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Armando Mejorado, left, and Gary Desmond own one of the houses on the Saturday Koi Pond tour.

The artist who designed the Fantasy Fountain’s new look will provide a chance to learn about and see his inspiration Saturday.

Armando Mejorado’s koi pond will be part of the 2013 Shasta Koi and Water Garden Club’s annual tour. The owners of eight koi water gardens, which are filled with koi or goldfish and typically resemble tiny lakes, will show their creations and take questions during the tour Saturday, said Karlene Stoker, with the club.

They range from a cattle cistern filled with fish to Mejorado’s 8,500 gallon pond that contains 28 koi.

“They’re like living art,” said Mejorado.

He said he had just put in a 1,500-gallon Koi pond at his home when he was told to come up with a design for Enterprise Park’s Fantasy Fountain, which was being redone.

The colorful fish quickly became his favorite animal as he learned of, and added, more colorful varieties.

“We kept buying more and more. Pretty soon it got overcrowded,” he said.

So, Mejorado said he replaced the pond with a new one with more than five times the original’s capacity. The additional gallons also provide room for up to 80 fish.

One side of the pond is nearly 25 feet long and the pond is almost five feet deep in one spot. “People that keep looking at it, they think the new pond looks like a swimming pool compared to a round fountain that you’d see in a courtyard,” he said.

Stoker said Mejorado isn’t alone in his desire to expand his pond.

“Once you get a pond, the only thing you wish you did differently is (that) you made it bigger,” Stoker said.

Mejorado said his pond features a fountain and grasses around the water to create a scene reminiscent of nature. The landscaping has transformed his yard into another part of his home.

“We are out there everyday,” he said. “Before, it was a regular lawn you walk through to get to the door.”

It’s the first year his pond has been featured on the biennial tour, which has served as a fundraiser for the club since the 1980s.

Tour tour tickets, which come with guidebooks, cost $10. They are available at Axner Excavating, Sunset Koi, Jose Antonio’s, Wyntour Gardens and Vic Hannon Landscaping in Redding. They can be purchased at Blue Iris Quilt Shop in Palo Cedro and Kirk’s Body Shop in Red Bluff.

For more information, visit www.shastakoiclub.com.

If you go

Who: Adults, children

What: 2013 Koi pond and water garden tour

When: Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Eight properties in the north state. Directions available with tickets, which cost $10 for adults. Children 12 and under free.

A large but intimate-feeling landscaping masterpiece, a densely planted city oasis and a family’s joint gardening venture will all be highlighted during this year’s Marietta Garden Tour.

The annual event, presented by the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Marietta, takes place Sunday and will feature three private gardens and two public ones, said Caroline Putnam, a member of the garden committee.

“I consider this a very interesting array of gardens this year,” she said.

Article Photos

JASMINE ROGERS The Marietta Times
Landscape designer Lyndsay Biehl trims back flowers and weeds one of the beds at her parents’ Forshey Road residence. More than 8,000 square feet of meticulously designed bed space will be on display during Sunday’s annual Marietta Garden Tour, presented by the First Unitarian Universalist Church.

Private gardens will include that of the Biehl family at 325 Forshey Road, Marietta.

The garden has been a work in progress for six years, said Lyndsay Biehl, 30, who has lovingly manicured around 8,000 feet of bed space at the home, which belongs to her parents Brad and Stephanie Biehl.

“I have close ties to the house. My grandfather lived there and when he passed away my parents bought the house. So I kind of grew up in that house,” she said.

Landscaping is much more than a hobby for Biehl, who holds a Bachelors of Science degree in landscape horticulture from The Ohio State University.

“Gardening is how I unwind. I can work all day in the landscape and still come home and feel recharged by it,” she said.

What visitors might notice most about the garden is that although it is large in square footage, it feels extremely intimate. That feeling was created by dividing the garden into several areas that still feel small, Biehl said.

She also does a lot of container gardening on the property, a trend which has been taking off in recent years, Biehl noted.

“People can take away a lot of ideas for their own yard,” she said.

Also on this year’s tour is the city garden of Charlotte Hatfield at 426 Fifth St., Marietta.

Walking into the small city garden will make visitors feel like they have stepped into a garden in Williamsburg, Va., said Putnam.

That classic feel is exactly what Hatfield was attempting when she began planting a garden eight years ago that would mirror the feeling of her 160-year-old home.

“I was looking for a garden that matched the style of the house and so it is an old-fashioned garden. There are a lot of roses and lilies…lots of pinks and lavenders,” said Hatfield.

Though she has gardened since the early 1980s, cultivating this particular garden has been a learning process with a lot of trial and error, she said.

