Summer Garden Tours in Columbus with GardenComm

 July 12 Tours with GardenComm in Columbus, OH

Access to the backyard among an oasis of green

We met early on, expecting another day with temperatures in the '90s. Sessions Village is a gated community in Bexley, a suburb of Columbus. The architecture, featuring stone, cobblestone, brick, and other materials, felt old and timeless. A strong garden club presence helped the residents plan and maintain their gardens. Hedge and espalier trimming was contracted to a pruning specialist, but most of the other designs and plantings were the work of the homeowners. 

Stone, gates, plants, and ponds were all a part of this community. 

Several of the homes featured water gardens

Espaliered pears ran the length of outdoor walls

Formal gardens highlighted patio spaces featuring hydrangeas and roses

A Japanese maple and hosta frame a beautiful pond and waterfall

A stop at another area garden featured a wall-enclosed backyard. But the highlight of the stop was hearing from Dr. Allen Armitage about how storytelling enhances our social and other media postings. 

Dr. Armitage connects with GardenComm

Mezzacello is an urban farm that embraces science, robotics, plants, ponds, and animals to teach STEM to students in the area. The city corner lot uses computers, energy-creating turbines, and tools for students to create and maintain the farming space. 

A passion for teaching 

A chicken coop from found materials

A garden with sheds housing rabbits, ducks, and chickens

Gardens for pollinators

Showing us various uses for the pond, including water filtration

Our last stop of the day was the Franklin Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Stunning displays, a Chihuly Glass installation, and remarkable Lego creations were around every corner. A storm kept me from seeing the Botanical Gardens outside, leaving me reason to revisit.

I highly recommend a visit

Summer heat-loving annuals 

Indoor wall of Philodendron Brasil

Bonsai show 

Rooftop plaza

View from the plaza

Orange tree, lantana, dipladenia

Life-sized Lego sculpture

One of 18 Chihuly glass sculptures

Lovely sight and sound of water movement

Indoor pond

After a day full of fun, I headed back to get ready for Cultivate '25 tomorrow, which I will attend with my Valley View Farms workmates. 

Thank you to GardenComm for the tours, meal arrangements, and leadership. Also, thanks to our sponsors Proven Winners Color Choice shrubs, Twixwood Nursery, Dramm, Upshoot Gardens, and The Mid-Ohio Farm Collective. 

 July 10-11, 2025 Cultivate'25 and GardenComm Mega Connect

Some of the tour group for GardenComm, day 1

Decades ago, I joined Garden Writers, now known as GardenComm, a group of garden writers and communicators who network, educate, and support one another in sharing the joys of gardening. AmericanHort's Cultivate '25 is a national trade show and educational event held in Columbus, Ohio, designed to support garden centers, growers, garden educators, and other professionals in the horticultural industry. This year, the organizations' annual meetings overlapped, and I was able to attend tours, events, educational classes, plant trials, and a trade show, taking advantage of opportunities by both groups.

I drove with my friend, Kathy Jentz, a garden podcaster, publisher, magazine editor, author, and fellow garden communicator. We stopped at Dawes Arboretum, a two-thousand-acre public garden in Newark, Ohio. Japanese gardens, sample vegetable gardens, beautiful trees, and perennial plantings were accessible and beautiful. Here are a few photos of the area. 

The following morning, we got up early to view the Chadwick Arboretum on The Ohio State University campus. Trials of annuals and display gardens of perennials were outside the horticulture building, which we were able to photograph and judge for beauty and adaptability in a home garden. 

Flower Trials

New varieties are compared and judged for garden suitability

Kathy Jentz

We picked up Teri Spieght, award-winning author and an incredible presence in all her horticultural endeavors, and Natalie Carmolli, Proven Winners' Garden P R and Marketing Specialist, and went to the Governor's Residence, where we met other GardenComm members.  We were shown several gardens that interpreted various areas in Ohio using primarily native plants. A cutting garden and medicinal garden were included in the Governor's landscape. 

Tour organizers

Some of our GardenComm members

The cut flower and pollinator garden

Our next stop was a private home where we saw the work of Columbus Foodscapes' Katie Carey. Later,
we met at Katie's home, where she shared her hillside garden in an urban area with our group. 

Katie shares her story

She creates garden spaces for clients

Katie grows edibles at her urban home 

We toured Highland Youth Gardens, which reminded me a lot of what Farmy Chippy has done in Baltimore, creating gardens and spaces from once-abandoned city lots.  Children from a neighboring middle school assist in cultivation and harvest. Food produced is given away to those who want it every week. 

The back entrance of the garden is just off the street

Members of the tour, Teri and Denise, listen to our garden host

Students from the school across the street learn from the garden

Shady spaces are created by the grape arbor

We all met for our annual awards dinner in the evening. I was very proud that two of my friends won Gold Laurel Awards from GardenComm!

Teresa Speight won Gold for her book Black Flora

Kathy Jentz won Gold for Digital Media for her program Reduce Your Lawn Day

Day 1 of our meet-up was fantastic!

Look for Day 2 later this week. 

A Visit to Ladew Gardens

July was a busy month for me, filled with learning events close by and out of state. We have a remarkable horticultural community! 

Ava is getting up close and personal with the Cottage Garden 

On July 1, Ava Marie, WBAL’s meteorologist, and photographer Bridgette joined me at Ladew Gardens to shoot 4 episodes of The Sunday Gardener. Director Emily Emerick joined us in presenting the butterfly house, the new cottage garden planting by David Culp, a look at creating and maintaining Ladew’s famous topiaries, and an interview with the resident artist.

It was a warm, humid day, so we kept looking for shade. Everyone at Ladew was friendly and knowledgeable as they were interviewed about various subjects.

First up was Sheryl Pedrick, Director of Education. She explained the lifecycle stages of a butterfly and showed us which plants were needed by specific caterpillars for nesting and feeding.

Sheryl took us inside the Butterfly House and showed us the incredible meadow at Ladew.

Next up was a look at the recently renovated Cottage Garden, designed by David Culp of Brandywine Cottage, collaborating with Cavano's, a local wholesale perennial nursery. 

We look ready to spend our time in the garden.
Me, Emily Emerick, and Ava Marie

Photographer Bridgette with Ava 

We took a golf cart to find Abby Evans, Senior Horticulturist, to learn about the pruning and care of  Ladew's world-famous topiaries. 

Not seen in the photo are the power tools and pruners that keep Abby busy shaping the incredible hedges and topiaries at Ladew. 

For our last segment, we were lucky to connect with the sculptor and one of the Artists In Residence at Ladew, Walter T. Matia, whose beautiful bronzes were set among the plants in the gardens.

 

We recommend a visit to Ladew Gardens, just about a 20-minute drive from Valley View Farms. The journey and the destination are beautiful! 

A huge thank you and shout-out to Chrissie Perry, who took most of the photos in today's post. 

Here is a link to The Sunday Gardener from July 5. 

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/sunday-gardener-ladew-topiary-gardens-support-butterfly-life-own-garden/65317107T

Look for upcoming blogs about other July events that I was lucky to attend.