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Published Thursday, October 18, 2012 in Opinion

Editorial

Deer are beautiful animals, but they also are a pain for many of us.

Deer are plentiful all over our county and throughout Georgia. They can play havoc with gardens and landscaping even in populated subdivisions.

Even more serious is the fact deer are commonplace along our streets and highways, and too often we hear about motorists hitting deer who dart out in front of vehicles.

Just this week, Georgia wildlife and public safety officials urged drivers to be on the lookout for deer now that fall has arrived.

Mating season has begun, and male deer are searching for females. They are on the move, and deer are most active at dusk and dawn. These are very difficult times for motorists to see deer. With the upcoming time change on Nov. 4, more and more motorists will be traveling to and from work during the times of dusk and dawn.

Don’t think deer are roaming just in rural or non-populated areas of the countryside. They are everywhere. We have heard of people who have hit deer in subdivisions in our county. One motorist told of being stopped at a stop sign in a subdivision momentarily when a deer darted across the road and sideswiped the stopped automobile.

If you drive along many of our busy highways, particularly at night, you will see deer grazing near the highway shoulders and sometimes in the medians.

There are about 50,000 collisions each year involving cars and deer in Georgia.

We all need to heed this warning to be alert for deer this time of the year.

Keep you eyes on the road and be alert for deer along the sides of the road. If you see one deer safely cross in front of you, don’t let down your guard. They often move in small groups. If one deer crosses the road, there are likely others nearby.

Drive carefully.

Comment On This Story

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Deer Thinning Please

10/18/2012

Link To This Comment

Can we get a deer thinning in the Summergrove/White Oak area? I’ve counted as meany as ten in a pack roaming thorugh my yard this year.

Posted by Eaten out of house and home at 1:32 PM

Deer

10/18/2012

Link To This Comment

I was on my way home from Walmart after buying my hunting license and hit a deer and totaled our newly accuired Honda Accord! Keep your eyes open wide for deer near the roadside and Slow Down immediately when you see one!

Posted by joel at 12:05 PM

© 2011 The Newnan Times-Herald Inc., Newnan, Georgia. Any unauthorized use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.

Clark County

Tsugawa Nursery: 410 E. Scott Ave., Woodland. Events are free unless noted. * Register: Tsugawa Nursery or 360-225-8750.

Bonsai — Strange and Unique: 11 a.m. Oct. 20. Bonsai experts will be on hand to show interesting and unique bonsai, including indoor bonsai, and what to do to make them thrive.

Topiary Workshop:11 a.m. Oct. 27. Bring your garden gloves and learn how to create and maintain spiral topiary. $70, includes supplies. Registration required.

Shorty’s Garden and Home: 10006 Mill Plain Blvd. Events are free unless noted. * Register: 360-892-7880 or Shorty’s Gardening and Home.

Landscaping with Drought-Tolerant Plants: 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 20. Join Marianne Filbert as she discusses trees, shrubs and perennials that beat the heat and require very little water.

Harvest Wreaths: 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 20. Join Kellie Sinclair in designing and creating your own fall-themed mini gourd wreath. $25 covers all the assembly, gourds and parts.

Mini-Gardening: 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 21. Join the staff in this hands-on class in building, designing and planting miniature gardens. $15 fee is credited toward purchase of a container or the provided cedar box for planting.

Attracting Birds to Your Sustainable Landscape: 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 30 at Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St. Experts from the Audubon Society of Portland talk about things you can do to create a place where the birds will want to come. Each participant will also leave with a bag of nesting materials designed to provide an additional lure for birds. * For additional information, contact Erika Johnson at 397-6060 ext 5738. Register at Brown Paper Tickets.

Annual Chrysanthemum Show: Noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 3 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 4. Presentation by Sogetsu School of Ikebana at 2 p.m. Nov. 3. Plants and blooms will be for sale at the Clark Public Utilities Building Community Room, 1200 Fort Vancouver Way. Show entries must be submitted from 1 to 6 p.m. Nov. 2. Show admission is free.

NatureScaping presents Gardening with Pets: 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 20, Garden Delights Farm, 11104 N.E. 149th St., Brush Prairie. Learn about pet-friendly plants and those to avoid. Fee: $15. * Register: info@naturescaping.org.

Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens meeting: 1 p.m. Oct. 30, 115 South Pekin Road, Woodland. General meeting and election of officers. Refreshments will be served. * 360-606-7359 or woodlandlilacgardens@gmail.com.

Camas-Washougal Community Garden Club: 1 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month, Camas Community Center, 1817 S.E. Seventh Ave., Camas. *360-210-8012.

Fort Vancouver Rose Society meeting:7 to 9 p.m. first Thursday of the month, Clark County Genealogy Annex, 7165 Grand Blvd. Free. * 360-696-1331.

Vancouveria Garden Club: 12:30 to 3 p.m. third Tuesday of each month, Covington House, 4201 Main St. * 360-936-6515.

Vancouver Chrysanthemum Society: 2:30 p.m. third Mondays, Heritage Farm, 1919 N.E. 78th St. * 360-896-7278.

Send information to homeandgarden@columbian.com.

The processes by which the gardens are selected is not a short one by any means, according to Jane Villa-Lobos, publicity director for the club, and former chair of the tour.

It begins with the “Selection of the Month,” a club program that honors a home with outstanding landscaping.

“We have a program called Selection of the Month, which is curb appeal, so essentially it’s just the front yard,” Villa-Lobos said. “We investigate those first to see if the whole yard is diverse and worthy of the tour. We got a few this year from that list.”

Board members were asked to scout for yards in their neighborhoods while they’re on their walks or driving by. A few candidates were offered, but none made the cut. Finally, Tour co-chairs Doreen Hodge and Marion Handschur, along with Villa-Lobos and Judith Davies, searched the streets of Flagler County for candidates.

“We do drive the streets,” Villa-Lobos said. “I always have my eyes peeled for yards that have curb appeal and could possibly be on the selection for yard of the month and then on the list for garden tour.

“The garden tour is different because it involves the complete yard.”

Eight homes in Palm Coast were selected for the tour, but two had to drop out. Villa-Lobos stressed the club encompasses more than just Palm Coast, and members search other areas for tour candidates. Two years ago, two homes on the tour were in Flagler Beach.

“We scoured Flagler Beach,” Villa-Lobos said. “We’re a garden club that is just located in Palm Coast. That’s why it’s called ‘at Palm Coast,’ we include Flagler Beach, Bunnell and the county. I thought it would be nice to include some gardens at Flagler Beach but we didn’t see any this time.”

The rules only allow repeats of homes after five years of first appearing in the tour.

The selections this year include a lot on a golf course, a lakeside lot, a lot near Graham Swamp, and yards featuring screened in gardens and landscaped courtyards. Membership in the garden club is not required; this year three of the yards are owned by members.

Art and Tomiko Taylor are not club members but their yard was honored as a Selection of the Month in 2010. The Taylors have a yard that combined preplanning and design with serendipitous touch affected by how some of their plants have reproduced.

They moved to Palm Coast in 2001 from Connecticut, where they had 11 acres with three of those landscaped. This is their eighth year at their current home.

Art planned for the initial landscaping by having the builders leave the grass out of the islands he’d marked out in the front and side of the house. Unsatisfied with the St. Augustine grass, he replaced it with Empire Zoysia “20 pieces at a time,” he said.

“It isn’t all completely planned,” Art said. “If seeds fall off a plant and start to grow, we let it grow and then find another place to put it.”

To the right of the front door there is a pocket garden with a dry stone river bed with a distinctly Asian theme, Japanese maple and weeping holly. Tomiko has also created a few informal bonsai in this garden. The Taylors keep up a vigilant pruning program in all the gardens to keep everything in proportion.

Keeping the gardens tended require quite a bit of work.

“It’s as much work to care for this little quarter acre than it was to care for 11 acres in Connecticut,” Art said. “We have more plants in the landscape here.”

Art said he needs to patrol the property every day for fire ants, and estimated that Tomiko spends 20 hours a week maintaining the gardens.

“Most of the time I spend is pulling weeds,” Tomiko said as she uprooted a small nutsedge. “I don’t do it every day, but when I do I love the fresh air, I come outside to look around and say ‘oh, here’s a weed’ and then I pull another one, and in the meantime I’ve been out an hour.”

For the Taylors, the pleasure of the garden is being outside to enjoy it.

