ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
A man named Walter C. Hagen wrote "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."
Whether he was referring to an afternoon or our time on Earth, that's sure good advice and especially applicable this weekend for the Friendly Garden Tour.
Proceeds from this $12 per person event, which was launched last summer, go toward furnishing and landscaping the new Blacksburg-area branch library. You may start the tour at any of seven places in town, out in the country or up in the forest.
If Louise Humbert on Draper Road in town wanted to name her back yard, it would have to be "Rose World." She has a master certificate from the National Council of Flower Show Judges and has cultivated five beds of magnificent, blue-ribbon roses across her back yard.
The property is lightly shaded with two locust rain trees and bounded at the paved alley with a country-style rail fence. Flowers in varying heights and colors grow near the fence, and American climbing roses cling to it.
Down the street at Alex Niemiera's place, you'll find a more formal arrangement of unusual shrubs and trees. Three basic planting concepts are exhibited here - natural rooms, mass plants and year-round interest.
Plants are strategically placed in rows perpendicular to one another so that a natural room is formed as growth occurs. Deciduous azaleas form the back border of the area to the left of the house. Instead of increasing drainage in the lower ground level behind the house, Niemiera, a horticulture professor at Virginia Tech, has planted sweet bay magnolia and shrub species that like wet feet.
"Mass planting a particular flower accentuates its major attribute," said Niemiera, referring of clusters of castor beams on the right side of the driveway.
Winterberry holly, witchhazel flowers and various fruit plants provide year-round interest in terms of berries, flowers, color and texture.
Up in the forest at the Jacobsens' place on Susannah Drive in Preston Forest, you'll find unusual camaraderie between homeowner and wildlife, particularly deer. It's been a trial and error approach to discovering what the deer won't eat, but "there's a pattern to what they like and don't like," David Jacobsen said.
For example, they seem to like green things better than red, and they do not care for plants with strong scents like herbs. Deer don't eat coreopsis or wild daisies, but do love Shasta daisies.
Jacobsen figures he's moved around 22 tons of rock in forming his rock walls, and he speculates that his water gardens with running water and fish may not appeal to the deer.
They have personality, or at least a sense of humor, as evidenced by a morning ritual. "A herd of 14 shows up every day between 8 and 8:30," explained Jacobsen.
"They wait by the feeding station and if I'm a little late with corn and bread, they go stand in the garden."
Other anti-deer measures include container gardening on the deck and hanging baskets out of reach. This whole adventure is a far cry from cultivating roses in Louisiana, Jacobsen's previous gardening endeavor.
Back down in the valley a little past Preston Forest is the fenced enclave of Kim Knight and Mary LaLone. Appropriately named Stonewood Gardens, this two-acre haven is a place one might only imagine. A stream cascades over rocks into a lily-padded pond in a Japanese garden. Ornamental grasses, bamboo, cattails, irises and a variety of short trees intermingle with ferns, wood bridges and winding paths.
Knight's potting shed looks more like a small guest house with a cathedral ceiling, and its mirrored windows reflect the solarium he built on the house a few feet away. Rare orchids and a small-container water garden reside in this courtyard area.
Across the driveway and out of the woodland are hemlocks, heirloom roses, yucca plants, heather, artemisia, colorful perennials and a grape pergola where Knight reposes to contemplate things.
Creating the gardens, he said, is "the most satisfying thing I've done in my life." Knight and his wife are professors at Radford University.
Good fences may make good neighbors for some people, but good gardens make good neighbors for Bob and Anne Cannell and Terry and Alissa Colpitts whose properties in Stroubles Mill border one another.
"We took out the straight row of white pines between our houses," stated Anne Cannell. Now there's an eclectic garden where one plant belongs to the Colpittses and the next one to the Cannells. Only they know the invisible border and what belongs to whom.
Roses, hollyhocks, lilies, cosmos, sunflowers and Shasta daisies grace the front yard at the Colpitts' house. There are different styles of gardens all around the house. Alissa Colpitts, a master gardener, has employed square-foot gardening in many places rather than planting in rows. She also makes good use of trellises, conserving ground space and creating a low maintenance area.
She and her husband compost everything, experiment with plants and let some unidentified volunteers grow "on probation" to see how they fit in with everything else. The beautiful co-exists with the practical and edible - grapes, peaches, cherry tomatoes, horseradish, spinach and other fruits and vegetables.
Stepping over to the Cannells' yard and around to the front, there's a heather garden that produces color year round, reminding them of their British homeland. "It's low maintenance and something is in bloom all year," said Anne Cannell, recipient of a national award for her slide presentation on heather.
The Cannells have also received one of Blacksburg's Civic Beautification Awards. Because much of the their yard is heavily shaded, impatiens are used in abundance in the front and under the black walnut tree.
"Black walnut roots are toxic," explained Bob Cannell, "and impatiens seem to be one of few flowers that tolerate the ground beneath the tree." Clematis climbs the lamp post out front and hosta plants thrive in the shade out back.
The seventh garden area, behind Prices Fork Elementary School, was planted by the pupils. Each garden has a theme and is based on literature studied in the classroom.
The kindergarten class created Mr. McGregor's garden, and the first grade has a rainbow garden. Second-graders chose to plant a butterfly garden, while the third grade made an herb garden.
Eating preference may have played a role in the fourth-graders' pizza garden, and the fifth-grade class created a perennial garden. A sunflower house and water garden are in the planning stage.
Whichever way you plot out your Friendly Garden Tour, it will be friendly and there is no need to hurry or worry. And, of course, be sure to smell the flowers along the way! Friendly Garden Tour
Saturday,10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 3-7 p.m.
Sunday, 2-7 p.m.
$12 per person
Tickets and maps are available at the Blacksburg and Christiansburg public libraries and at each garden
Gardens:
Humbert, 704 Draper Road, Blacksburg
Niemiera, 509 Draper Road, Blacksburg
Jacobsen, 4643 Susannah Drive, Preston Forest
Knight and LaLone, 2125 Mount Tabor Road
Colpitts, 2902 Stradford Lane, Stroubles Mill
Cannell, 1003 Auburn Drive, Stroubles Mill
Prices Fork Elementary School, Prices Fork Road
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM. Mary LaLone and Kim Knight's two-acre gardenby CNBwill be one of those featured on the Friendly Garden Tour this
weekend. The couple is sitting beside the recirculating stream that
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