Numerous residents supported local schools during the second annual Secret Garden Tour held by the Loudon County Education Foundation.
Two gardens in Tellico Village, along with two more in Rarity Bay, were offered for public viewing.
LCEF Executive Director Michele Lewis said tour raised $3,000. Last year the tour brought in about $1,000.
“It just really is a strong event and having such beautiful gardens that we can show, and when people are willing to open that up we don’t have any costs there,” Lewis said. “The event, really, is a very low-cost event to produce, which means that we have the ability to raise more money for education.”
LCEF gave $86,000 to Loudon County and Lenoir City schools in the past year.
The tour garnered more interest than last year, bringing in a little more than double the participants at 66. Increased interest could be a result of LCEF changing the format, Lewis said.
“We did more of just a garden party the year before, and so we kind of divided it up from two locations that had gardens on site but it wasn’t so much a tour,” Lewis said. “It was more event locations as opposed to private gardens, and so we had a good turnout last year but this year has definitely been much better, and it’s just been more of an elaborate event than what it was last year.
“With the private homeowners opening their gardens, these are gardens that you will not be able to see unless you participate in this event, whereas last year we were at the Reserve in Bluebird Hill, so that’s something that you might be able to see at other times,” she added.
The self-guided tours kicked off at 10 a.m., and participants were sectioned off into groups so that each garden had equal time for viewing. At noon, attendees then traveled to the Yacht Club for lunch and a presentation from University of Tennessee Extension Agent Neal Denton. The tour then picked back up until 4 p.m.
Tellico Village residents Yvonne Jones and Nancy Jung recently moved into the area and were looking for ways to spruce up their garden.
“We’re just building a house, so we thought — we’re going to have a blank canvas,” Jones said. “So I wanted to get some ideas for my garden — because I’m from England.”
“We’ve only been here since August, and so we bought a house already built and they have no flowers or anything, so we were kind of (wanting) to get ideas for the landscape,” Jung added, noting she was happy to support charities with the garden tour.
Tellico Village residents Steve and Arden Trudnak stopped to see the types of flowers planted by others in the community. Steve, a former member of the Tellico Village Garden Club, said he wanted to support local education.
“I’m a retired landscape architect, so this is what part of what I used to do,” he said. “It’s fun to support the Loudon County schools.”
Lewis said the plan is to keep the same format for the next Secret Garden Tour in 2017, but LCEF is open to new ideas.
“Once this event kind of completes and we have the opportunity to sit down and talk about it, there’s — the people that work with the foundation, these volunteers have the most amazing ideas and what they’re willing to do for the foundation to help support education,” Lewis said. “So the sky’s the limit. I’m always game for new ideas and different ways to raise money.”
