Publication Date: Friday Apr 17, 1998

How do their gardens grow

Six elegant Palo Alto gardens will be showcased in the annual Spring Garden Tour on May 1 and 2, sponsored by the Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center. Although different in size and appearance, each has its own unique charm and is lovingly tended by each owner. They are all peaceful and rejuvenating retreats from the hectic urban landscape. Tour-goers will enter Vicki Hyde's immense back yard garden under an archway of pollarded sycamores adorned with gaslights. The 10-year-old trees are pruned to the same point each year, leaving them with gnarly nubs. Hyde explained that pollarding started in England around the sixteenth century, when firewood was scarce. It later developed into an art form.

"The sycamores make a lovely canopy in the spring and summer," she said.

The centerpiece of Hyde's enchanting garden is a water fountain set in the middle of a symmetrically designed yard. Hyde created it in the "par terre" style, where planting is secondary to design in importance. The fountain is framed by four curved beds of prunella (an evergreen ground cover with 8-inch purple spikes). Each bed is accented by an Alberta spruce topiary, with its pot sunken into the ground. Surrounding the inner beds are additional beds planted with a variety of herbs--thyme, oregano and parsley.

Adjacent to the formal beds is a latticed pergola, upon which classic lavender and white Chinese wisteria are interwoven. Hyde and her husband, Mark, were married underneath the white open-roofed structure 10 years ago.

"The whole yard was blackberries and weeds before we got married," recalled Hyde. "There was only a path that my husband's dachshund had forged."

With a huge expanse of land as her canvas, Hyde set out to create her little piece of paradise. "I'm visually oriented. I wanted a thing to admire," she said. With help from garden catalogs, Hyde educated herself about gardening, nurturing both a passion and a talent. Today, she does all the gardening herself except for the lawn.

Unlike some gardeners, Hyde does not cut her flowers and bring them inside the house. "This is my vase of flowers, here in the garden," she said proudly, pointing to her delightful creation.

Another garden on the tour will seem like a foray into the woods, despite its location near downtown Palo Alto. Its focal point is a wooden footbridge that shepherds visitors across the waters of San Francisquito Creek and into a lush world of towering green foliage. Orange and blue birds of paradise stand guard in front of the 56-foot-long redwood bridge. Once across, tour participants will be surrounded by a diverse mix of trees originally planted in 1927: locust, podacarpus, carob and two kinds of eucalyptus.

When owner Karen McCaul and her husband, Bruce, purchased the property in 1985, their biggest objective was to reclaim the creek garden, which was all overgrown. The original bridge had collapsed in the 1970s, isolating the garden from the house and leaving it to suffer the ill effects of time and neglect.

Once the McCauls rebuilt the bridge in 1991, they discovered terracing, rock walls, pathways and even a fish pond that had been completely covered with mud.

"It was fun to rediscover what was under all the overgrown vines, trees and brush," said McCaul.

Along with reclaiming and trimming the garden, the McCauls also set out to plant a variety of native trees and plants: heuchera (white coral bells), ribes (a green plant), colombine and ceonothus (a blue-flowering shrub), and manzanita (a plant with tiny white flowers).

They also lined their long driveway with two rows of citrus and fruit trees. The eclectic mix includes Babcock peach, Blenheim apricot, Comice pear, French prune, Gravenstein apple, Mission fig and Numbiana plum.

"I grew up in Palo Alto when most of it was fruit orchards," recalled McCaul. "We planted these partly out of nostalgia, but also because we like to grow fruit."

The McCauls' front yard boasts trees that were planted by the late famed local horticulturalist Albert Wilson. Dating back to 1927, they include a saucer magnolia, loquat and red-and-white flowering camelias.

Another garden on the tour is a more recent endeavor, having just been designed two years ago by the present owner. Visitors will walk through the royal blue arched gate and immediately feel transported to a fragrant and serene Mediterranean retreat.

"Almost everything is scented here," said the owner, who preferred to remain unnamed. "It's been a big focus of this garden."

It was also the owner's goal to divide the garden up into different useable "rooms." These include a bearded iris garden, a perennial garden, a mini fruit orchard, a vegetable garden (with raised beds) and a dry garden.

The latter features four pineapple guavas, as well as different kinds of sage. There is an outdoor living room that faces the swimming pool, as well as an outdoor eating area facing a row of citrus trees.

One particularly striking part of the garden is a rose garden that goes from black to white like a color spectrum. Gardeners will also be enchanted by the outdoor potting "shed" that is bordered by a white trellis. Inside, tour-goers will find a sink, tools and a vase collection.

"This garden is very formally laid out with boundaries," said the owner. "But the content is very informal. I have no problem mixing sweet peas with vegetables or herbs with roses."

The Spring Garden Tour will also feature three additional gardens. It will take place on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour begins at the Gamble Garden Center at 1431 Waverley St. in Palo Alto. Tickets are $20 in advance and $23 at the door. All proceeds benefit the Garden Center, a non-profit urban horticultural foundation. For further information or to make reservations, call 329-1356.

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