38th Annual Willow Garden Tour Directions, Description of Gardens & Map
All directions for the 2023 Willow Garden Club sponsored Garden Tour start at the Willow Community Center, Parks Highway Mile 69. Address: 23557 W. Community Center Circle. Visit gardens IN ANY ORDER from 10:00-4:00 p.m. Saturday, July 22. Coyote Gardens open Saturday 10:00-4:00 and Sunday, July 23, 12:00-4:00. All Gardens will be open all day long on Saturday. Garden owners will NOT close for lunch. New this year Lunch will be provided from Noon to 2 p.m. Look for Willow Garden Tour signs at each stop. Please, no pets on the tour. Restrooms available at the Willow Community Center, Newman’s Hilltop Tesoro Service Station, port-a-potty outside the Townsite Grocery/Tesoro Station. An outdoor restroom is also available at Newman Memorial Park, 1 mile in on Willow Creek Parkway on left.
Les Brake and Jerry Conrad, 17238 Willow-Fishhook Road.
Directions: Drive North from Willow Community Center to mile 71 Parks Highway. Turn right onto Willow-Fishhook Road. Drive 7.5 miles up Willow-Fishhook Road. Watch for Garden Tour sign. Coyote Garden is located on the Right side of road. Coyote Gardens has been featured in numerous national magazines over the year’s. Coyote Gardens just keeps getting better and continues to receive kudos from well- respected garden publications all over the U.S. including featured in Garden Design (Fall 2018). Remember open Saturday 10:00-4:00 and Sunday, 12:00-4:00.
Vicki Stevens, 13771 Front Road
Directions: From Willow Community Center north 1.5 miles on Parks Highway. Turn right (east) on Willow-Fishhook Road, continue 9.8 miles. Watch for a small Fire Station on left. West Front Road will be next left turn. Home is third house on right. If visiting Coyote Gardens, location is 2.4 miles on up Willow-Fishhook. Vicki has formed her vegetable garden by creating terraces on the south-facing steep slope in front of her home of 31-years. The garden is an example of how to manage your landscape for diverse terrain. Over the past 20-plus years, Vicki has brought in by hand more than 500 concrete blocks to create paths between the terraced slopes where her vegetables grow.
Kathy and Bill Mailer, 12374 Haigon Shores Drive
Directions: From the Community Center drive south on the Parks Highway turn west on Long Lake Road. Follow Long Lake Road through three 90-degree turns continuing until you reach Honey Bee Lake Road. Turn left on Honey Bee Lake Road (it turns into Hagion Shores Drive) follow this road 1.4 miles. The Mailer’s House is on the left with the blue roof and cedar siding.
Kathy and Bill began designing their garden shortly after moving to Willow in 2002. While the two of them worked on building their home, they also found time to design an English cottage style garden with curving beds and an emphasis on delphiniums. All delphiniums in the garden are grown from seed obtained from the English Delphinium Society. Roses, peonies, iris, thalictrum, monkshood plus many unusual perennials are interspersed throughout. They built rock walls to add depth and interest. Tall Martagon lilies to the left of the garage welcome you on a path leading to a small vegetable garden and further on to a curving path framed by hostas, astilbes, primroses and Lady’s mantles. The garden encompasses diverse growing conditions from sun to shade. Don’t miss the beautiful greenhouse they designed and built where Kathy starts her delphiniums, vegetables and hundreds of annuals each winter and spring. Also, ask to see the compost area, a very important component of Kathy and Bill’s garden.
LUNCH Stop 12 to 2 pm (please, keep visiting other gardens all day, we’re trying to disperse the lunch crowd.)
Bryan Mills, Northern Spirit Rustics and Chaga Chicks, 9165 N. Blackie Loop Directions: From Willow Community Center drive south 5.1 miles on Parks Highway. Turn left (east) on Twitty Avenue. Go 1/4 mile, curve left onto North Blackie Loop and drive another 1/4 mile. Garden sign posted on right side of road at driveway.
Bryan Mills and daughters Michaela and McCrae farm organically, raising crops and meat. Their crops include different varieties of potatoes, carrots, arugula, lettuce, cabbage, celery, kale, kohlrabi, zucchini, onions, turnips, cucumbers, and many herbs. They also raise chickens — layers for year round egg supply and broilers. Bryan is a carpenter/furniture maker so all of his woodwork is available for sale, as well as the organic produce and eggs. New this year is the “Hot off the Grill” lunch. Plus the family has created a new Scottish Garden with secret path entrance, wood gazebo and pond.
WillowAK Pottery, Carol and Keith Goltz,
25879 W. Southlake DrIve
Directions: From the Community Center drive 1 mile North on the Parks Highway, take a left on Willow Creek Parkway, left on Crystal Lake Road, left on Shirley Lake Road, right on Michigan, left on West Southlake to first driveway on left, about eight minutes from the Community Center.
Carol Goltz’s WillowAK Pottery is a personal studio where functional "pottery with personality" is created and displayed in a lovely crafts shop in a beautiful lakeside setting. Her husband, Keith, keeps a spectacular lawn. Ornaments from garden to Christmas, plus many more exquisite pottery pieces available for sale.
Check Willow Garden Club blog for further updates:
http://willowgardenclub.blogspot.com/
Willow Garden Tour Map
July 22, 2023 10 am - 4 pm
Coyote Gardens, 17238 Willow-Fishhook Road, will be open Saturday, 10-4 pm and Sunday, 12-4 pm
