The eighth annual Living in History Home and Garden Tour, sponsored by The Garden Club of Frankfort and the Frankfort/Franklin County Tourism Commission, will be held from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.

Also included in the day’s events are a luncheon, and a boutique and antique appraisal fair, at the Frankfort Country Club. The luncheon is from 11-2 and the boutique and antique appraisal from 10-3.

The proceeds from these three events go to help fund Frankfort beautification projects, such as the Wilkinson Boulevard median improvements and the Frankfort Cemetery Chapel.

Tickets for the tour of homes and gardens are $15 and the lunch is $15. They are available at any of the homes, the country club, or at the Frankfort Tourism Center.

Here’s a look at the homes and gardens on the tour.

301 West Third Street

Susan Turner’s Queen-Anne-style home was built in 1892. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is two and a half stories with a mix of clapboard and shingle siding. The property is known locally as The Jillson House.

Jillson was director of the Kentucky Geological Survey in the 1920s and ’30s and served as the first commissioner of Kentucky State Parks.

As a geologist and historian he wrote more than 60 books and 500 articles — many of them while working from his office in the attic of this home. There is still to be seen the original elaborately carved oak woodwork said to have been produced in Battlecreek, Mich., and shipped by boat to Frankfort. It includes massive oak doors, coal-burning fireplaces and many stained glass panels original to the home. 

115 Shelby Street

Susan Coblin’s two-and-a-half story weatherboard Colonial Revival-style home is on a tree-lined street along the Kentucky River. Flooded repeatedly in the past it is now protected by a floodwall. The family presently living here represents the fifth generation in residence and the many flood stories have become a part of the family tradition.

The home is bright and airy with many windows and a spacious floor plan. The current owner’s grandfather was an architect and had a special fondness for stonework and arches. One of the unique features in the home is his design of the freestanding fireplace in the family room.

The walls are adorned with paintings from well-known local artists as well as family members. Visitors will also be interested in studying the landscaping blueprint plan for the back garden as it begins to take shape.

3 Weehawken

Marcey and John Paul Broderson’s home is located in a secluded cul-de-sac just outside the entrance to the Frankfort Country Club. This small neighborhood of homes is on land once part of a large estate known as Weehawken.

The Brodersons’ traditional American-style brick ranch was built by Lawrence W. Wetherby, governor of Kentucky from l950 to 1955. When his term expired he had this house built for his family. The current owners also moved into the house after they retired from active careers.

Visitors will view from the glass-enclosed porch the playhouse for the grandchildren, a fishpond with Koi, beehives and a variety of plants that attest to the owners’ interest in nature and the environment. 

103 Hay Avenue

Don Yancey has been gardening at his home for 25 years. His backyard landscape reflects his enthusiasm for growing things and creating welcoming spaces. Visitors will follow a path leading them past white trellises decorated with a selection of clematis and through a gate into a charming world of color and variety.

The centerpiece is a large Koi pond fed by rainwater that is brought from the home’s gutter and downspout system to a fountain and then channeled under a small bridge to finally arrive at the pond. The many containers accenting the separate areas utilize begonias, mandevillas and other flowering annuals to bloom all summer while the flowering focus of the perennial beds varies from week to week.

503 Murray Street

Marie and Bill Cull’s home in the South Frankfort Historic District was originally built by Circuit Judge Ben G. Williams in 1905. That home was in the Queen Anne style and was three stories.

It burned in 1933 and was restored to a one-story Colonial revival home after a complete redesign by Leo Oberwarth Architects. The four tall chimneys remain as a reminder of the height of the original home. Since they’ve owned the home the Culls have, among other things, opened the second floor, enlarged the kitchen, enclosed the sleeping porch, added a deck and continued the gardening efforts of previous owners.

