profit organizations that support the improvement, restoration, and maintenance of our common habitat,” according to the group’s website.
Whidbey Island Garden Tour, Inc., an all-volunteer, nonprofit group, has given out more than $300,000 over the last 19 years.
For the first time this year, the group is holding a photo contest.
The winner will receive two tickets to the 2016 tour. Photos must be of the 2015 gardens and be taken during the tour or pre-tour, June 19 or 20. All entries must be emailed to wigt@whidbey.net by June 30.
Visit the group’s website, wigt.org, for more information about the tour and the gardens.
