Beautiful weather brightens Grand Island Garden Walk

Story and photos by Senior Contributing Writer Alice Gerard

Warm air, bright sun and a diversity of gardens greeted visitors to the Grand Island Garden Walk on July 12.

One of the gardeners, Diane Pierce, said, “I’ve never done the Garden Walk before. I’ve spent a few years developing my cut flower garden here. I have veggies and lots of herbs, and I do a lot of annuals for cut flower arrangements. I also started seeding and storing and propagating dahlia tubers, so I have a lot of those in the garden, as well.”

Pierce said she enjoys the cut flowers: “I just enjoy the creative aspect of putting together different shapes and colors and flowers, so it’s fun also to be able to grow them.

“I am happy that my garden has filled in to a certain point where I am able to finish all of the fencing and really have it in its full capacity. And I’ve been able to start some things earlier so they’re a little further ahead than normal. More flowers are blooming at this point, so I’m just really excited to be a part of it this year.”

Visitor Nicole Ziots said, “I love the house on Fix. they have a lot of information about their unique plants. I always learn something. They also are very welcoming to the kids.

“I love the houses that have quirky whimsical art, too. So many talented gardeners. We go every year. This year had much fewer participants.”

Barbara Minton said she liked “the creativity ... lots of funky repurposed stuff and art.”

Vincent and Rachel Corulli, along with Tito the Turtle.

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Tito the Turtle, who was found at Vincent and Rachel Corulli’s garden, was one of the more unusual of the garden features. The large turtle oversaw all of the activities in the garden.

“I bought Tito, and a few years back, myself, Jenn Pusatier and Neil Gallagher ran a barbecue event at Beaver Island,” Vincent said. “We had a turtle race to raise money for the event. People were adopting turtles for the turtle race.”

Rachel added, “This is our fifth or sixth year doing (the Garden Walk). We usually get about 120-130 people. We enjoy it. We like meeting all of our neighbors and letting everybody take a look around our yard.”

“We took a couple of years off,” Vincent said. “COVID was one year. We were under construction with our pool, so we didn’t do anything that year. We’re back up and running now. We’ve been doing it for the past two or three years.”

Logan Benjamin, who toured the gardens with his girlfriend, Joelle Randell-McCann, said, “It’s always nice to check out Eco Island and feel that nostalgic, fun-fueled learning feeling again. Places like that always bring back so many memories, and it’s important to see alternative educational centers on this biodiverse island. Every gardener we visited was very knowledgeable and happy to share their secrets to a successful and beautiful garden. The weather was beautiful; driving around the island was nice. I even saw gardens that weren't on the list; more people should join next year."

Justin Karcher said, “I enjoy this every year. We have some very talented gardeners in our community. I especially love getting new ideas for our own yard. It’s a goal of ours to share our yard someday.”

Bob Zielinski commented that he “enjoyed the new participants,” but that “lack of publicity,” which he said is “common to everything on Grand Island (and) almost caused us to miss going around. Nothing on the town website. We might open our gardens next year if we have some notice.”

Suzanne Tomkins said, “I so enjoyed the house in Ferry Village. I have a lot of native plants and got great ideas for more from her garden. She provided a great map with names of plants.”

Gardeners said they were grateful for the opportunity to be part of the event.

Pierce said, “I definitely want to thank Jan Freedman for letting me be part of the Garden Walk this year and telling me about it. I look forward to being able to visit other people’s gardens next year.”

Rachel Corulli added that she wanted to thank “the garden committees and everyone that sponsored the maps. We get a nice little mug out of it. Everybody’s so nice. We talk about dirt and plants. It’s so simple, and you meet your neighbors and it’s a nice day out.”

There was a total of 11 gardens that were open to visitors for this year’s version of the Grand Island Garden Walk.