221-223 St. Clair Street

Amy and Craig Potts purchased the Duvall Building in 2010. This commercial building was constructed in 1889 in the Italianate style. The building’s façade retains many of the hallmarks of Italianate design including a bracketed cornice with decorative pediment, ornate window hoods and one largely intact storefront with period details such as prismatic glass transom windows.

The upstairs had been the offices of the public defender for a long time. In the rehabilitation those offices were moved to the first floor and the upstairs was redesigned into a spacious two-bedroom residence for a family of four.

The results are a marvel of ingenuity, artistry and practicality reflecting the owners’ vision. Features include an open concept living room and kitchen, a rear porch addition and rooftop gathering space, hardwood and marble floors, decorative trim work and 9-foot façade windows that provide outstanding views of the Franklin County Courthouse.

Period details have been preserved as part of a thoroughly modern reinterpretation of space that accommodates modern living with the convenience of urban life.

505 Murray Street

The imposing home of Brig. Gen. (ret.) Jim and Stacey Shane was built in 1905 by Cornelius E. Collins, a co-owner with a brother of a saloon and hardware store in downtown Frankfort. Located about two blocks from the Governor’s Mansion, its backyard overlooks the Kentucky River and has a view of the Frankfort Cemetery.

The old home was left vacant for several years until 1988 when it was purchased by David and Sharma Klee. The new owners undertook a monumental restoration effort to renovate it back to its original state. Large, multiple porches, high paneled ceilings, wooden pocket doors and spacious rooms all speak of the designs popular in the early 1900s.

100 Old Georgetown Road

Andrea and Mike Mueller’s home is on 20 acres of land that originally belonged to one of the owners’ grandparents. The current owners maintain their business (Inside Out Landscape Hardscape Design) as well as their home here. The business itself is part of the family legacy as the owner is the daughter of Charlie Wilson, who started Wilson Nurseries more than 30 years ago.

The split-level contemporary home, landscape and nearby office building reflect the owners’ commitment to the philosophy of sustainability and attention to the environment. The home features concrete floors, high ceilings and soaring windows. The use of natural materials such as cork, maple, beech, walnut and cherry wood give the interior a feeling of warmth.

The earth-berm office building features a vegetative roof, solar panels, geothermal heating and reclaimed and repurposed interior furnishings. Outside, young plantings of native grasses, perennials, sedums, and succulents, provide a natural, yet modern landscape.

The driveway is of permeable pavers. There is also a green-roofed hen house, a small section of raised vegetable beds and an establishing blackberry and grape tunnel as the family works to provide their own food.

Several gardens will be open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. as part of the East Campus Community Organization (ECCO) tour.

The 1.7-mile loop through the neighborhood features seven home gardens and the Varner Trial Nursery.

In addition to that, there will be outdoor 30-minute classes with Master Gardeners at 1420 N. 37th St. If it’s rainy the sessions will move indoors to the garage.

Times and class topics are:

* 9:30 a.m. Composting for a healthier garden

* 10:30 a.m. Making amazing container gardens

* 11:30 a.m. Perennial selections for your yard

* 12:30 p.m. Tree care

The $5 fee for the tour and classes will be used for tree planting in the neighborhood. Tickets can be purchased at any stop on the tour.

The sites are:

Varner Trial Nursery, 3835 Holdrege St. — This site has been used by UNL Landscape Services as a perennial plant trial area for over 25 years. The nursery is also used as an educational tool for UNL students and the general public. All the plants are labeled and arranged in easily accessible rows.

Paul and Sherri Johnson, The Johnson Guest House, 4027 Holdrege St. — Built in 1918, it was purchased by the Johnsons in 2009. Landscaping was included in the renovation project. The front garden area incorporates a rain garden. The landscape design emphasizes low-maintenance native grasses drought-tolerant plants. Wood mulch is used to reduce weeds and water loss. Landscape boulders that were unearthed from previous owners’ landscaping are reused as borders. The back yard was regraded for proper drainage and reseeded with low-maintenance turf grasses.

