A Flowery Start To Summer

Annual Garden Walk Draws Hundreds

Story and photos by Janis Carrasquel Hernández and Siobhan Lloyd

An estimated 500 people meandered through 10 beautiful gardens this year, admiring the handiwork of the green thumbs of Park Hill.

The 15th annual Greater Park Hill Community Garden walk took place on Saturday, June 13. Sponsored by Greater Park Hill Community, Inc., proceeds help maintain operations of the neighbor organization. A committee of volunteers search and select willing gardeners, who spend months tending their gardens for the tour. Artists were onhand to add their creations at each of the designations.

With temperatures hovering around 80 all day, families and friends walked from garden to garden – and many used their bicycles to traverse from garden to garden.

Designated parking spots for bikes in front of the garden walk homes were packed most of the time. Many of the homes also featured informal “puppy rows” out front — where pet dogs were parked, waiting patiently together for their owners to tour the gardens and then retrieve them.

The gardens ranged from large estates featuring simple flower gardens, to those more closely resembling a sort of controlled chaos. Notable among the latter was the garden belonging to Roger Layton and Randy Billinger, at 22nd and Krameria Street, with an explosion of decorations, artwork, with flowers and plants everywhere.

“We’ve been together 17 years,” said Layton. “I come up with all these bizarre things, and then Randy makes it happen.”

In the middle of Layton and Billinger’s garden is a red baby grand piano that has been gutted and converted into a combination waterfall fountain and planters box.

“I saw it online, took a picture of it, and I called some of the piano companies in town and asked them if they had a baby grand piano that they were going to throw away,” said Layton. “[I said] that I wanted it and they said ‘well that ain’t gonna happen’ — and then a week later they called and said ‘we have your piano’. They delivered a week later and Randy did all the work on it.”

At another garden, Steve Lissner greeted guests from a red wooden bench in front, answering questions from people inquiring the names of his flowers and his gardening techniques. “The east garden is mostly native Colorado plants,” Lissner noted. With the help of a landscaper, he and his partner Mary Jo Gross planted low maintenance species like black hill spruces, black eyed susans, salvia, blanket flowers and feather reed grass.

Another gardener, Janis Nowlan said “I just thought it would be fun to add a few things that people could discover as they went on the walk around my yard.”

Nowlan hid playful details here and there, including a martini glass that looks like it is spilling martini, and a group of California raisins figurines. “You can hear them almost singing ‘I heard it through the grapevine’, she said, laughing. “And they are, of course, under my grapevine.”

Over in Leslie Herod’s garden, guests were asked to help themselves to bottles of water and invited to take a seat in the shades of her old tall trees.

In addition to taking months to prepare their landscapes, participants this year also had to deal with Colorado’s severe spring weather – and also the fallout from last November’s deep freeze.

“In November, because it was so cold for a few days a lot of the marginal plants froze,” said David Dubas. “They’re coming back though, even through the hail and rainstorms. You just have to wait and let [the plants] do their thing.”

Featured Gardeners and Artists

• Gardeners: Steve Lissner and Mary Jo Gross

• Artists: Painter Tanis Bula and Photographer Beth Bankhead

• Gardeners: David Dubas and Steven O’Brien, Phyllis Dubas

• Artists: Painters Heather Denzel and Randy McAnulty

• Gardeners: Heather and Connor McCallin

• Artists: Painters Kate Maley and Genny Abblett

• Gardeners: Roger Layton and Randy Billinger

• Artist: Painter Francisco Gonzalez.

• Gardeners: Michael Day and Pamela Tarquin

• Artist: Painter Calvin Lee

• Gardener: Bob Moses

• Artists: Painters Carole Buschmann and Peg Meagher

• Gardeners: Robert McGough and Mana Amir

• Artists: Painter Cheryl St. John and Metal Sculptor James Dixon

• Gardener: Janis Nowlan

• Artist: Painter Sydney Summers

• Gardener: Leslie Herod

• Artists: Paper, Becky Richardson and Clay, Trish Gans

• Gardener: Patty Mead

• Artist: Painter Paula Hudson