2009 Backyard Habitat Tour

Father's Day, Sunday, June 21, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Wachiska’s 20th annual Backyard Habitat Tour will be held on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The public is invited to visit some of Lincoln’s most interesting and diverse wildlife gardens. Homeowners will be on hand to answer questions. Visitors may begin at any location. Maps and brochures will be available at each site. A donation of $5 per person is suggested, and children under 12 are free.

Bright-colored t-shirts in gardening themes will be available for sale along with Wachiska tote bags.

The tour includes the following gardens:

Linda Helton & Larry Robinson, 2020 Pinedale Avenue –

This garden is a single lot inside the Lincoln city limits. To restore shade after pines were removed, a large pergola was built for hostas on the west side of the yard. Clematis and hops grow on the pergola which is decorated with several bird feeders and wren houses. The homeowners collect native and woodland plants, hostas, grasses, and sedges mixed in attractive patterns to work with the various shades of green. Two bird feeders are positioned in the backyard along with a woodpecker feeder in the redbud. Four species of woodpeckers visit the feeder. The front of the house faces south so plants need to be heat tolerant. Daylilies, roses, daisies, lilies, sedums, and favorite grasses and native plants have proven to thrive here.

Lisa & Bob Rauner, 1320 Evergreen Drive –

Backyard landscaping has been enlarged over many years and by several homeowners. The current residents purchased the house in 2004 and have since worked on decreasing the lawn area by planting perennials in mulched beds. They enjoy sitting by the pond watching the fish and listening to the waterfalls that attract birds, dragonflies and occasional ducks. The yard has many trees, bushes, and perennial plantings providing habitat for many forms of wildlife.

Theresa & Gary Hayes, 4410 South 61st Street –

These long-time gardeners selected trees that would complement the architecture of their home and encourage local wildlife to pay a visit. They built a water garden holding 1,000 gallons of water. Gaining experience building the first pond they constructed a pond that holds 5,000 gallons and approximately ten tons of rocks. This project was the most labor intensive yet the most rewarding and is now the home of 15 Koi and goldfish. Every year perennials and shrubs are added through plants received from friends, family, and the annual Spring Affair.

Karen & John Creswell, 2525 Calvert Street –

Three concepts comprise this garden: the arts and crafts movement, the borrowed landscape, and experimentation. The driveway treatment is taken from the Gamble house in Pasadena, California. The movement is represented by a slight Asian influence in some of the gardens and by the English influence in the border garden style. But the garden is American all the way. The intent is that an illusion will be created that the garden exists in a completely natural world independent of city life. A great garden joy is to watch each plant grow and discover all the nuances of its personality. The present experiments are centered on growing cutting roses organically and adding edible landscaping. Birds and other wildlife have loved the latest round of experimenting. Above all, learning about one’s garden should take precedence over the look of the garden.

Truman Berry, 4845 Old Creek Road –

Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie School of Architecture have had a great influence on this house and landscape. When the house was built in 1999, initial landscaping consisted of basic foundation plantings, a dwarf pine, a dwarf columnar blue spruce, a service berry, and hawthorn and locust trees. The back of the house is adjacent to a commons area which prompted the addition of overlooking decks and a small pond and waterfall. Swallows, finches, robins, cardinals, doves, and woodpeckers visit in abundance. Near the first deck is a pond with a waterfall flowing into a pool of lilies and then cascading over a rocky falls to the main pond between the house and upper stone patio. Another cascading waterfall spills into a ten-foot pool that runs through a rocky stream bed into a larger pond. Various grasses and six tannenbaum pines have been planted along the south edge of another deck. The homeowners have taken over the maintenance of a commons area by planting wild cherry, chokecherry, sea green junipers, sand cherries, and whitespire birch. The addition of a pergola, daylilies, viburnums, forsythia, switchgrass, knock-out roses, Taylor junipers, and quaking aspen represent a completed landscape and garden which we share with anyone walking down the commons area path.

Debby & Matt Rye, 2315 Ridge Road –

This family has enjoyed their gardens for more than a decade. A tour of the residence begins with an expansive front yard displaying contoured landscape beds, golden juniper hedges, topiary shapes, colorful roses, perennials, and annuals. Along the west side of the house, the landscape leads to a more private setting. Colorado spruce and numerous large shrubs enclose to form a back yard “room.” Huge topiary spiral junipers tower over a patio displaying many colored containers. Three centurion crabapples along with a contorted weeping snow fountain cherry tree greet visitors to the patio area. Spring lilacs and tropical oleander contribute fragrance. On the east, a rustic limestone path meanders up the hillside. Along the way visitors can enjoy columbine, rhododendrons, hydrangea, and fothergilla, surrounded by a large Scotch pine, weeping white spruce, maples, and a beautiful tricolor beech.

Southwest High School, 7001 South 14th Street (14th and Pine Lake Road) –