Take A Walk In A Garden Or Two Or Three Or Four On Saturday

“Water Wow,” a Crystal Lake Garden featured on this year’s annual Garden Walk, a self-guided tour put on by McHenry County Master Gardeners and McHenry County College from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 9. This garden incorporates a stream and mini waterfalls punctuated with aquatic plants, flowering annuals, perennials and grasses. This year’s event includes eight different private gardens as well as the Master Gardener’s demonstration garden at McHenry County College, where there will also be a plant sale.

If you believe it’s important to stop and smell the flowers, there’s no better opportunity than the McHenry County Master Gardeners’ annual Garden Walk on Saturday, July 9.

This year’s day-long tour, held rain or shine, will feature not only flowers, but herbs, vines, ground covers, shade plants and more at eight unique, private gardens in the McHenry County area as well as the always-interesting McHenry County Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden at McHenry County College, 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14 in Crystal Lake.

The MCC Demonstration Garden showcases a variety of garden types including shady nooks, native plantings, a compact vegetable plot, creative container gardening, roses, a butterfly garden and a quilt garden.

Garden Walk participants will also have the opportunity to meet Master Gardeners and ask them questions and purchase plants (while supplies last).

­Co-sponsored by McHenry County College and the McHenry County Master Gardeners with the University of Illinois Extension, the self-guided tour allows participants to view the gardens at their own pace between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Featured gardens will include an Asian-influenced woodland garden with a koi pond; a shady pathway garden through the woods; a sunny hillside garden; and a flower lover’s garden containing more than 120 varieties of daylilies, 65 varieties of antique and heirloom irises, roses, and a variety of annuals and perennials.

Tickets are $12 through June 24 or $17 after June 24. Tickets may be purchased by calling the MCC Registration Office at (815) 455-8588 or at the gardens on the day of the event. Please note, no pets will be allowed on the tour. For more details, visit www.mchenry.edu/gardenwalk.