 |
Katie Wiley feeds imported koi fish at the Dean Fife and Karen Kenkel garden. |
The June 11 event featured five private gardens and a Garden Faire at the Fort Omaha Campus of the Metropolitan Community College. The daylong event supports the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute’s therapeutic, training and research activities benefiting children, youth and adults with developmental disabilities and chronic handicapping conditions.
Next year, the Munroe-Meyer Guild will celebrate its 40th garden walk.
The tour gardens delighted walkers with highlights at every stop including:
- Feeding imported koi fish at the Dean Fife and Karen Kenkel garden.
The grand prize floral arrangement.
- Smelling the yellow sun rose at the Chris Vogt and Julie Larsen garden or Doug and Mary Trenerry’s fruit and vegetable garden, which boasts of garden-produced cherries, pears, apples, concord grapes, raspberries, strawberries, garlic, onions, chives, green and kidney beans, butternut squash, musk melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, Kenebec and sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, oregano, thyme, basil, parsley and dill.
- Standing on the “blue patio” that looks out on more than 80 rose bushes at the Ron and Rozely Penzkowski residence.
- Seeing more than 170 hostas varieties that Raymond and Wanda Wollberg have collected from throughout the region.
- Discovering the Fort Omaha grounds, especially surrounding the historic Crook House.
This year’s Garden Faire, which included a flower show judged by local gardening and floral experts, featured 45 vendors and dozens of volunteers. Entertainment at the faire included the Cabaret Singers, a trio featuring vocalists Keith Allerton and Rebecca Noble, and Noble’s mom, Phyllis Noble on keyboards. Nancy Metzler, a long-time Garden Walk volunteer, hosted the flower show. The Nebraska Florists Society offered a large floral arrangement as one of the prizes as well as provided an engraved crystal vase for “Best of Show.”