Courtesy Photos
Geshe’s Garden of Peace & Joy, Health & Happiness by peace garener Geshee Dorjee.
The perennially popular Peace Garden Tour celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and welcomes the public to explore a variety of garden themes and display.
The tour is from 10 a.m to 3 p.m, Saturday, May 23.
One $10 ticket includes admission to any or all nine host gardens. Tickets will be available the day of the event at each Peace Garden, or in advance through The Omni Center. Meet these dedicated Peace Gardeners and enjoy all the beautiful ecology and variety in a casual day of tour. Refreshments will be offered at some gardens and local musicians will be performing at different locations along the tour.
The Omni Peace Gardens Network was established to promote a stewardship of nature and the resulting benefits of providing the beauty of flowers, producing the bounty of food, and establishing environments of peace. The first Peace Gardens Tour was held in 2006. Proceeds benefit Omni Center programs.
Tri Cycle Farms ~ 1705 N. Garland, Fayetteville
Peace Gardener: Don Bennett ~ Tri Cycle Farms is a nonprofit, volunteer-based community farm located in the center of Fayetteville working on issues of food security, sovereignty and sustainability. Current gardens include a 9,000-square-foot annual/perennial diversity garden with 6,000 square feet of deep, wide beds at contour, a 5,000-square-foot keyhole children’s pollinator garden with outdoor classroom and a new 1,200-square-foot market garden being prepared for summer 2015. Our mission is to grow “Community Through Soil” as we steward food awareness, education and empowerment.
Geshe’s Garden of Peace & Joy, Health & Happiness ~ 235 Louise St., Fayetteville
A gorgeous flower graces Geshe’s Garden of Peace & Joy, Health & Happiness.
Peace Gardener: Geshe Dorjee ~ The garden is a resource that brings physical and psychological strength needed by humanity, to achieve love and joy, peace and happiness.
Give Bees A Chance ~ 745 N. Sequoyah Dr., Fayetteville
Peace Gardeners: Ellis Ralph (Bee Keeper) & Judi Neal ~ The garden had an empty back yard three years ago and now has beds filled with iris, Rose of Sharon, herbs, hostas, a few veggies, and many bee- and bird-friendly plants. This is year two with honeybee hives. Sculptor John Sewell carved a dying front-yard oak into “The Spirit of the She Tree,” a spectacular landmark to welcome guests.
Garden of Peace & Tranquility ~ 517 E. Prospect St., Fayetteville
Peace Gardener: Frank Burggraf ~ After a long career as a professional Landscape Architect he retired to Winslow where he constructed a house and garden on 30 acres. A stroke suggested the need to return to Fayetteville and a more modest lifestyle. He created his new “Quickie Garden” from one April to the next, expecting his possible demise and figuring it to be his last garden. Good health and several years have permitted him to develop it with water features, sculpture, decks, terrace, and many favorite plants including iris, hostas and Japanese maples.
Holland Wildflower Farm ~ 290 Oneal Lane, Elkins
Beautiful gardens lush with plants, shade and peace create tranquil settings that promote peace.
Peace Gardeners: Julie & Bob Holland ~ One hundred years of flower planting and the last 30 as an experimental nature garden, Holland Wildflower Farm is a hodgepodge of old-fashioned perennials mixed with Arkansas native trees, shrubs and flowers. A working farm, where their seed business exists alongside their dog boarding business.
Love You To Peaces Garden ~ 232 Adams St., Fayetteville
Peace Gardeners: Susan Shore & Michael Cockram ~ Three towering oaks, 11 Japanese maples, a variety of tree and herbaceous peonies, ornamental grasses and a multitude of other plants call themselves “Love You To Peaces Garden” because they all get along. In the back there’s a plethora of birdbaths and a garden shed hand-built by Michael Cockram. Susan Shore is the plant tamer; her current project is finding a non-violent way of destroying Bermuda grass.
Peace of Our Hearts Garden ~ 1007 S. Morningside Drive, Fayetteville
Peace Gardeners: Ralph Nesson & Kate Conway ~ They find delight in planting and reseeding a myriad of flowers: larkspur, hollyhocks and four o’clocks along the front fence, clematis, zinnias, purple coneflowers, marigolds and peonies in the front yard. In back are snow on the mountain, snapdragons, other flowers they can’t even identify, and a lovely dwarf magnolia and a rosebush by a treehouse for their grandchildren.
No Plant Left Behind Peace Garden ~ 5 E. Davidson St., Fayetteville
No Plant Left Behind Peace Garden by peace gardener Emily Kaitz
Peace Gardener: Emily Kaitz ~ Rock gardens adorn the front yard with chaotic flowering plants and a tiny lawn containing a unicorn sculpture; a flagstone “peace path” leads to the terraced shade gardens in back. Blooming plants may include day lilies, Asiatic lilies, oxalis, hostas, coreopsis, echinacea, daisies, scullcap, larkspur, peonies and roses.
World Peace Wetland Prairie ~ 1121 S. Duncan Ave., Fayetteville
Peace Gardeners: Lauren Hawkins & Aubrey Shepherd and Friends of World Peace Wetland Prairie ~ A sanctuary for human beings and other living things in the upper White River basin, and one of hundreds of peace gardens worldwide, the Wetland Prairie is a remnant of Northwest Arkansas’ once abundant wetland prairie ecosystem.
