For the City Times

Tickets are now available for one of the summer’s signature events in Portage County: The annual garden parade will be held July 14 and 15.

Celebrate the 20th annual parade by touring an English cottage garden, a secret garden, a giving garden, organic farm and an extra helping of whimsical garden art. The parade offers an inside look at four residential properties and an organic farm in the Stevens Point-Custer area:

• Jim and Dee Schickert, 3301 Arbor Vitae Lane, transformed a property filled with overgrown shrubs, wild raspberries and saplings. They added beds for annuals and perennials and more recently, raised beds for vegetables. Visit their secret garden, fenced from the street with barn board fencing, and meet several feathered friends. Homemade garden whimsy makes the most of reused materials.
• Margaret Bau, 1017 Soo Marie Ave., complements her 1940 Cape Cod house with an English style cottage garden – a front yard of flower beds surrounding a white fence and a friendship garden reminiscent of English long gardens along a neighbor’s fence. Hardy junipers provide backyard privacy. Raised beds, climbing plants, garden art and a mix of annuals and perennials, featuring salvias this year, provide color through the season.
• Dave and Pat Strelke, 5551 Ellis St., have a private, wooded yard with many ferns, container plantings and a large pond Dave built. He was inspired by his father’s love of birds and flowers. The pond is home to goldfish, water plants and wild ducks.
• Ronald and Joan Kenowski, 3209 Custer Rd., who grow flowers, shrubs and yard art. Growing up on a dairy farm, Kenowski always admired growing plants. That passion was nurtured at a new home and yard nine years ago. He turned his attention to building yard art. Visitors will see how he uses everything from scrap wood to car parts.
• Whitefeather Organics, 2239 Sky View Rd., Custer, started in 2006. It grows a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, fruit, poultry and pigs, incorporating new crops and exploring new ideas every year. Sustainability is woven throughout every aspect of the farm, from its energy source to building processes. A special feature is a stone pizza oven, where handmade pizza with organic ingredients from the farm are offered on Pizza Nights, including July 15 after the parade.
• Victory Giving Gardens, 100 block of Georgia Street N., was established in 2010 by a group of community members and gardeners who wanted to provide fresh, healthy produce for people in need. All the produce harvested from the Victory Garden is donated to area food pantries and used in school healthy snack programs. Vegetables, herbs, perennial flowers and fruit trees are grown in a garden model reminiscent of war gardens during World Wars I and II by several community partners.

Also returning this year is Art Bloom at Gallery Q, 1108 Main St. Floral arrangements are inspired by original works of art in this special display at the artist cooperative. An artist reception is 5:30-7:30 PM Friday, featuring painter Mary Lee Reineking, whose new work celebrates rural America.

Demonstrations will be held Saturday on straw bale planting, attracting cavity-nesting song birds and leaf casting.

University of Wisconsin Extension Portage County Master Gardener Volunteers co-sponsor the garden parade, and members are available to answer questions at each garden.

The parade is 2 to 7 PM Friday, July 14, and 10 AM to 4 PM Saturday, July 15. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 on parade days at any of the parade sites. They are available at several locations:

In Stevens Point, tickets are for sale at Jung’s Garden Center, 5620 Hwy. 10 East; Stevens Point Area Co-op, 633 Second St.; Gallery Q, 1108 Main St.; and the Master Gardener information table at the Farmers’ Market on the Public Square (Saturdays).

In Plover, tickets are at Village Gardens, 2811 Porter Rd.; and Shulfer’s Sprinklers & Landscaping, 2430 Plover Rd.; In Amherst, tickets are at Landmark Coffee Shop, 102 S. Main St.

The garden parade also features special drawings for a quilt donated by the Piecemakers quilting group and one-of-a kind containers and garden art. Proceeds benefit “Backpacks for Hope,” an organization that helps furnish needed food for young school children.

For more information, contact Portage County UW-Extension, 715-346-1316.