“Some people come down to Florida and spend all day in the house,” Art said.

If you go

WHAT: Seventh Biennial Garden Tour

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 20

DETAILS: The group will tour six local gardens.

COST: Tickets are $10 and are available at Aimee’s Hallmark, Palm Harbor Shopping Village; Gospel Gardens, 1803 Old Moody Blvd.; Hammock Gardens, 5208 N. Oceanshore Blvd.; and NatureScapes Garden Center, 313 Old Brick Road.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — A Washington, D.C.-based small business dedicated to providing stable jobs for veterans has doubled its employee count and achieved profitability in its first year of business. Vetcorps Landscaping, a full-service professional landscaping company, employs American military veterans who provide high quality landscape design, installation and maintenance services. In addition to providing Veterans with stable employment, a portion of the company’s profits are donated to organizations that assist veterans and their families.

Vetcorps was launched in January by U.S. Navy veterans Chris McDonald and Matt Proietta, along with horticulture expert, professional landscaper and entrepreneur John Yori. Vetcorps has since hired three full-time military veterans, including two U.S. Marine Corps veterans and a U.S. Navy veteran with more than 20 years of service, and also provided seasonal summer work for a U.S. Navy veteran and an Army ROTC cadet.

“We are very pleased that, despite record-breaking drought this year, Vetcorps was able to achieve strong growth,” McDonald said. “We are grateful to the more than 40 residential and commercial clients who have allowed us to serve them and, in turn, provide jobs and support to those who have bravely served our country.”

Vetcorps’ services include landscape design and installation, fountains and waterscapes, irrigation systems, lawn and garden maintenance, outdoor lighting, special events landscaping, stonework, rooftops, and container gardens.

Even as summer ends, the company anticipates busy months ahead providing autumn leaf collection, outdoor holiday decoration, and Christmas tree delivery services throughout the Washington region.

“Our goal going into 2013 is to double our workload and, again, to double our workforce so we can continue to combat the high unemployment rate among returning veterans,” Proietta said. “As revenue increases, we will be able to donate even more time and money to charitable organizations supporting veterans and their families.”

Vetcorps Landscaping is also sponsoring a Military Appreciation Night with Tel’Veh Cafe and Wine Bar, 401 Massachusetts Ave. NW. in Washington, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Nov. 11 in order to gather much needed items for the wounded troops recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Vetcorps invites the general public, its clients and active/retired/separated members of the military to attend. Individuals who donate any or several of the requested items from the American Red Cross Wish List (which can be viewed at www.vetcorpslandscaping.com) will receive a wrist band entitling them to specially discounted prices on beer, wine and drinks provided by the proprietor of Tel’Veh. A representative of the American Red Cross will also be present.

About Vetcorps Landscaping

Established by American veterans and experienced horticulturalists and landscape designers, Vetcorps Landscaping is a full service, professional landscaping company providing high quality design, installation and maintenance for residential and commercial clients in the Washington, D.C., region. Vetcorps is committed to employing America’s heroes and contributing a portion of its profits to organizations that assist veterans and their families. To learn more about Vetcorps and its services, visit vetcorpslandscaping.com.

Media Contact: Erin Lawley, 615-946-9914, erin@lovell.com

SOURCE Vetcorps Landscaping

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — A Washington, D.C.-based small business dedicated to providing stable jobs for veterans has doubled its employee count and achieved profitability in its first year of business. Vetcorps Landscaping, a full-service professional landscaping company, employs American military veterans who provide high quality landscape design, installation and maintenance services. In addition to providing Veterans with stable employment, a portion of the company’s profits are donated to organizations that assist veterans and their families.

Vetcorps was launched in January by U.S. Navy veterans Chris McDonald and Matt Proietta, along with horticulture expert, professional landscaper and entrepreneur John Yori. Vetcorps has since hired three full-time military veterans, including two U.S. Marine Corps veterans and a U.S. Navy veteran with more than 20 years of service, and also provided seasonal summer work for a U.S. Navy veteran and an Army ROTC cadet.

“We are very pleased that, despite record-breaking drought this year, Vetcorps was able to achieve strong growth,” McDonald said. “We are grateful to the more than 40 residential and commercial clients who have allowed us to serve them and, in turn, provide jobs and support to those who have bravely served our country.”

