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From the street you'd never guess that behind tall fences, screened by dense hedges and tucked behind houses are lush, verdant oases -- secret, hidden gardens.
Places to relax, to let go the stresses of the day.
Picture in your mind gardens with cushy chaise lounges and comfy hammocks slung between trees, birds chirping overhead and cool water splashing into ponds and pools.
Now imagine the people who created these soothing spaces are your friends who've invited you through the garden gate.
Stop dreaming and go buy tickets to the annual Academy of Children's Theatre Secret Garden Tour on June 12-13.
On the tour you'll be able to visit six privately owned gardens that match the beautiful outdoor spaces you were imagining. Since the theme of the tour is secret gardens, the exact addresses are revealed only on a map that comes with the $12 ticket. Tickets went on sale June 1.
"Tickets are good for both days, so many people split up the tour and do some one day, the rest the next," said Linda Hoffman, ACT executive director.
"The gardens can be viewed in any order, and you can spend as much time as you like in each one," said Hoffman. The gardens are open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.
The only restriction is you can't go twice to the same garden. "We're trying to minimize wear and tear on the gardens," she said.
The owners will be on hand, so if you want to know more about a plant or how the garden was laid out, be sure to ask.
Tickets for the Secret Garden Tour are available at the Kennewick Flower Shop, 604 W. Kennewick Ave., Kennewick, and Beaver Bark & Rock, 607 Aaron Drive, and the ACT office, 213 Wellsian Way, both in Richland.
Some of the highlights of this year's tour are:
-- June Oswald has lived on a large corner lot in Kennewick since 1953. Her yard features dozens of decade-old shade trees and -- thanks to a younger, green-thumbed friend -- thousands of annuals in a rainbow of purples, reds and yellows.
-- Nancy and Don Knowlton of West Richland have a large and varied garden with a natural area just beyond their well-tended lawn and flower beds.
"My favorite place is a graveled area with a swing where I can sit and see my garden and look out on the desert too," she said.
"It's a real hands-on garden that we laid out and take care of ourselves," she said. "It's a lot of work but we love it."
It has a mix of shrubs, perennials, annuals and trees laid out along a meandering stone path. There's a rose garden and a private garden with another swing where she likes to sit and plan what she'll plant next.
She has a greenhouse and grows many of the blooms in the garden from seed.
-- Linda Moran and Don Miksch of Kennewick live on three-quarters of an acre. Five years ago the yard was filled with lots of evergreen trees and shrubs, several diseased.
They removed the sick plants which, she said, "created lots of space for border gardens and two vegetable gardens, one with raised beds."
They have three patios, a swimming pool and a wrap-around porch with an elaborate grill and counter that has everything but plumbing.
Her favorite spot is a gazebo about halfway between the house and the edge of their property.
"It's painted white, and I've planted a lot of variegated hostas around it. It's beautiful at night because the white of the gazebo and the (shade-loving) plants reflects the light and it just glows out there in the garden," Moran said. "We modeled our garden off the Italians, who make the gardens closest to their dwelling more formal and then, as you get farther out into the yard, it becomes more rustic."
The original watercolor for this year's Secret Garden poster, done by Richland watercolorist Lisa Hill, will be displayed in the Moran-Miksch garden. It will be raffled off during the tour. Tickets are available at the gardens.
To see examples of Hill's watercolors, go to www.lisahillwatercolorist.com.
Proceeds from the Secret Garden Tour will be used by ACT to help nurture young actors and artists. ACT annually presents four stage productions featuring Mid-Columbia children and adults and offers classes on acting, auditioning, stage makeup, set design and musical theater.
For more information on the tour or ACT, call 943-6027, from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday. Or go to www.academyofchildrenstheatre.org.
*Loretto J. Hulse: 582-1513; lhulse@tricityherald.com
