About seven years ago, Michael and Sara Thoms decided to tear out most of the landscaping at their home in Rock Island’s Watch Hill neighborhood and start from scratch.
They had lived in the 1930s Tudor-style home for about 20 years and the look they had inherited had become dated and overgrown.
Following Sara’s vision for numerous “rooms,” or individual areas, within the larger yard, Meyer Landscape Design of Moline drafted a plan so that everywhere you walk there is something different to look at, and there is a sense of discovery because you don’t see everything at once.
You can see the Thomses’ garden for yourself Saturday, June 15, when it will be one of seven in the Illinois Quad-Cities open for tours as a fundraiser for the Quad-City Botanical Center, Rock Island.
In caring for the yard, Sara has hired help, but she’s also hands-on. She plants annual flowers and tends to a large number of potted tropical plants that she hauls into their greenhouse every fall and then brings back out again in the spring to add bursts of color and textural interest to the various “rooms.”
Among perennials adding color to her yard are numerous “Knockout” roses, known for their vigor and low maintenance.
“I’ve had the fancy roses,” she said. “I’ve gone to the ones I know will make it here.”
Favorite individual flowers are those that can be cut for inside arrangements such as black-eyed Susans, hydrangeas and salvia. “I like to do centerpieces,” she said.
She also tries to incorporate a few plants that are native to the nearby Black Hawk State Historic Site, buying them at sales of native plants.
In addition to color scattered throughout the yard, there also are dozens of rabbits … of the sculptural variety.
Because Sara’s birthday is around Easter, she latched onto rabbits as a motif. The first one you see entering the yard is blowing a horn, positioned atop an orb in the middle of the sidewalk leading to their front door.
Other sculptures populating the yard include three larger rabbits, a girl reading a book and a girl playing a flute, both nods to favorite pastimes of her daughters.
Sara credits other gardeners with teaching her about using art and color in the garden, such as pairing the red “Knockout” roses with yellow daylilies or planting shrubs of various shades of green rather than all one shade.
“It’s like someone’s doing a painting,” she said. “There are colors here, there and everywhere, like dabbing another color of paint on a canvas.”
Among those inspirational gardeners are fellow members of the Perennial Pals Garden Club, a group that shares plants and ideas, and the Tri-City Garden Club.
Being involved with the former Symphony in Bloom lawn, garden and flower show was also a good learning experience.
“Those ladies taught me a lot,” Sara said.
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