Vetcorps’ services include landscape design and installation, fountains and waterscapes, irrigation systems, lawn and garden maintenance, outdoor lighting, special events landscaping, stonework, rooftops, and container gardens.

Even as summer ends, the company anticipates busy months ahead providing autumn leaf collection, outdoor holiday decoration, and Christmas tree delivery services throughout the Washington region.

“Our goal going into 2013 is to double our workload and, again, to double our workforce so we can continue to combat the high unemployment rate among returning veterans,” Proietta said. “As revenue increases, we will be able to donate even more time and money to charitable organizations supporting veterans and their families.”

Vetcorps Landscaping is also sponsoring a Military Appreciation Night with Tel’Veh Cafe and Wine Bar, 401 Massachusetts Ave. NW. in Washington, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Nov. 11 in order to gather much needed items for the wounded troops recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Vetcorps invites the general public, its clients and active/retired/separated members of the military to attend. Individuals who donate any or several of the requested items from the American Red Cross Wish List (which can be viewed at www.vetcorpslandscaping.com) will receive a wrist band entitling them to specially discounted prices on beer, wine and drinks provided by the proprietor of Tel’Veh. A representative of the American Red Cross will also be present.

About Vetcorps Landscaping

Established by American veterans and experienced horticulturalists and landscape designers, Vetcorps Landscaping is a full service, professional landscaping company providing high quality design, installation and maintenance for residential and commercial clients in the Washington, D.C., region. Vetcorps is committed to employing America’s heroes and contributing a portion of its profits to organizations that assist veterans and their families. To learn more about Vetcorps and its services, visit vetcorpslandscaping.com.

Media Contact: Erin Lawley, 615-946-9914, erin@lovell.com

SOURCE Vetcorps Landscaping

Award-winning author-speaker Greg Grant will be in Linden Tuesday, Oct. 16, to give a free talk about gardening with native plants.

The event will begin 6:30 p.m. at the Cass County Sheriff’s Training Facility east of Linden on County Road 1913. The doors will open at 6 p.m. for registration. There is no charge to attend.

The Caddo Wildflower Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas will host Grant as part of its upcoming Texas Native Plant Week celebration.

Grant’s presentation will be “Gardening Naturally with Native Plants.”

“Mr. Grant’s entertaining talks have delighted hundreds of audiences over the years,” said event chairman and chapter member Belinda McCoy McLaughlin.

“You definitely don’t want to miss one of Greg’s talks,” she said. “He will entertain you and educate you, all at the same time. Plus, he’ll be speaking on a topic that’s becoming more and more important in today’s world — using our own native plants in our landscapes.”

Native plants in the home landscape save water, require less maintenance and limit the need for herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Hardier and more disease-resistant than imported or exotic species, natives also provide much-needed habitat for such wildlife as butterflies and birds, she said.

“With more than 5,000 species of plants native to Texas, variety is never-ending,” McLaughlin said. “And with its abundant rainfall, acid soils and relatively temperate climate, East Texas is home to more than 2,500 species of natives.”

The Texas Legislature has designated Oct. 14-20 this year as Native Plant Week. Local communities throughout Texas are planning events for the public to foster the use of native plants in the landscape.

“Texas Native Plant Week comes at the perfect time of year to start a native garden,” McLaughlin said. “As temperatures cool slightly and rainfall increases, native plants will have the optimal conditions to settle in and grow deep roots throughout winter. Those deep roots are that help native plants survive the hot summers.”

Grant, a seventh-generation Texan who grew up in Longview and now lives on ancestral land in Arcadia, is the author of “Texas Fruit and Vegetable Gardening” and “In Greg’s Garden — A Pineywoods Perspective on Gardening, Nature, and Family,” and he is co-author of three books: “Heirloom Gardening in the South — Yesterday’s Plants for Today’s Gardens,” “Texas Home Landscaping” and “The Southern Heirloom Garden.”

He also writes “In Greg’s Garden” column for Texas Gardener magazine, writes a regular feature for Neil Sperry’s Gardens magazine and writes a monthly gardening blog for Arbor Gate Nursery (aborgate.com).