Janet Buck and Roger Hansen, 4105 Y St. — Purchased by the Hansens in 2003, the second lot of the property contained only grass, a peony bush and a clump of yucca. The emphasis is on native perennials; herbs and vegetables are interspersed. There also have some fruits, including rhubarb, strawberries and black raspberries. One of the newest areas of the yard is west of the house, where they have planted nut and fruit-bearing shrubs and trees: hazelnuts, gooseberries and an elderberry.

Sue and Larry Dawson, 3750 W St. — In 1998, the family moved into the house at 38th and W streets, where Larry Dawson grew up. In 2011, after losing a maple tree in the front yard, they planted mostly native plants. The yard is a Monarch Waystation and a Pollinator Habitat, with several kinds of milkweeds for the caterpillars. Only organic fertilizers and no pesticides are used in the flowerbeds.

Shirley Anderson, 3710 W St. — The home was purchased in 1992, in part, because of the large trees and birds in the neighborhood. A bald cypress, Japanese mountain ash, magnolia and redbud are in the front garden. There are nine separate small gardens in the front. Grass has been replaced by flowers over time, and a recent count of 40 different flowers bloom at their appointed time. There are three treehouses in the backyard.

Lora Black, 1221 N. 37th St. — In the south garden are plants that attract butterflies and bees. Black Knight buddleia and the Miss Kim lilacs and lantana attract swallowtails and monarchs. Past the arbor at the back of the house, columnar yews stand as a living fence on the back lot line, allowing for nesting and hiding locations for birds and squirrels. Fruit shrubs, such as the black chokeberry and the porcelain berry vine on the gazebo, also provide food for the wildlife. Lilacs, purple spirea, Red Cardinal and Purple Weigela, and a smoke tree make up the natural fence on the west.

Lynn Frankowski and Mark Lynott, 1231 N. 37th St. — Since 1989, the owners have shifted from largely bluegrass lawns to a variety of different shrubs, trees and perennials that are waterwise, can withstand harsh Nebraska weather and provide food, water and shelter for wildlife. The garden is also designed in cooperation with the neighbors on the north and south and is intended to flow between the different yards.

Susan Nichols, 1245 N. 37th St. — Most of the plants have come from friends and neighbors. The lot is surrounded by large shade trees, so you will see hostas, ferns, heuchera, Solomon seal, hellebore, bleeding heart, brunnera, and columbine. Ground covers include vinca, lamb’s ear, sweet woodruff, ivy, pachysandra, ajuga, wild ginger and liriope. The shrubs in the front of the house are boxwood and dwarf oakleaf hydrangea. The garden west of the fence in the back started out as a sun garden, but is now shade.

SANDPOINT — You’ll find them wandering quietly around just after sunrise, when the sun pours over the Cabinet Mountains and begins to bathe the pathways in light.

Their minds are elsewhere, but their hearts are as surely rooted in this place as the flowers and trees that thrive here.

They come because of the beauty and the sweet memories it evokes. Mostly, though, they come for the healing.

“That’s why we built the garden, to give people a place to walk around or just sit and reflect,” said Linda Plaster, one of the volunteer committee members who care for the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health. “It’s such a peaceful place. So many people tell us that they feel the spirit here.”

Now 12 years old, the gardens have matured to the point where trees have to be relocated and, in the case of the centerpiece waterfall, major repairs have had to be made. The water feature, which dominates the top of the gardens and spills into a stream that meanders downhill toward Sand Creek, was riddled with problems last fall when Dave and Tom Bangle of Sandpoint Power Pump came to the rescue.

“Dave was really grateful for the Healing Garden,” said Plaster, adding that Bonner Community Hospice had cared for his wife. “He looked at the waterfall and said, ‘We can fix that.’ And they took care of it all winter.”

Supported by a $7,500 grant from TransCanada Corp., the Bangles volunteered their time this spring to do major renovations to the water feature.