“Here, I had three really large, wide-open empty flower beds. It was a process of how do you get scale right when you’ve got nothing to compare it to,” said Hatfield.

The garden is still constantly evolving, but visitors Sunday will have plenty of early summer blooms to enjoy, she said.

The final private garden on the tour is just across the river in Williamstown, said Putnam.

Sylvia Miles’ 109 E. 5th St. garden is a labor of family love, said Putnam. For the last 15 years, Miles, her three sisters, and their mother have spent Labor Day weekend working on projects throughout the garden.

“Each sister’s personality and the mother’s has really come out,” said Putnam.

The years of effort have resulted in a garden brimming with unique plants and features. A raised deck provides a sweeping view of the garden’s offerings and attendees are sure to be awed by clever little gardening surprises, said Putnam.

“It never occurred to me to use a carport as a garden, but they do,” she said of an adjoining carport that houses a shade garden in the summer.

Finally, the Marietta Garden Tour encourages visitors to take in the Kroger Wetlands and the Harvest of Hope Community Garden this year.

Located behind Kroger on Acme Street, the wetlands consist of several ponds along with wildflowers and is an excellent site for spotting animals, said Putnam.

“That’s where I see blue heron,” she said.

The wetlands are an underappreciated treasure, complete with approximately a mile-long loop of walking trail, and a guide will be on site Sunday to help share information, added Putnam.

The Harvest of Hope Community Garden, located at the corner of S. Sixth and Hart streets, rounds out the tour. There, visitors will be able to glimpse an array of vegetable gardens tended by several different community members. It even features a rooftop garden, said Putnam.

Tickets for Sunday’s event cost $7 in advance and are available at Twisted Sisters Boutique, Greenleaf Landscapes, Williamstown Pharmacy and Thomson’s Landscaping.

Tickets can also be purchased for $10 the day of the event at the The First Unitarian Universalist Church at 232 Third St. or at any of the gardens.

All of the proceeds go directly into a building fund for the upkeep of the historic church, said Putnam.

Gardens will be open from 3 to 6 p.m. The church will also be holding a plant sale and serving free refreshments from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

With cool temperatures and gentle, penetrating rains at the end of many days, gardeners are as happy as kids in a candy store this year. Even non-gardeners could appreciate the prolonged show of flowering spring trees, shrubs and bulbs.

The 2013 Lisle Woman’s Club Garden Gait Walk will offer a feast for the senses with its selection of six unique gardens on its annual tour.

The self-guided event begins at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 23, at the Museums of Lisle Station Park in downtown Lisle, where vendors will feature garden-themed merchandise. The tickets are $17, or $15 if purchased in advance from any Lisle Woman’s Club member or at a selection of local Lisle businesses. All gardens close at 4 p.m.

The tour also highlights some of the latest trends in gardening while offering answers to “What grows in a shady area?” “How can I incorporate veggies in a flower garden?” and “In what ways can I personalize my garden?”

Luisa and Gerry Buehler

The half-acre yard of Luisa and Gerry Buehler was an empty lot before the family had their modern-style home built 28 years ago.

As a mystery writer, Luisa Buehler weaves clues throughout her garden using the gardening trend to reuse, re-purpose and recycle. There are a number of lovely little spots to sit, write and soak up the fragrances and beauty of nature alongside re-purposed art.

What was once the back of an aged bench is now an interesting support for peonies. The couple turned three former cypress trees near the deck and devoid of greenery into an artistic conversation piece using inverted clay pots on the trio’s branches.

With Luisa’s imagination, quaint wheelbarrows become flower pots, a rusting shovel offers a flower support and an old mailbox adds interest.

Luisa enjoys the perennials her mother passed on to her and incorporates a few vegetables in tubs, which was her father’s forte. She said gardening taught her to acknowledge nature on its terms.

“I just enjoy what comes up and I am appreciative and thankful that God lets me play in my garden,” Luisa Buehler said.

The Buehler garden is a natural environment that inspires endless creativity.

Raymond and Charlene Cebulski

The garden of Raymond and Charlene Cebulski offers a serene oasis behind their home of 35 years. The couple was ahead of the current trend of water gardening.

Their quest for answers brought them to the Midwest Pond and Koi Society, where they both now serve on the organization’s board. Layers of stone surround a large pond that is home to 30 koi fish. The pond’s top tier is the source of two waterfalls.

Around the pond are coneflowers, goatsbeard, cannas, dwarf white cone flowers and perennial petunias. A small shed that Ray built to house the pond’s equipment has the trappings of a charming cottage, complete with flower box.

An eye-catching red rose bush that once belonged to Ray’s mother flourishes near the house. Yard art brought back from their travels and a fairy garden are interesting finds tucked into the many garden beds.