Area homeowners and gardeners may learn more about native Texas plants by visiting the regular meetings of the Caddo Chapter of the Native Plant Society.

Meetings are at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month at Horne Enterprise Texas Highway 77 East at Texas Highway 43, in Atlanta.

For information, call McLaughlin at 903-424-7724 or Kay Lowery at 903-835-5532.

The Oct. 16 event will include door prizes, refreshments and vendors.

Palm Beach has been reinventing itself as a unique resort outpost since the Spanish ship Providencia was wrecked off the Florida coast in 1878.

Pioneers planted the coconuts bound for European markets and began the transformation from a swampy barrier island with a limited array of native vegetation into a lush tropical hideaway.

Along the way, James Sturrock entered the scene and founded Boynton Landscape Co. in 1927. He began working with the island’s elite property owners to plant their winter retreats thick with coconut palms, hibiscus, bougainvillea and other stunning specimens from the Caribbean and South Pacific.

Now celebrating the company’s 85th anniversary, Sturrock’s grandson – representing the third generation ownership of the company – and his staff are looking back over the grand scope of the world-class retreat that has become Palm Beach.

Their message: “Palm Beach didn’t just happen on its own.”

Boynton – the company is actually based in West Palm Beach but Sturrock just liked the name – works from Jupiter Island all the way down to Delray Beach and points south. But over the years it has focused on Palm Beach, including recent projects on the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course, the new Publix and the Palm Beach Country Club.

It bills itself as a company that has done projects from the Treasure Coast to the Keys, with an occasional detour to the Bahamas.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever done a job in Boynton Beach, but we’ve had our nurseries there for years,” said Robert Horner Jr., Sturrock’s grandson and company president.

The Boynton team has watched the evolution of Palm Beach over the years and helped sculpt the island’s landscape according to the tastes of each generation of residents. The fabulous postcard gardens of the 1920s and 1930s have given way to simpler designs that also take advantage of tighter spaces, since homes have gotten larger.

“Everyone is going back to a simpler pallet, although our projects are very diverse,” said Charles Parker, vice president. “We use a lot of the standards: royal palms, live oaks, mahoganies. But there are also people looking for exotics. Landscape architects will find a piece they love and we build the landscape around that.”

A major trend in Palm Beach landscaping is the appearance of date palms, which are more typical of arid desert landscapes.

“Over the last year they’ve become very popular,” Horner said. “One reason is that there was a desire to enhance the landscape appearance instead of just having coconut palms or royal palms. And also the market out in Arizona and California opened up immensely, and several companies started marketing these palms geared to Florida.”

“You don’t see a lot of these palms on the ocean front in Palm Beach because they can’t survive. But the Medjool date palms are hardy and they work well. It’s the Canary date palms that are difficult – the attrition rate on those is 30 percent.”

Like most other businesses these days, landscaping is split up into specialties. Boynton does installation and maintenance, among other things, but they are not known as a landscape design company. Instead, the staff works with landscape architects to implement the grand plan.

Among them is Jorge Sanchez of the Palm Beach design firm of Sanchez Maddux. Sanchez said the first date palm appeared in Palm Beach about 25 years ago and “now they’re in front yards all over town.

“We’re using them in a lot of projects. But we’re of the opinion that although they’re nice, other things shouldn’t be excluded, like shade trees.

“Coconut palms have been a staple and ficus was the other signature tree in Palm Beach. But now ficus has gone out of favor. If you looked at a garden in Palm Beach years ago it was a ficus hedge, ficus trees, coconut palms and a row of royal palms. Add some gardenias and that was about it.”

For more than a century, Jamaica tall coconut trees graced Palm Beach and other parts of coastal South Florida. But lethal yellowing disease struck them in the 1970s and 1980s and wiped most of them out. They have been replaced by other varieties, including the MayPan.

Another casualty of modern landscaping: fruit trees.

“Canker wiped a lot of citrus out,” said Horner, “and it’s just so hard to maintain. The square footage of people’s gardens has diminished greatly in order to allow for a larger footprint of the house. There’s nothing wrong with that because it saves water.”

Black olive trees are scarce these days, not only in Palm Beach but in South Florida generally. “Nobody wants them on their property because they’re such a mess,” Horner said.

