Going on tour

The way I remember it, a few years ago, Kim and I jokingly noted to ourselves that our house was never included in any Master Gardener recognition.

"Why not? we laughed. "Our gardens looks as good as anyone's."

(Note: Our gardens, front and back, are basically humble ones, having already been established mostly by previous owners by the time we bought the house in 2003.)

Our front garden in 2018.

So we let the matter rest without any further thought.

That is, until several weeks ago. Kim said she had gotten a phone call at work, out of thin blue air, from a representative of the Davidson County Master Gardeners, wanting to know if we'd be interested in participating in their annual tour this year, and can they send somebody over to look at our house first?

Umm, OK. This is interesting. I told Kim, sure, why not, let them look, but I'm not going to throw a lot of money at our gardens or go out of my way to create something extravagant. Our house is a simple Craftsman bungalow, and that's the way I want to keep it.

Then two nice ladies came over to scout out the property. One of them, Frankie Mefford, explained that the Master Gardeners were resurrecting their popular tour after a two-year hiatus because of Covid. They already had six houses lined up in the beautiful Grimes School area, but six houses weren't enough to justify selling tour tickets. They needed a few more attractions and could we help them out?

I expressed my concerns about throwing more money into my yard than I was comfortable with, but Frankie graciously pointed out that many of the people on the tour probably feel the same way that I do, and that our house would be a fine example of simplicity intersecting with beauty.

How could we say no to that?

So, we agreed. We are now on the tour, along with eight other participants, scheduled for June 4-5. Frankie recently sent us an email that said the Master Gardeners are expecting upwards of 500 people to tour the participating gardens.

The pressure is on.

Right now, hardly anything is in bloom, so it's difficult to envision what hopefully will be. Or to even meet the description we wrote for the tour brochure. On top of that, I weeded and feeded (wed and fed?) the grass in our yard before this tour project actually became a thing for us, so all of our grass right now looks like circus elephants have been grazing on the property. Plus, with about 54 days to go, the weeds have been merciless.

Indeed, I've already started significant weeding. I'll be turning the soil and throwing out grass seed this week. Kim has already bought geraniums for the kitchen window box and put up the hummingbird feeder. Both of us have submitted our pleas for Divine Intervention over the coming weeks. We've even taken our second Covid booster shots to make sure we get through this thing intact. And, if all goes according to schedule, I'll be throwing down at least three Bobcat loads of hardwood mulch in about a month.

But until the tour actually gets here, I'm anticipating daily work in our yards and gardens. We'd be doing this even if we weren't on the tour, except there's a deadline now.

But we're excited about this. It'll be hard work, but it'll be fun, too. Simplicity meets eye appeal.

Participating in the tour will be Stuart and Grace Ward, 210 Westover Drive; Willie and Jo Ellen Edwards, 212 Westover Drive;  Don Patterson and Marcia Michaud-Patterson, 4 Hege Drive; Courtney and April Crowson, 27 Grimes Circle; Amy Suttle, 116 Chestnut Street; Bright Carter, 209 Chestnut Street; Tom Tussey and Jeff Miller, 500 West Second Avenue; Gail and Judy Lanier, 304 West Second Avenue; and us, Bruce and Kim Wehrle, 406 West Second Avenue.

Tickets are $20 and will benefit several charities.