“Wamboldtopia encompasses our garden, studio and home. It is our sanctuary and playground, wide open for creative expression – a little Utopia if you will! It all started 10 years ago with a simple geometric herb garden and has grown ever since.”

Damaris Pierce and her husband Ricki, a.k.a. The Rock Pirate, combine their passions for gardening, masonry and sculpture in their magical and playful garden. Between the stone castle studio, dog cabin, water garden and elf tower, there are countless rock creations, garden sculptures and gnome homes. A metal dragon tumbles up the front stairs, fairy doors surprise in hidden spots and a massive stone and brick arch greets visitors. The brick circle in the back was finished by Ricki just in time for their wedding six years ago. Wamboldtopia is a living canvas and testament of a couple’s love for each other and for all that grows.

Event extras: Bill Pillmorewill play the guitar on our magic circle various times during the day.  Artist Gary DeVore will be painting in the garden. Little neighbor Dylan will be offering refreshing lemonade.  Children welcome with adult supervision.

Additional Photos from the day of the stroll.

The Gnomon is the garden that Christopher Mello has created on the corner of Westwood and Waynesville Avenue off Haywood Road behind the Rocket Club and the bio-diesel pump. A gnomon is the shadow caster of a sundial and the name is in memory of a fallen gardening friend, Randy Palmer. Rest in peace Randy.

The garden is five years old now and is basically a collection of all the red and black leaved plants that i can find. Also included are plants with unusual flower shapes and colors and fragrances. I am now incorporating many edibles in the mix, lettuces, cabbages, and kales are the main thrust of the winter garden. As the garden is adjacent to My art studio at 307 Waynesville Avenue, visitors will find my rusty metal and ceramic work abounding. Perhaps the strongest feature in the garden is the waterfall constructed of giant metal plates that were once the water tower for the Chesterfield Mill in the river arts district.

This is a purposefully dark and moody garden. Hopefully as beautiful to visitors as it is to me. It is an intentionally public space and visitors are invited to revisit the garden anytime. daylight only please. Always welcome are donations of blue bottle and “dead” shovels.

Event extras: Christopher’s artful creation will be available for sale

Additional photos from the day of the stroll.

Started in 2003 as a peaceful response to the current war in Iraq and heavy drug activity in the neighborhood, Burton Street Community Peace Gardens is a growing labor of love in the heart of the Burton Street Community. From its humble beginnings as an overgrown lot filled with discarded 40-ounce bottles, the Gardens have grown to include two vegetable/flower gardening sites, stage area, fire pit, cob pizza oven, greenhouse, and sculpture gardens.

With a focus on environmental and community responsibility, the garden design and sculpture park have been created using found/reused items (most from the immediate neighborhood). The Gardens are hydrated from direct rain, in addition to rainwater collected in the 550-gallon tank of a neighboring residence. The greenhouse frame was constructed using steel poles from a discarded McDonalds playground. Brick, block & concrete used to build the fire pit, garden beds, & cob oven are all sourced from residences or sidewalks that were demolished and headed for the landfill.

Of special note is the sculpture park that is the creative endeavor of artist and poet DeWayne Barton/B Love along with other local artists. The installations, like the gardens, are created with found/reused items and each tells a separate and compelling story of social and environmental justice.

Our vision is to be a sanctuary for positive action, which results in neighborhood food security, community cohesion, and a vibrant, sustainable local economy.

Event extras:

• 12 – 1 PM – fresh pizza from the cob oven
• 2 – 4 PM –  tours of the gardens & sculpture park w/ B Love

Additional photos from the day of the stroll.

We don’t have a name except ‘yard’, but if I gave it one, I would call it “Liberated’ because it used to be all surrounded by chain link fence and nasty sheds. We have worked for approx. 20 months on the garden, the photos show the before and after transformation. Our long term goal is privacy provided by plants because the house is on a corner lot. Two main features are a rock patio where red dirt used to be and a rock wall built entirely of ‘side of road pick up’ rocks. There are rain chains too, which a lot of people ask us about. They’re a great alternative to running spouts down nice wood features on the front porch.

My garden gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel like gardening even more.

Event Extras: We’re opening up first floor of the house to strollers for walk-through tours, complete with a display of before and after pictures of garden and house. We’ll also answer any questions and offer informal talks about our experiences in creating ‘renovated’ house features, building rock back patio and yard, bricked front sidewalk, as well as raised vegetable and flower beds.

As “FarmGirl” (Lauri Newman), I have been gardening at the Sunny Point Café for more than 3 years. In 2007, I began designing the Sunny Point Cafe Garden to be a beautiful and inspiring space for the community, and provide fresh produce, herbs and flowers for the café. I began the installation in March 2008, and this is its first full year of “Garden to Table.”

Everything grown at the Sunny Point Café is grown naturally. I use local sources and heirloom seeds or varieties. I grow the majority of starts for the garden. Sunny Point’s owners are very dedicated to running their business in an environmentally responsible way and have been very supportive of the garden. As the garden manager, I hope that the Sunny Point Café Garden will serve as a model for other restaurants to invest in urban lots and local farmers by planting more urban food-producing gardens.

The garden would not be looking as great as it does without its many helpers. From the initial installation to the regular maintenance and the garden’s new additions, volunteer help has been a blessing and help make it all possible. For example: The raised wood beds are made from reclaimed wood donated by Ken and Kevin from their Rocket Club renovation, and all that wood was cut to spec by my dad. The co-owner, April Moon Harpers works weekly in the garden on top of her long hours working the Café. This year April and her mom, Belinda, (co-owner) have added a whole new layer of color, vertical trellises, bowling balls and pins, buckets of potatoes, and beans, beans, marvelous beans.

It can take a village to build a garden, and it is sooo much fun. I am absolutely addicted.

Event Extras: We are going to have an assortment of food & beverages that has come from the garden for visitors to try out. “Garden To Table” samples in the Garden. I will be at the garden on that day as well as my FarmGirl Intern-Kristen… the SunnyPoint owners will be there off and on as well. We will all be happy to give tours and talk to visitors.

Additional photo from the day of the stroll.