The native plant movement hasn’t totally passed Palm Beach by, but Horner said the “so-called native trend isn’t realistic. If you used all native plants, it wouldn’t be a big enough pallet. It’s not as aesthetic as you would like it to be.

“So what’s happening is that people are trying to consolidate their landscaping and keep it water friendly with underground irrigation. But they’re still trying to get what they want in terms of a manicured or tropical look.”

Sturrock came to Florida from Scotland in 1924 and founded Boynton Landscape three years later. But state records are murky going back that far, and Horner isn’t sure there’s an exact date. But he does know that 85 years ago, his grandfather teamed up with an attorney who helped him incorporate the business.

“They started out working it slow,” he said. “My grandfather had a pickup truck and they built it up. He was a rare combination of entrepreneur and horticultural genius. It’s hard to find that mix anymore these days.”

Later, Sturrock and his family bought two properties on Parker Avenue in West Palm Beach. Boynton Landscape still has its office in one of the old homes just south of Southern Boulevard, and the property stretches back toward Dreher Park. The company now has about 50 employees.

Horner is counting down to Boynton’s 90th and 95th anniversary. “I’d like to see this thing hit the 100-year mark,” he said. “And after that I hope it just keeps on going.”

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Shunmyo Masuno is regarded as Japan’s leading garden designer and its most highly acclaimed landscape architect. A professor at Tama Art University, he is also a Zen Buddhist monk and still presides over daily ceremonies at the Kenkohji Temple in Yokohama where he is the head priest.

Zen Gardens: The Complete Works Of Shunmyo Masuno – By Mira Locher ISBN: 978-4-8053- 1194-3 Available at Asia Books, 1,250 baht

Masuno became famous for the unique ability he displays in blending strikingly contemporary elements with his country’s traditional design vernacular. The most essential elements in his garden designs are how the land is divided up and the relationship created between the garden proper and any adjoining architecture.

Whatever project he works is imbued with his Buddhist outlook on life and are often considered especially spiritual places in which the mind can comfortably dwell.

Masuno’s fame has spread beyond the borders of his native land and last year he received his first commission in the US, for a private residence in New York City.

Zen Gardens is the first complete retrospective of Masuno’s work to be published in English.

The author has compiled photographs of 37 major gardens created by Masuno for the book. The gardens come in many different types and settings: traditional and contemporary, urban and rural, occupying public spaces and adorning private residences, as well as temples, offices, hotels, college campuses and guesthouses.

Divided in three main sections – Traditional Gardens, Modern Gardens and Gardens Outside Japan – this 224-page tome features more than 400 drawings and colour photographs. There is also an appendix on the design and construction process that provides several useful tips and techniques for the creation of Zen gardens.

Ripples of raked pea gravel around softly weathered rocks set in beds of thick ground cover create an atmosphere of serenity.

In a combination of traditional and contemporary styles, stepping-stones and a bridge of two stone ‘planks’ lead to the entrance of a room.

Multiple layers—a long flat stone, a bed of small rocks, large primary rocks, a mound with thick ground cover, and trees for verticality —create a sense of great spatial depth in the small garden.

A straight path of rectangular stepping-stones crosses a rock stream with a gently arching granite slab.

Two elements, rock and bamboo, are combined to create a serene garden scene in the genkan (entrance area).

Bangkok Post online classifieds

Try buying selling goods and properties 24/7 in our classifieds which has high purchasing power local expatriate audience from within Thailand and around the world.

About the author

Writer: Sukhumaporn Laiyok
Position: Reporter

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about immigration from the Rose Garden.
(KEVIN LAMARQUE – REUTERS)

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

No matter what your party affiliation,

White House Fall Garden Tours are open to you!

If you have ever watched the president give a speech from the rose garden just to see what was going on with the landscaping, then these tours are for you. Stops on the tours, which usually occur only twice a year in the spring and fall, feature the Rose Garden as well as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden and the first lady’s famed kitchen garden.

Dates for the fall tours are Oct. 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Oct. 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

No matter what time you want to go, plan to be at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion before 8 a.m. the day of the tour to secure a timed ticket. The tickets are free and the only way to get one is to stand in line as they are distributed, one per person beginning at 8 a.m.

Want more gardens? Check out our best gardens list and our Washington gardens photo gallery.