“Now, they’ve added a big, 5-foot well at the bottom to hold enough water to pump all the way back to the top,” said Plaster.

The volunteer effort also included the help of Chris Scarlett of Aspen Ridge Landscaping in Clark Fork, who jumped in to get the stream running again. The Home Depot joined in the cause when it called out of the blue to donate almost three tons of pebbles for the streambed.

Such donations have kept the Healing Garden alive from the beginning, according to Plaster. When the gardens were still in the planning stages, Bonner General Health CEO Sheryl Rickard pledged a loan for the initial construction costs, which was paid back through community donations within two years.

TransCanada was a major donor in those early stages, providing $25,000 to get the gardens up and running. Coldwater Creek, too, weighed in heavily for the project’s success, donating $10,000 to help cover construction and landscaping costs.

“We haven’t forgotten Coldwater Creek,” said Plaster. “We’re so grateful to them and we’re going to miss them in every way you can think of.”

The loss of Coldwater Creek as a large employer and a generous donor to local organizations leaves a gap in the funding network, but with smaller companies like Sandpoint Power Pump and Aspen Ridge Landscaping stepping up, the Healing Garden has managed to keep growing. Add to that the support from larger firms such as TransCanada and the future still has a rosy glow for the project.

“It’s the community that has supported us and given us the money that allowed us to carry on,” the committee member said.

It would be easy to point out that Linda’s son, John Plaster, is the Northern Area Manager for TransCanada and come to the conclusion that the Healing Garden benefits from that familial connection. The truth, however, is that TransCanada has been spreading its largesse far and wide in the community for years now, including buying library books for Northside and Southside elementary schools, purchasing emergency equipment for first responder departments in North Idaho, donating to the construction fund for the Hall Mountain Fire Department, funding Bull Trout restoration through Idaho Fish Game, sending checks to the Bonner Community Food Bank and providing financial support for events such as the Long Bridge Swim and the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club Fishing Derby.

“Our organization and our employees feel very strongly about being active, positive members of the communities we live and work within,” John Plaster said. “There is nothing better than being in a position to give back to the people and communities that partner in helping you be successful — this is our opportunity to make a difference.”

Recognition of the garden’s importance doesn’t stop with grant monies and local support. In a Northwest regional competition for the Sonoma Award, the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health became the only entry ever to receive a unanimous vote for approval when that committee gave it the award a couple of years ago.

“We were in the running with some amazing projects, including Philipsburg, Mont., where they completely redid their whole town,” Linda Plaster said.

Along with the rose gardens, flowerbeds and trees that line the walkways of the Healing Garden, the space is dotted with whimsical sculptures by area artists. The most recent, unveiled last Saturday, is called Marsha the Magnificent Monarch – a 5-foot, painted wood Monarch butterfly sculpture in the Children’s Garden, placed there in the memory of Marsha Ogilvie, former Sandpoint mayor and founder of community mainstays such as Kinderhaven and the Women of Wisdom group.

“Our garden art is just a delight to people,” Plaster said. “That’s what we wanted to create — all of this beauty that smells good and then, you turn a corner and find something that puts a smile on your face.”

Keeping the gardens in good shape — never mind the unexpected costs of major repairs — runs about $20,000 a year. Committee members remain confident that community support will keep the money flowing in to cover that amount. A bigger concern, they say, is attracting new blood to join them in their all-volunteer mission to keep up a space that now touches the hearts of so many.

“We’re planning for the future and looking for volunteers who are going to keep it going when us old gals are gone,” joked Plaster, who pointed out that the current committee members were in their 50s and 60s when the gardens got their start 12 years ago.

“We’re always looking for young people who have a passion for gardens and for making life better for other people.”

To learn more about the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health or to volunteer in the gardens, contact Linda Plaster at (208) 290-6929

For those who haven’t yet visited the space, a video tour by master landscaper, musician and videographer Dan Eskelson can be viewed online at: http://youtu.be/hlVn_JeMvSQ