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C 12 • Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Find hidden magic on secret garden tour

New visitor center opens The official ribbon cutting for the Port Townsend Chamber of

Commerce Visitor Center at the Haines Place Park-and-Ride was Saturday. On hand to dedicate the new building were (from left) chamber board member Molly Force, interim chamber General Manager Jennifer MacGillonie, Visitor Information Center coordinator Karyl Pagel and City Manager David Timmons. Wielding the big scissors is Kris Nelson, newly appointed City Council member and incoming president of the chamber, and holding the ribbon’s end is board member Marilyn St. Clair. Photo by Fred Obee

Hidden from view on a busy Uptown corner, the yard behind the laurel hedge is truly a secret garden. The house and lot are among the oldest in Port Townsend, but the garden began 17 years ago when Kate Schumann moved in and began transforming the place – removing half the lawn and creating spaces for new trees and shrubs, including 35 one-gallon Portugal laurel plants that make up the now-towering hedge. The garden is one of nine private yards open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 20 for the annual Washington State University Jefferson County Master Gardeners’ Secret Garden Tour. Schumann’s passion is trees, and each one selected was first carefully researched to be the right scale for her smallish yard, to be not overly thirsty and to look good year-round with interesting form or bark, but especially to provide brilliant fall foliage. Abundant with Japanese maples and perennials chosen for late-season color, Schumann’s garden caught the attention of Better Homes and Gardens and was featured in the magazine’s October 2007 edition. In addition to the Schumann garden’s texture and colors, which look as good in June as they do in autumn, some of the highlights in the eight other private gardens on this year’s tour include:

• A showcase of food production and sustainable living in a backyard that features vegetables and herbs, a worm bin and compost pile, cold frame, rain barrels, clothesline and garage-mounted solar panels. • A white flowerbed intended to be enhanced by moonlight or the nearby streetlight. • A historic home’s walled and fenced shade garden. • Drifts of flowers in a frontyard cottage garden. • A whimsical fence adorned with found objects that has become a favorite local landmark. • A greenhouse made from recycled windows in an extensive flower and food garden complete with a three-bin compost system and drip irrigation. • A woodsy lot with a surprising tropical touch – a palm tree. • A front-yard vegetable garden protected by an attractive deer fence, plus curvy paths defined by the family dog’s favorite trails. A bonus 10th garden is the Oak Street Community Garden, where a former blackberry patch on a sunny slope now is covered with crops such as raspberries, asparagus, garlic, greens and fava beans grown cooperatively and shared by 10 families. Tickets for the tour are $15 in advance and available now at Gardens at Four Corners and Secret Gardens Nursery and Landscape Supply in Port

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Townsend, Henery’s Garden Center in Port Townsend and Sequim, McComb Gardens in Sequim and Valley Nursery in Poulsbo. Call Erica Iseminger at 732-0562 if you prefer to order tickets. On the day of the tour, tickets are limited and cost $20, if they remain available. On that day, tickets are sold only at the Haines Place Park-and-Ride in Port Townsend. Each ticket includes a map to the gardens, which can be visited in any order, and a brochure that describes each site. Master Gardeners will be on hand in the gardens to answer questions. Parking near the gardens is limited; carpooling is encouraged. This year the gardens are clustered and all are in Uptown Port Townsend, so it is possible to walk between some of them. Pets are not permitted. Proceeds from the tour, now in its 14th year, help underwrite the Master Gardeners’ grant program, which provides grants to local communities and individuals for projects that promote environmental stewardship, or for horticulture studies. One recent grant was awarded to help the Oak Street Community Garden buy beehives. Information on the garden tour is found at jefferson.wsu. edu. Master Gardeners is a WSU Jefferson County Extension community education program.

Homebuyer class is June 20 Seeking to purchase your first home? A free class for first-time buyers navigating the home-purchase process can help sort out the details. The six-hour class is on Saturday, June 20, starting at 10 a.m. at Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock. Of fered by Olympic Community Action Programs and Homeward Bound, the sixhour class helps maximize the purchasing power of folks looking to purchase a home and provides information about the new $8,000 homebuyer tax credit. Michelle Adkisson, loan officer at Eagle Home Mortgage, and Terry Smith, Realtor with ReMax, present the class. Additionally, Tim Halpin of Pacific Inspection Services explains the whys and wherefores of home inspections. The goal of the class is to prepare people for homeownership and familiarize them with the home-buying process and loan programs. Washington State Housing Commission-trained instructors provide information about lending programs, interest rates and loans, credit issues, mortgage insurance, title, escrow and the closing process. Additionally, participants can schedule a one-to-one consultation with a housing counselor, and a credit evaluation and work-up with a consumer credit-counseling service, both at no cost. To register, contact OlyCAP at 360-452-4726, ext. 6100.

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