Among the uncommon trees on the ¹⁄₃-acre lot are a linden, peony tree, Australian pine, a weeping redbud, a lime-colored green larch, a small Korean fir pine with white tips and a dwarf white pine with first-year cones in purple. In the vegetable garden, pumpkin and watermelon grow on trellises near fern peony.

Louise and David Goodman

Louise and David Goodman’s garden borders on the Green Trails subdivision’s 26 miles of paved common paths. The couple eliminated their typical front lawn to construct a tranquil arrangement of raised stone beds, pathways and interesting plants anchored by a Japanese maple, Bradford pear and clump river birch. Snapdragons and petunias provide color.

Among the neatly trimmed side yard shrubs, parsley, sage, garlic and chives provide a perennial herb garden.

A large stone patio in the rear yard is trimmed with an array of colorful hanging flower pots. The creative couple fashioned unique tables from original art pieces in leaf shapes. An attention-grabbing Tiki Moai statue affords a touch of island panache standing next to a large-leaf elephant ear plant.

The isle feeling carries over to the yard’s 10 varieties of hostas among a generous splash of colorful annuals. A tiny toad house anchors a fairy garden for interest.

Louise is particularly proud of a hedge of purple and white rose of Sharon hibiscus that she propagated from three of her mother’s shrubs. The newest shoots, she babies along until ready to pass on to neighbors and friends.

Nancy and Tony Heath

In the eight years Nancy and Tony Heath have owned their home, the original grassed front yard was transformed into a welcoming perennial garden path with billowy grasses, patches of white and purple Siberian irises and a variety of jewel-toned peonies.

A variety of roses, coral bells, sweet william, lavender and columbine intermingle along the path. A wooden front deck provides a place to sit and enjoy nature. Bird houses and milkweed invite a variety of birds and butterflies. The yard is a designated Backyard Wildlife Habitat certified by the National Wildlife Federation.

The large side yard has beds of pink and purple coneflowers woven into beds of white Shasta daisies and sweet woodruff groundcover. For everyone who has purchased a predesigned perennial border and had it fizzle, the Heaths have a successful combination thriving in their back yard.

The house sits on a bluff looking over the St. Joseph’s Creek that affords an unmatched view of nature with the occasional row of ducklings following a parent.

On the ¹⁄₃-acre site, every season has a plant that commands attention. Following the current trend to incorporate vegetables among flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins are tucked into the front yard near the driveway for easy harvesting.

Carolyn and John Kanthack

Almost an acre in size, the garden of Carolyn and John Kanthack is trimmed with rows of field stone, which dates back to its origins as farmland. The couple expanded the original house 28 years ago.

In the front yard, a small black iron fence once belonged to Carolyn’s great-grandmother. In the rear yard, sedum from a great aunt flourishes. All the hostas in the gardens originated as gifts from family and friends.

Two long rows of privacy fencing line the back yard and become an entertaining gallery of garage sale treasures that Carolyn’s mother finds. Mirrors and birdhouses of all sizes and shapes hang on the fence, sit upon poles or poise on ladder steps.

A large aboveground pool and expanded wood deck fit into the plantings. A small pond, several water features and a hot tub incorporate the garden trend of creating living space outdoors.

A traditional vegetable garden in the sunny side yard produces tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and beans for the family.

In the front yard, a little sitting area trimmed in honeysuckle reuses the remains of the farm’s silo foundation. It’s a relaxing spot to recall yesteryear when a horse and buggy might have pulled up the long drive.

Janna and Rick Sampson

The garden of Janna and Rick Sampson incorporates the trend toward stone drives and patios into its total landscape design. A multi-trunked Amur maple on the corner of their two-car garage diminishes the structure’s size and leads the eye directly to the home’s inviting entrance where potted annuals flourish.

Below the maple, a row of variegated hostas is a lesson in patience. Rick Sampson, who learned that gardeners need to move things around as trees grow and conditions change, said the couple tried several different kinds of hostas below the maple before the present choice began to thrive in the spot.

The couple’s flair for growing plants with different shaped leaves and variegated colors is best seen in their shade garden, where there is a patch of dwarf Solomon seal flowers near several blooming Lenten roses, variegated miniature hostas and an autumn fern dryopteris erythrosora.

Other plants included are yellow flowering corydalis, bleeding heart and a variegated brunnera alkanet.

Yellow-flowered honeysuckle bushes, a dense row of arbor vitae evergreens and Wentworth viburnums shrubs add to the home’s diverse landscape specimens. Georgia peach red-toned coral bells, Jack Frost brunnera and Annabell hydrangea are a study in perennial diversity.