Mason County Garden Club Tour 2026

It's been several years since I was actually home when the Mason County Garden Club Tour was being held, but this year it all worked out. The stops this year were all in Ludington.

This is a special year for the Club-- it is their 100th Anniversary, and also the 24th Garden Tour they have hosted. Because of this, 4 of the 7 sites were at public locations the club maintains, and one of those had a craft you could make. I may talk about those another day, but I want to focus on the 3 private gardens.

Here is a nice walkway corner. It's edged with the Donkeytail Euphorbia and filled with a petunia planter.

This garden had mostly traditional plantings and groupings, but it was nicely done. The owner mentioned the gardners' war with the urban deer (her fencing was removed for this tour), and ironically enough, I saw a doe and two fawns just around the corner, cruisin' for a snack.

This was my favorite, and it turns out I know the owner. This is just one view of the garden... it's filled with quirky garden art, different levels, and little nooks tucked between buildings and hedges and stuffed with plants.

Now I'll show you a few of my favorite plants, or pairings of plants.

This is another Heuchera- 'Changeling'- that I like a lot.

And here is a beautiful coleus planter. Coleus is a lot like the heuchera- they come in an amazing variety of colors and shapes. But they are annuals. (You may recall I tried to keep some over the winter- I had a little success which you'll see one day soon)

This is a really nice pairing of a coleus and a heuchera. Of course no one seems to keep track of the names of any of these cultivars, which you know I want to know.

Here is, perhaps, my favorite of the day. This is a begonia from a patented series called Space Age, possibly 'Black Hole.' Of course, I can't start playing with begonias unless I magically sprout a greenhouse, or at least more space with good light, to keep them over the winter.

We did not know where the gardens were located until we bought the tickets at the start. I had thought I'd walk as much of the route as I could since the day was not blistering hot. And after seeing the map, I decided I could walk the whole thing. 4.6 miles.

Did a little editing and some cleaning up at home.

Miles walked in 2026: 223.7
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 35.5

See Mason County Garden Club Tour 2018

Mason County Garden Tour 2018- Hosta and...

 
Most of the gardens on the 2018 Mason County Garden Tour made good use of hosta. They are great in shade and fill in the space fast. Tons of sizes and color variations. (And they make a nice salad bar for the deer some years.)

This was a large area near that red barn. Part sun, part shade. Most hosta will tolerate that as well as deep shade. Here we have hosta and hosta. Blue-greens, yellow-greens, edged leaves.



At the next stop, a tree had been ringed with a smaller striped hosta and lots of varieties of coleus.



I liked this one because it has large hosta and small hosta. I'm not sure how well this will work in the long run because the small varieties may get hidden. But they are quite tolerant of being dug up and moved, so for right now this is fine.



There are WAY too many cultivated varieties of hosta for me to start guessing names without tags, but I like how wide the white stripe on the edges of this one is (and it might be 'Patriot.') It sure makes a nice edging.



This garden has the same idea I do- hosta and heuchera. But I would like to contrast them. Here they are a tonal match. Either way, they both do well in shade.



Finally, this is just a really nice display of hosta and hosta. I think I'm counting eight different varieties in this bed. Nicely planted to complement each other and show off the colors.



In other news: I got to do a really fun thing today, but pictures were not allowed. I'll tell you about it one of these days. Other than that, I worked on the Writers' Rendezvous all day.

	See Garden Tour- Planters
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Mason County Garden Tour 2018- Planters

 
More from the Mason County Garden Tour on Sunday.

Planters are always interesting things. They are sort of like flower arranging with live plants because you want the form of the whole thing to be interesting, in addition to the plant material. Here's a variety.

Of course, you don't have to go buy something expensive. Got an old wheelbarrow? Lots of room for mounds of color. I think the plants are Voodoo Star Verbena, a New Guinea impatiens with variegated leaves, African Daisy, and Ipomea (Sweet Potato vine).



Here's a good old fashioned window box, but on a barn, so impressive size was important so they wouldn't look tiny. There were two of these.

I think the plants are a black Ipomea, white geranium, New Guinea impatiens, bacopa, and maybe a super petunia.



This one may be my favorite, just because it's sort of outrageously different. It's a spider plant and a fleece flower, but I love how they work together and create an almost electric mix.



Sometimes you don't need a ton of plant material. This one fiery begonia is a perfect contrast to the cool blue planter. And the leaf shapes are almost mirrored.



This one is pretty traditional, but I love the way the color grades from the geranium through the green coleus with a little black, to the dark coleus with a little green, to the black Ipomea.



This one went for all hot colors. Hot planter, hot New Guinea impatiens, hot Gerbara daisy, hot decoration.



More to come tomorrow.

In other news: I worked all day on the Writers' Rendezvous. It was cooler and that made me really happy!

	See Garden Tour Overview
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Mason County Garden Tour 2018 Overview

 
Yesterday, I drove around to the six locations on this year's Mason County Garden Tour. Each summer there are several local gardens showcased. the ticket money goes to the Garden Club's scholarship fund, so it's all for a good cause.

Today, I'll do overview pics of the six places, but they aren't really very good pictures because all the gardens were too big to get into one frame, and also because I wasn't really thinking about trying to get long shots of each garden. But this way I can tell you about the sites, and then go on with details of plants other days.

My first stop (you can do them in any order) was out in the country. This is a actually a commercial day lily farm, so they had tons to see and I should have gone there last so I could have spent more time. I didn't know how long to allow per site. There were also a number of beds of mixed flowers and beautiful planters.



My next stop was also in the country. This garden was more reasonably residential sized with a pathway and a little bridge and this water feature. This picture doesn't show hardly any of the nice plants. Just poor picture planning on my part.



The next three were all in town. At this one, I tried to take an overview, but mostly managed to get lawn and not so much of the flowers. They had a nice mix of plants with some big succulents and other things that have to be taken inside every winter.



The most unique one on this year's tour (I have done this in the past but not for a few years) was a huge landscaped area in a woodland. Almost all of the space was in shade and it was filled with pathways, little nooks with seating or hammocks, a stream and pond, and a few annuals for color. Lots of use of textures and foliage because of all the shade.



I stayed longest at the next one because it was created by a friend of mine, but I didn't get a good overview picture at all, and I could have because it was mostly around two sides of a city lot. What I did get a picture of is the spiral garden with a birdbath at the center. I liked this one a lot, not only because it's my friend's, but she also likes using plants with colorful foliage and lots of textural variety.



My last stop was again in the country on the way back to my house. This is a large back yard garden with lots of planters and ornamentation and lots of color. However, my best overview shot shows the very nice hosta bed... because you know I like hostas.



I'll start showing you pretty plants tomorrow.

What did I do today? Not much. The heat really gets to me.

	See La Vie en Rose
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