Twelve Bonny Doon homes will open their gardens to show colorful flowers, hedges, vegetable patches, groundcovers, ponds, fruit trees and more in a beautiful display of springtime handiwork next weekend.
The Hidden Gardens of Bonny Doon garden tour will have on display a dozen usually hidden gardens in an effort to raise money for Bonny Doon Union Elementary School.
Here’s a sneak peek at two that will be featured:
The Long garden
Terry and Karen Long’s garden on Quail Drive is one of the yards on the tour. The idyllic acre is home to a pond full of goldfish with a small waterfall, a large oak tree, a swimming pool and a variety of manicured groundcovers ranging from bright green to red and brown.
“We love color and foliage,” Terry Long said. “We have different flowers that bloom at all times of the year.”
In a broad open space, the Longs hope to eventually put in an outdoor theater where they can watch movies with friends in the serenity of their backyard.
“I’m always trying to think about how to make it more social,” Long said.
One feature makes the Long residence unique is the presence of a pickle-ball court in the front yard. The game — a mix of badminton, ping-pong and tennis — is popular among the Bonny Doon community, and the Longs’ home has been at the center of the craze for years.
The couple has no formal gardening training but is self-educated through reading books, magazines and Internet articles, especially since a daughter had her wedding there two years ago. The Longs hired a personal friend to help with part of the landscape design, but they continue to make adjustments on their own.
They said they’re happy to show their home to help the school their two girls attended.
“People can grab ideas or enjoy a day of pleasure,” Long said. “A lot of people don’t get a chance to see Bonny Doon properties.”
The Rainbow Garden
It’s impossible to imagine what lies behind a white gate at the front of James Kent and Seba Walker’s home on Sunlit Lane. You have to visit to know.
Their 1-acre property shows off 30 years of gardening, with hundreds of different herbs, flowers and trees growing harmoniously.
“She’s been the architect of it, and I’ve been the gopher,” said James, a self-proclaimed “soil guy,” of his wife, whom he calls a “flower junkie.”
When Walker bought the home in 1980, nothing grew there except several large fir trees. Today, there is a different plant, tree or herb in every direction. Along with several gazebos and a walking bridge, part of the garden is built to cover leech field mounds behind the house.
The couple celebrates spirituality in the garden with several American Indian ceremonial areas and various statues that represent spiritual figures from several religions.
“When you’re surrounded by beauty, you remember you’re beautiful,” Walker said. “Some people say, ‘So much work.’ I look at it and say, ‘So much reward.’”
With help, the couple hand-waters every plant as needed, but Walker said she no longer has to cultivate much, because the garden is so established.
“You learn to create not so much work for yourself,” she said.
“You get smarter.”
At a glance
• WHAT: Hidden Gardens of Bonny Doon garden tour, to benefit Bonny Doon Union Elementary School
• WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 22 and 23
• TIX: $20 at Plant Works, 7945 Highway 9, in Ben Lomond; Scarborough Gardens, 33 El Pueblo Road, in Scotts Valley; and Bonny Doon Elementary, 1492 Pine Flat Road, in Bonny Doon
• INFO: 469-0688 or 423-7728
