Northville Garden Club Walk features 6 houses

Jul. 10, 2017  PLYMOUTH EAGLE.

Plymouth Michigan News

One of the six expansive gardens on the Country Garden Club of Northville tour this year had some humble beginnings.

A real estate agent dropped a packet of Zinna seeds into the homeowner’s mailbox as a marketing tool many years ago and things simply took off from there.

Now the homeowner, who eventually worked as a Master Gardener on staff at a local landscape company and taught gardening classes at Schoolcraft College, looks back on that first experience as the beginning of her relationship with the cycles of nature.

“I casually scattered the packet of seeds in a forgotten side yard and went about my life. To my delight, the neglected seeds performed for me all summer. From the window above my kitchen sink, I watched them as they emerged from the soil, reached for the sun, flowered with abandon,” she said. When the autumn frost came, the seeds fed the tiny goldfinches who were fattening themselves up for the winter, she added.

“Even though I grew up with cornfields all around-it was the first time I really was aware of the rhythm of the earth; I was hooked,” she said.

Her current garden has been under her careful ministrations since her family moved to Northville in 1990.

“I have been digging and planting and I try to experiment with something new every year so that I can really understand the nature of the plant,” she said. Her garden, she said, is where she finds great happiness and a connection to something bigger.

Members of the Country Garden Club of Northville selected her garden and five others for the Annual Garden Walk planned for 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. July 12.

This is the 40th anniversary of the club with the Women’s National Farm and Garden Association. The selected gardens surround private homes in both the city and township of Northville and have been chosen for their originality and design, members said. The Garden Walk will begin at Mill Race Village, 215 Griswold St. a block from downtown Northville. The Village will feature a garden-themed market with live music by Kurt Krahnke and Rodney Rich as well as complimentary home-made refreshments inside the Cady Inn for all Garden Walk ticket holders.

Tickets for the walk are $12 if purchased in advance online at cgcnv.org or directly at Garden Views Garden Gallery, 127 E. Main St. in Northville. Tickets are priced at $15 if purchased the day of the walk.

Tickets pre-ordered through the website can be retrieved at the ticket tent at Mill Race Village the day of the walk.

Walkers and strollers cannot be accommodated on the tour due to the terrain at some gardens and safety concerns.

Proceeds from this major fundraising event go toward supporting local and national organizations that promote environmental and horticultural causes and to provide scholarships for local high school seniors who plan to go into college science careers.

Plymouth Voice.

File Photo: Associated Newspapers