Bitterroot Secret Garden Tour: A Nurseryman’s Expansive Garden

The first stop on our virtual tour brings us to the seed-sown garden of a life-long plant lover

Happy Monday GPODers !

This week we have a particular goody good manners of Kielian DeWitt , President of theBitterroot Secret Garden Tour ™ in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana . What commence as a desire to have some more sport , “ gardeny activities ” amongst a group of flora - loving friends , has blossomed into an annual garden tour that has raised over $ 120,000 dollar mark for local brotherly love and welcomes tour attender from across the US .

This past July , The Tour lionize its 10th anniversary . Five more unbelievable gardens were showcased and $ 20,000 was raised forExplore the ARTS , an organization that support and promotes the oeuvre of local artist through various outreach programs , class , and workshops .

Lucky for us , Kielian was gracious enough to give us a mini , practical enlistment of these gardens and leave us with amazing information on this inspiring community issue . So each twenty-four hours we ’ll be featuring a different garden from this year ’s turn , begin with the Gordon Nichols ’ gorgeous earth full of seed - sown plant . Here ’s a little piece of info on Gordon from the Garden Tour ’s booklet :

Gordon is a aboriginal Montanan and mature up in Big Fork where he returned to live and invoke his menage after go away to college . As a son , he gardened alongside his mother and grandmother in his own garden plot they go down apart for him and it became a womb-to-tomb mania . Like many of his friends , he was in4 - Hand had a steer and dairy moo-cow but his preferred 4 - H projection get from his love of planting all different kinds of plants and flowers from germ in his garden . When he was rear his own crime syndicate he maturate vegetables for the board but was always tie to interesting industrial plant and flowers and explore for unusual source to test their ability to grow ( or not ) in our Montana climate . Under his care , many originate and boom .

He held a full - time postal job but for 10 years also had a retail evergreen nursery of his own that he set about and maintained as a side clientele . The last few year before his retirement the nursery operated as a sweeping venture that he left behind when he and his wife , Lorna , displace to their current property . The awing translation he ’s made to the 3 acres where they now lodge in has taken only 11 years to make out , all by his own hand .

There are ponds , oasis of breeze - dancing bloom , obtain and collected yard art and a bedecked garden shed to be admired . ( See if you could guess what the art employment is that hangs from the caducous cap . )

sow seeds is his preferred method of planting ; he like the simplicity of it , informal and godforsaken , and calls it the ‘ pitiable man ’s system . ’ It could be that he just loves the whole outgrowth from scratch to finish and does n’t bear in mind hold off until the next year to see his bloom and planting amount to full maturity .

One of two ponds excavated and landscaped by Gordon . The piddle lilieswere just beginning to blossom and the lilac bushes heavily scented the line . Gordon made the intricate birdhouse that stands improbable above the garden .

Gordon ’s daises , rose campion(Lychniscoronariaand cvs . , Zones 3–9),heliopsis , sweet William(Dianthusbarbatus , Zones 3–9),dianthus and poppies grace the base of the Bitterroot Mountains .

poppy , Bachelor ’s buttons(Centaureacyanus , Zones 3–8),Tiger Eyes sumac(Rhustyphina‘Bailtiger ’ , Zones 3–8)andsea holly(Eryngiumplanum , Zones 4–8)fill in one entire garden area . Most of the perennial were seeded by Gordon when he grease one’s palms the place 11 years ago .

Sunstruck false sunflower(Heliopsishelianthoides‘Sunstruck ’ , Zones 4–9)and a beautiful bougainvillea stand sentry outside his garden shed . Gordon hump rusty antiques and graced the front roofline of this shed with found and make unnecessary item . Can you guess what they are ?

Another of Gordon ’s hand-crafted birdhouse floats above a seam of hollyhocks , ligularia , variegated iris and poppies .

Have picture to share ? We ’d jazz to see your garden , a particular appeal of plants you bonk , or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit !

To submit , send 5 - 10 photograph to[email protected]along with some data about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photo . We ’d love to hear where you are located , how long you ’ve been gardening , successes you are proud of , failure you learned from , Leslie Townes Hope for the time to come , favored plants , or suspicious stories from your garden .

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meadow garden with daisies and heliopsis

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