Virtual Garden Tour
Welcome to our Virtual Garden Tour! We hope you will be inspired by hearing the stories and seeing the videos of these four Wichita-area private gardens. Each garden has a homeowner interview and an edited video of the garden. We have also provided some resources relating to things that you might see in these gardens. We hope we will be able to invite you back out into the gardens for a live tour in 2021!
Garden of Love & Legacy
Homeowners: Brad Jones and Sarah Bishop-Jones
When Sarah and her family moved into her grandmother’s house four years ago, the large flower garden, which her grandmother had taken care of for 50 years, was completely overgrown with weed trees and honeysuckle vines. Sarah, who had spent many hours of her childhood in the garden, was determined to carry on her grandmother’s legacy by bringing it back to life.
Sarah restored many of the garden’s flowering perennial plants, including roses, hibiscus, irises, delphiniums, day lilies, hydrangeas, and peonies. She also added more plants to the garden, as well as a pergola, a fence, a fountain, arbors, and benches. She made sure that each section of the garden would continue to have a dominant color theme throughout the growing season. How pleased her grandmother would be!
Resources:
Growing Roses
Perennial Plants for Kansas
Gardening by Design
Homeowners: Mark and Anita Ward
Over 25 years, Mark and Anita Ward have transformed their yard into a beautiful landscape of border gardens, brick and stone walkways and patios, and vintage statuary. Because of the large, mature trees in their yard—two bur oaks, two American elms, and one Oklahoma redbud—they’ve planted shade-tolerant plants throughout. These include succulents, hydrangeas, and hosta plants. Shrubs and trees include Japanese yew, dogwood, Japanese maple, and ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ holly. When planting, they’ve almost always amended their heavy clay soil with a mix of compost and sharp gravel to insure healthy growth.
In 2019, they had a custom-designed cedar fence installed, which sets the backdrop for the garden. Their non-traditional fence, all 350 feet of it, clearly enhances the beauty of the landscape surrounding their home.
Homeowner Interview: Watch before tour video; Watch after tour video
Resources:
Growing Succulents
Lush Suburban Forest
Homeowners: Terry and Gina Moon
As you round the corner into this shady backyard, your eye will immediately be drawn to a majestic magnolia tree. This beautiful flowering evergreen, a ‘Brackens Brown Beauty’ Magnolia, in addition to river birch trees, Deodar cedars, a blue atlas cedar, and a red maple established the foundation of this backyard forest many years ago.
Today, the current owners, Terry and Gina Moon, who moved into the house in 2011, have nearly doubled the number of trees and shrubs in the front and back yards. They also planted many flowers, some in distinctive pots made from red structural beams. There are pots of succulents, many pampas grass plants, and a variety of hostas throughout the garden, as well as a favorite flowering cactus known as Old Man’s Beard (Rhipsalis capilliformis).
Resources:
Instructions for Planting New Trees & Shrubs
Watering Tips for Newly Planted/Young Trees & Shrubs
Water Wise Plant Recommendations
Layers of Texture
Homeowners: Dennis Murphy and Dennis Reimer
The home was built in 1959, but it was 11 years ago when the transformation began that made this garden into the decorative beauty that it is today. The brick walkways meander throughout the backyard and around the entirety of the property, which complements the brick of the stately home. Perennials and shrubs with differing textures line the walkways. Liriope, boxwoods and euonymus are extensively used; additional groundcover is provided by English ivy. Annuals in containers can also be seen throughout the garden to add splashes of color.
A majestic sweetgum tree in the backyard provides a favorable environment for the hosta garden located beneath it. There are several varieties of hostas on display here. The other mature trees on the property consists of oak, cypress and arborvitaes.
Homeowner Interview: Watch before tour video; Watch after tour video
Resources:
Ground Cover Recommendations
Pruning Shrubs
