|
|
Story County Master Gardeners and Central Iowa Water Garden Association are planning their 7th Annual Water Garden Tour. The self-guided tour will be held Saturday and Sunday July 20-21. Maps will be available with program/tickets to guide visitors to each location. Tickets are available now and are $10/adult for each day or $15 for both days, children 4-11 are $2.
There are a total of 25 gardens on this year's tour. 13 gardens are included in the Ames- Boone Tour that will be featured Saturday, July 20, 9:00-6:00. 12 gardens make up the Altoona-Ankeny-NE Des Moines Tour scheduled Sunday, July 21, 9:00-6:00. Gardens featuring night lighting will be open until 10:00pm on Saturday evening only for both tours and will be so noted in the program.
This is the seventh year for this annual tour. Each year the number of tickets purchased has increased dramatically. In 2001 over 800 people took advantage of this summer entertainment feature.
There will be about four directional signs placed at strategic locations for each garden to help find them.
Retail ticket outlets are all Earl May Nursery & Garden Centers in the Ames, Boone, Des Moines areas, all Holub's Nurseries in Ames and Des Moines, and Skycrest Gardens, Lowe's, and Kmart in Ames. Additional Des Moines outlets are Des Moines Feed and Garden Shoppe at 2019 Hubbell Avenue, Aqualand at 6th Ave. and Euclid, and Iowa Outdoor Products at 3200 86th St.. Many other nurseries and garden centers will also be handling the tickets check with your favorite.
Tickets can be purchased by mail order from Cheryl Saylor, 923 Broad Street, Story City IA 50248
Ticket availability on tour days will be available at retailers listed, and at garden sites designated #1 on both tour days. Garden #1 in Ames is that of Monte and Katherine Gibbs, Gibbs Plumbing and Heating, 127 South Bell, Ames (go East on East Lincoln Way till you just about get to I-35. Or, exit I-35 at 111B heading west on Hwy. 30 and take the first exit to S. Dayton Road heading north to Lincoln Way, turn east and drive to Bell Avenue. Bell Avenue runs parallel to the Interstate).
Garden #1 on the Altoona-Ankeny-NE Des Moines Tour is at 3705 SW Court, Ankeny (South of the Ankeny Golf and Country Club and West of the John Deere Plant). The garden is at the home of Barry and Cari Spear.
The Central Iowa Tour of Water Gardens is part of the All Iowa Pond Tour. The first tour in the state is the Eastern Iowa Tour (contact: Jackie Allsup, 319/366-6326 days) on July 14 and it will cover the Vinton area this year, followed by the Central Iowa Tour the following weekend on July 20 and 21. Northern Iowa will have a tour July 28 (contact: Ron Camarata ,319/273-2247 days). So, almost every weekend in July you can be touring water gardens.
For more information about the Central Iowa Pond Tour, call Jamie Beyer, 515/232-2439.