Locals, tourists tour Medina Gardens

MEDINA — Barbara Ann Paulson is a member of a garden club in Green, her home city, which is one of the reasons she attended the Medina County Historical Society Garden Tour on Saturday. "I also needed a good walk, and I'm covering the entire 3 miles of the tour on foot, just to prove I can do it," said Paulson, a senior citizen. Paulson chatted with Barb Ditch, who drove here from Wooster, near Cobblestone Cottage Garden at North Spring Grove and Friendship streets, the 10th of 11 stops on the tour. The cottage was built in 1910. The grounds contain viburnums, Russian sage, ornamental grasses, dwarf lilacs, boxwood and taxus. Ditch is passionate about gardening, though a beginner. Recently she drove 100 miles to Millersburg for a garden tour in that village. "I'm just learning," Ditch said. "I like to get ideas for new plants and landscaping." The 11 gardens included in the tour stretched from North Spring Grove west past Medina Public Square to West Liberty and Medina streets. The northernmost garden was on North Broadway Street near Frederick Street. "The whole town has well-kept yards," said Tracy Weller — who was visiting from Rocky River with his friend Dan Craig — in Medina Community Garden at East Liberty and North Jefferson streets. Craig said he grows beans, beets, tomatoes, onions and shallots, as well as perennial flowers, on his property in Rocky River. He said it's been a good growing season. "We've had enough heat and enough rain," Craig said. Susan Vlcek, a former Medina school board member, and husband Ron Vlcek, said they own a large Montville Township property with plenty of room for vegetables and flowers. They were impressed with Medina Community Garden, which holds 18 plot holder beds for residents. "It's an inspiration to see what can be grown in a compact space," Susan Vlcek said. "This is amazing." The cost of Saturday's self-guided garden tour was $12 a person, with proceeds going to the Medina County Historical Society and the ongoing restorations of the John Smart House Museum on North Elmwood Avenue and the McDowell-Phillips House Museum on South Prospect Street. The other stops along the tour were Kirby Garden on West Friendship, Root Pollinator Gardens on West Liberty, Ramer Garden on South Prospect, Twining-Wiederhold Garden on East Liberty, Baugh Garden on East North Street, Wood Garden on North Jefferson, Baran Garden on North Broadway and Kelley Garden on North Broadway. Bob Sandrick can be reached at areanews@medina-gazette.com.