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Through Garden Gates
Mark Your Calendar!
AAUW Del Mar-Leucadia's
12th Annual
"Through Garden Gates"
tour will be on
Saturday, April 26, 2008
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Five fabulous North County gardens will be open for your pleasure on April 26 in support of women's education and other Branch programs through the American Association of University Women's non-profit. By design, the tour gardens are of varying sizes and styles. The gardens are located in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, and two in Solana Beach. The tour is self-guided; participants may tour the gardens in any order and at their own pace.
TICKETS: Order-by-mail tickets are $25. Tickets also available at Bookworks in the Flower Hill Mall, Via de la Valle, Del Mar.
INFORMATION: General information: 858-509-9822. Ticket inquiries only: 858-947-5167.
PROCEEDS: This important fund raiser supports education for women and girls through the AAUW Educational Foundation, our local scholarship program, Tech Trek, and our Community Action Project. Ticket purchases and donations are tax deductible for this event.
IMPORTANT: These private gardens are, unfortunately, not handicap accessible. Heavy rain cancels the event; sorry, no refunds. Please carpool!. Comfortable walking shoes, sun hat and water are recommended. No commercial photography is permitted. Enjoy!
The Gardens
The French Country Garden, Encinitas/Olivenhain
Visitors will be charmed by this house reminiscent of the French Countryside with its Boston ivy-covered white walls, blue-trimmed windows, doors, and red-tiled roof. The kitchen garden is filled with seasonal vegetables and herbs. Vibrant red roses are under-planted with Mexican marigolds. In the front courtyard, guests will be introduced to a wonderful Dracaena draco, commonly known as the Dragon Tree, one of several specimen trees in the area, as well as a tall Abutilon bush (Chinese lantern) and a purple Buddleia. At the end of the driveway, the back lawn overlooks the sweeping Olivenhain hills, with horse trails leading to the bottom of the canyon providing vistas of vineyards that produce three grapes: Viognier, Sangiovese, and Syrah. The garden patio and the pool area beautifully echo the vineyard with grape-motif designs.
Tropical Paradise Garden, Carlsbad
Come escape to the tropics as you visit this La Costa Canyon garden. Visitors are greeted with lined giant Birds of Paradise, potted palms and clivia, leading to an extraordinary 35-year-old stag horn fern, as well as a charming casita built as a guest house. The Spanish architecture enhances the relaxing atmosphere. Visitors are sure to enjoy the delightful entertainment area with a large pool surrounded by a Polynesian Tiki barbecue, thatched palapa roofs, and Mexican redwood table and benches. Whimsical art and masks hang in the trees and will surprise all at every turn. A sweeping staircase leads down to a rose garden filled with hybrid teas in a wide variety of colors. Sweet peas climb the fence overlooking the canyon and fill the air with fragrance. Several seating areas, secluded among tall palms, Dracaena dracos, Kentia, Bottle Palms, giant Bird of Paradise, and white Angel's Trumpet, invite quiet and solitude in this peaceful setting.
Southwest Succulent Garden, Rancho Santa Fe
Guests will enjoy this unique drought tolerant garden designed by noted landscaper Robert Dean. Dean and the owner of the house, a painter, combined their visions to create warm the colors of the adobe home, and garden art with cool blue and green plantings. This garden appears on the cover of Debra Lee Baldwin's "Designing with Succulents," and illustrates the design possibilities offered by the dramatic shapes and textures of Aeonium, Euphorbias, Echeveria, Crassula, and cacti. Clustered potted plants and colorful, whimsical Mexican figurines capture the aura of the continuous Spanish design. During the firestorms of 2007, this home was saved by the plants surrounding it. The fire burned right up to the house and stopped at the agaves and other water-retaining plants. In addition, an expansive stand of Aloe Vera sheltered coveys of California quail, providing the birds sanctuary during the fires.
Japanese Bonsai Garden, Solana Beach
Enthusiasts of the Japanese Bonsai garden will not want to miss this one-acre site filled with a great variety of exceptional plants, most notably an amazing array of Japanese Bonsai and a Zen meditation garden. The owner features an extensive collection of Bonsai which are from six months to several decades old. From the house, paths lead to the Zen garden's many levels and pockets of bonsai, succulents, fruit trees, cacti and bamboo. The owner created an ingenious and elaborate rainwater collection system that serves as the main water source for the bonsai and other plants. The owner, a teacher and lecturer of the bonsai method, has been honored with placement of one of his bonsai in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Members of the San Diego Bonsai Club will be available to talk about the plants and answer visitors' questions.
Hillside Garden of Surprises, Solana Beach
Many surprises are in store for those who take time to visit this eclectic garden that has been featured in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles, Remodeling and Garden, and Deck and Landscape magazines and periodicals. On entering the garden of surprises, visitors will enjoy large tropical trees that lead the way into a spectacular outdoor living room showcasing a saltillo tiled flooring with profusely planted pots lining the wall and highlighting a wonderful outdoor stuccoed fireplace. A lath house on the side is lined with copper shelving for shade plants featuring: bromeliads, ferns and staghorns. The back yard features downhill paths leading to a vegetable garden providing homes for 30 box turtles rescued by the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society. A multihued variety of hens are housed here as well. Succulents and other drought tolerant plants are tucked into retaining walls constructed of salvaged materials including stone, brick, recycled concrete, pipes, copper vessels, and a colorful collection of bottles. Alstroemeria and nasturtiums add splashes of color, and geranium maderense provides a lush tropical look throughout winding paths into the back yard. An Eastern redbud tree shares this three-acre garden with Torrey Pines, large palms, and a variety of fruit and macadamia trees.
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