Yardeners Garden Tour a sight to see

By Julie Snyder
C & G Staff Writer

ST. CLAIR SHORES — In St. Clair Shores residents Julie and Mario Cherro’s backyard, there are five different gardens.

One is a colorful playhouse for their grandchildren, one is a designed like a wine café, and another is a butterfly garden in the shape of a butterfly. There is also a sitting area in their garden and a pond area.

And each area is named after one of their children and grandchildren.

“We add something new to our garden all the time,” said Julie Cherro, who has lived at her Rockwood home with her husband for 15 years. “We try to make it different every year.”

Amid the beautiful birds and nature’s favorite insects seen fluttering about the Cherro’s garden are dozens of native plants, a hydrangea tree, and an array of striking perennials and annuals that attract them.

Cherro said she and Mario have been enthusiastic gardeners for as long as she can remember.

“We plan (the garden) in the winter and we work on it in the summer,” Cherro said. “And during the summer we are out there every day.”

The two collect rocks wherever they go, so each stone adorning their garden — including gardens in the front and on the side of their home — has a different story.

It’s these many reasons why the Cherro’s garden was chosen yet again to be a stop in the St. Clair Shores Yardeners Garden Tour.

The 15th annual tour will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 2.

Yardeners member Laurel Fowler said the tours are offered each year in an effort to share gardening and showcase some of the area’s Earth-friendly gardening practices. 

“Some houses have composting going on, one (on Nieman) has a pretty nice rain barrel system for harvesting rain to water plants instead of using tap water,” Fowler said.

The Yardeners is a nonprofit group of gardeners dedicated to achieving beneficial environmental results by teaching and practicing Earth-friendly gardening techniques.

According to Fowler, these include using Michigan native plant material, wildlife habitat landscaping, composting, and Integrated Pest Management measures to reduce and eliminate the use of harmful chemicals. 

All money raised by the Yardeners is put back into the community through donations, educational programs and planting projects, Fowler said.

At each home on the Yardeners Garden Tour, a master gardener will be available to help answer questions and explain the importance of having an environmentally friendly garden.

At Lorie and John Myers’ home on Sunnyside, there is a small Japanese maple and a pink flowering dogwood. The flowerbed surrounding their mailbox is planted with crocuses, hyacinths, and tulips in the spring, cosmos and snapdragons in the summer, and mums and pumpkins in the fall.

The focal point of the backyard garden is a 5-year-old, 3,000-gallon pond. There had been a small pond at the site when the Myerses purchased the house 22 years ago. The lush summer vegetation surrounding the pond is reminiscent of an exotic vacation spot. Tall ferns, light green hostas, ornamental grasses, irises, a Japanese red maple and other perennial plants surround the pond, and various water plants reside inside the pond, which is home to a dozen koi.

One side of the yard receives partial sun where a variety of coneflowers and butterfly-friendly plants reside, including a butterfly bush, butterfly weed and a butterfly plant. The other side of the yard is in partial shade and the plant emphasis is on hostas, astilbes, coral bells and ferns.

Fowler said many of the backyard plants were obtained from the annual St. Clair Shores plant exchange, the Yardeners’ native plant sale, and Eastern Market.

There are currently five gardens on the tour and recommendations are still being accepted.

Fowler said finding gardens to feature on the tour each year isn’t difficult.

“We find gardens by referral from neighbors, friends,” she said. “Sometimes we just ride bikes or walk and see nice homes, and then send a note from the group to see if they would be interested.”

Registration will be taken at the Selinsky-Green Farmhouse Museum, located behind the library on 11 Mile. Tickets are $5 and children are welcome. For additional information about the tours, call (586) 415-7110.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Snyder at jsnyder@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1039.