Garden tours are Sunday

Dianne Lindback started her garden five years ago, when she retired and moved to Stayton with her husband, John. The couple fell in love with the beautiful creekside home and the small town around it.

"It just felt like a wonderful place to be," Lindback said.

Norblad Lane is a gravel driveway off Evergreen Avenue in the heart of Stayton, but it feels like a pathway to a secret world.

Lindback wanted to be able to walk right to the creek from her garden, and she hoped to create a rustic, romantic atmosphere.

"I was looking for a romantic garden, something that was old-fashioned, not sophisticated and very relaxing," Lindback said.

The Lindback garden, which is called "Mole's End" for the couple's constant fight with moles, is one of eight gardens that will be open to the public this weekend.

The ninth annual "Gardens of Delight," Santiam Heritage Foundation's major fundraiser of the year, is a self-guided tour of gardens in Stayton and Sublimity. Tour hours are noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance at The Bird and Hat Inn, Jensen-Kreitzer Family Clothing and the Stayton/Sublimity Chamber of Commerce. Tickets may also be purchased from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Bird and Hat Inn.

The tour raises money for restoration efforts for the historic Brown House in Stayton. Last year the tour raised $2,000 for the organization's work on the house, tour coordinator Kay Pendleton said.

"We find new gardens by word of mouth. Friends from time to time will say to me, you have to see so-and-so's garden," Kay Pendleton said. "We'll call the gardener and have a look. The tour has been growing over time."

The tour takes visitors to a 1920s sunken garden, a three-acre garden in an arboretum-like setting, a vegetable garden with possibly the oldest cherry tree in Stayton, and other emerging and established gardens in the area.

From: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/