ESCONDIDO: Tour participants see three garden sanctuaries

Event raised money for the Escondido History Center

By ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer | Saturday, April 19, 2008 9:54 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- As cars whizzed along Felicita Road on Saturday, dozens of visitors stepped off the pavement and into a woody haven where the sounds of flowing water, chirping birds and expressions of wonder blocked the outside world.

Escondido resident Marjorie Smith and her sister Shirley Clem of Laguna Beach were among more than 200 people who strolled a 2-acre residential property next to Felicita Park. Owned by Gary and Mary Walker, the site was one of three stops on the second annual Escondido Spring Garden Tour.

"It's very adventurous, very wild," Smith said about the Walkers' property, which the couple spent 10 years turning into a classic woodland, riparian garden. "That's the nice thing about garden tours ---- every garden is different, and it tells a different story."

A fundraiser for the Escondido History Center Endowment Foundation, the garden tour offered the public a rare chance to walk through privately owned gardens that normally are off limits to the public.

Mariann Putnam's rose garden and Jennifer Firmin's secluded garden, both in east Escondido, were other tour stops.

Participants marveled over what they saw, took photos, made mental comparisons to their own home gardens and traded green-thumb tips with property owners.

Gary Walker said his property, which has been featured in numerous magazines, resembled "an Amazon rain forest with trees laying everywhere" when he and his wife bought their home.

The couple's garden now features six outdoor "rooms," or seating areas, connected by meandering trails. Towering stands of old trees ---- including oak, sycamore, willow and palms ---- provide a heavy canopy of shade, and a natural creek winding through the property boasts four bridges, six waterfalls and numerous fountains.

Rock steps, rustic archways, statuary showing various levels of wear, boulders, birdhouses and too many varieties of flowers to count are some of the other focal points.

"It's an enchanted garden," Escondido resident Allene Robinson said after she and her husband, Jim, walked through. "There's so much ---- it's like it's planned, but I think it looks very natural."

Visitors to Putnam's Chaparral Lane home marveled over her garden's 350 rose bushes punctuated by dozens of birdhouses, gnomes and other special touches. An on-site well provides water for the property.

"I have never seen so many different varieties in one place," Escondido resident Helene Brookman said as she and two friends walked among blooms that ranged in size from tiny, candy-striped Patriot roses to several varieties bearing flowers that were more than 7 inches in diameter. "Just look at all the colors."

Putnam said she spends four to 10 hours a day toiling in the dirt outside the home that she and her husband, David, bought as a fixer-upper about three years ago.

"There's something about planting something yourself and nurturing it and the expectation of what it's going to be," Mariann Putnam said. "You get hooked on it."

Firmin, whose Summit Trail garden includes multiple linear planting beds filled with flowers of all types and colors, including many orchids, said she suspects she got her love of gardening from her father, who used to work for the county agricultural department.

Escondido resident Cathrine Laguna, who saw the garden tour as a nice way to spend time with her 21-year-old daughter, Caprice Hidalgo, said the event was well worth the time and the $15 cost of participating.

"It's really neat because they're very different," Laguna said about the showcase gardens. "And they're each very beautiful in their own way."

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.