By Kelly Heckaman, 
Purdue Extension Office

Calling all garden enthusiasts to attend the 13th annual Kosciusko County Master Gardener’s “Down the Garden Path” garden walk from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 29. The walk will take place rain or shine.

The purpose of the Kosciusko County Master Garden Association is to promote good gardening practices in cooperation with the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Services. One of the main objectives of the program is to help others grow. This will be accomplished as you tour through seven extraordinary gardens in the Warsaw area.

Featured Garden Highlights:

• Manich Garden — The development of this garden was a real challenge, with its incredible steep hills and lack of access to the lake. The first tasks were to build temporary stairs against what was then the garage, create a sea wall and, lacking a fence, visual boundaries for the dogs. One major change was the removal of the garage and addition of the patio area, curved stairway and terraced garden.
• Garden of Feedin’ — The “Garden of Feedin’” is a private garden, obsessed over by Valle Kincaid, located behind the houses in Springhill Acres, although she invites and encourages people to help nurture the garden in some manner, whether through donated labor, tools, supplies, money or appreciation. Her mission is to teach people where food comes from, feed as many people as she can and provide a place to be in nature.
• Thompson Garden — Being a Master Gardener has influenced the development of this garden since 2010. Container gardening was originally predominant, and raised beds followed. An occasional bit of whimsy will be found throughout. The latest garden additions are a shed and butterfly garden. The Thompson’s are also in the process of adding vegetables.
• Hiesman Garden — The goal of this garden has been to create a simple outdoor living area for the whole family to enjoy, something a little more relaxed and whimsical in nature. They started new plantings along the front edge of the house and over the years have added new areas of interest and expanded old ones. The lawn continues to shrink as room is made for new flowers, bushes and decorative grasses.
• The Gardens of Central Park — The park’s gardens are the culmination of Robert and Roma Maish’s dream to create a perennial garden for Kosciusko county and its visitors. Made possible through an endowment fund, the gardens contain over 160 perennial flowers, shrubs, grasses and a fish pond. Ever changing, one can see something different by visiting many times of the year.
• Warsaw Biblical Gardens — The Bible’s story begins with a garden and ends with a vision of trees bearing fruit. These gardens, situated on about 3/4 acre, currently contain over 100 plants that are named in the Bible. A diversity of climates can be found in the Holy Land, which allows for most of its plants to be grown somewhere in the United States. A guide is available to take one through the gardens.

Tickets for the event are $5 for adults and children. Tickets can be purchased until the day of the walk at the Extension Office, 202 W. Main St., Warsaw, and Open Air Garden Center and Greenhouses. The day of the walk, tickets can be purchased at the East picnic shelter at Central Park, at the intersection of Canal St., and SR 15, Warsaw.

The Garden Walk is sponsored by the Kosciusko County Master Gardeners, a division of Purdue Extension of Kosciusko County. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact the Kosciusko County Extension Office at 574-372-2340.