You don’t have to be a professional landscaper to have a beautiful garden or outdoor space to enjoy. Members of the Garden Club of Henderson, Ky., are hoping their fifth biennial Gardens That Swing tour will showcase lovely and unique outdoor settings, and help provide inspiration for others in search of ideas.
The tour features gardens of all sizes, from a small garden that maximizes limited space to larger and more traditional gardens. This tour will also feature outdoor living spaces, which tour chairperson Marietta Peckenpaugh says the club is very excited about, noting that more people are now investing in outdoor kitchens. One such habitat featured on the tour is no bigger than an average-sized indoor room and boasts a television built into a shelter, a dining area, and a bar, while another sits on 42 acres and contains a regulation-sized basketball court, dining area, and hot tub.
When evaluating gardens for the tour, club members look for a takeaway idea or concept that might inspire others, “whether it’s lavish or very simple.
A garden selected for the tour, says Peckenpaugh, “doesn’t have to be a princely garden, but it’s got to have an idea.
The purpose of the Garden Club of Henderson, founded in 1925, is the preservation of beauty in Henderson. The club’s work can be seen on a stroll through Henderson’s Central Park, and it’s also responsible for the new flagpoles and plantings at the north and south entrances to the city. While the membership presently consists mostly of women, the club welcomes and encourages men with an interest in gardening to join its ranks. Members meet on the first Thursday of each month for some kind of horticultural exchange, whether it’s a session on beneficial bugs or a field trip to learn about unique gardens.
The tour is presented in conjunction with the annual W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival and takes place on the first day of the festival, alongside the Taste of Henderson Barbecue event in Central Park, where tickets for the tour will be on sale that day. This year’s event will be held June 7.
We are proud to do this with the blues festival,” says Peckenpaugh. “We love the fact that we have people here for the festival and we can show off one more aspect of Henderson.
For more information on the Garden Club of Henderson, visit gardenclubhenderson.org.
