Folks participating in last Saturday’s Fannie Marchman Garden Club annual garden tour were rewarded with a brilliant, if humid, morning. The full illumination highlighted a rainbow of colors and green hues on the five-property tour.

The quote of the day came from Denise Fortner, who with Michael Pearce, work the immaculate grounds of their home on N. Pacific. Describing her garden, she stated, “Enjoyment… can stay out here forever.”   

Each of the residents who opened their gardens for the tour would surely understand the joy which gardening brings them. Naturally, no two gardens are the same, as they reflect the personalities of those who tend them. 

At the corner of Walnut and Goodson Streets, Luis Galaz and Mina Marquez have turned their property into a small English garden, with shaped miniature boxwoods lining the walking paths. A seldom seen green Japanese maple anchored one of the front corners of the property. 

Galaz commented that he spent the last 15 years improving the home as well as developing the gardens. He recalled how as a boy he would walk down Walnut St. and at the property where he now resides was a car dealership.

“I had to break up a lot of concrete in the front of the house,” he said.

Gardens can surely connect people with the past.

At the gardens of Lindsay and Pam Taveau off Patten St. are lilies and irises which have been in the family for three generations.

Lindsey explained, “After returning to Mineola, I went to Texarkana and took flowers from my mother’s, my auntie’s, and my grandmother’s gardens.”

She added that although their homes were no longer standing, she was able to find the flowers they had planted and brought some back to her colorful flower gardens. 

At each property, members of the garden club were present to facilitate the tours and chat. At the Taveau residence, the Wood County Master Gardeners offered their recent book, “A Year in the Garden,” for sale. Also, at each stop, door prizes were awarded for eagle-eyed visitors.

Just outside the city limits, the tour stopped at Elroy and Sylvia Doggett’s property at Lake Brenda. The gardens maintained in the back of the Doggetts’ residence were something akin to a contemplation garden.  Graveled paths pass through an abundance of color and usually lead to benches or chairs. 

Sylvia’s art studio occupied a central place among the quiet paths. 

Further afield, Deena Taylor’s extensive vegetable and fruit gardens offered a lesson in keyhole and grid square gardening. On the hillside off CR 1801, Taylor also tended elderberry.

“It is great as a medicinal,” she stated, “and it also makes a delicious syrup.”

It is clear that Taylor truly enjoyed the tactical aspects of gardening, as she explained the planting sequence of her plots: “leaf to root to fruit.”

A late change to the program added Linda Vandergriff and Kathy Pace’s gardens to the tour. 

As these community events often are, the garden tour was much more than just admiring the hard work of others. It was really all about getting to know one’s neighbors.