Northville Country Garden Club excited about 15th walk

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And her and her husband, Victor's, garden will be one of sixgardens to be featured in the Wednesday, July 9, Country GardenClub of Northville Garden Walk, which will feature many differentstyles and sizes of gardens.
The 15th annual event, titled "Art in the Garden," will take placefrom 9 a.m.-4 p.m. with the $10 tickets available at Gardenviews,202 W. Main Street on the northwest corner of Main and Wing streetsin downtown Northville or by mail until Monday. The club meets at 11:30 a.m. the firstTuesday of each month from September-June at the Cady Inn at MillRace Village or other locations.
The garden walk is the club's primary fundraiser, with specialattractions to include music, a garden market at Mill Race Village,refreshments at the Cady Inn at Mill Race Village, a raffle ofdonated items from local businesses and plein air painters (artistsworking outdoors) both at the individual gardens and at Mill RaceVillage on Griswold Street north of Main Street. A tale of two artists
The Leos have lived in Northville for 30 years.
Kathleen is an accomplished writer and poet, with more than 12books to her credit, including the book "Town One South, NorthvillePoems," for the city of Northville's sesquicentennial celebrationand has taught in the creative writing department at SchoolcraftCollege in Livonia for more than 20 years, teaching novel, fictionand memoir writing.
Victor is a well-trained glass sculptor and retired Ford Motor Co.employee who worked in international labor relations.
Many of Victor's beautiful creations, which can be purchased atarea art galleries, will be found throughout the couple's gardenduring the walk.
"I think I've always been involved with the arts, starting out withceramics," Victor said. "And Kathleen and I have been involved inthe glass movement starting back in the late '60s and early '70s.We were part of the groupies of the Habatat Galleries that are inRoyal Oak now."
Victor started taking classes in glass sculpture at the College forCreative Studies, and "I got hooked," he said.
Many of his pieces are combined with metal and/or wood. He rentstime at various studios in the metropolitan area, and his work wasrecently on display at the Orchard Lake Framing & Gallery's "AGlassy Occasion" exhibit at Crosswinds Mall in West Bloomfield.
"The idea is to put glass into yet another dimension," he said. "Iconsider the artwork to be a painting on glass. The surface ofglass to me is a canvas." A dozen different gardens
The Leos actually have outlined about a dozen different types ofgardens within their yard, such as a culinary garden, butterflygarden and more. They feature everything from wildflowers to rosesto perennials to annuals to herbs.
The couple also has a shared garden with their neighbors, Cindy andKaren.
"Cindy's grandchildren call one area of our yard the enchantedforest," Kathleen said.
Kathleen has a secret to share about how to keep critters out ofthe garden. "I use a concoction of granulated garlic, course-groundblack pepper and red pepper flakes," she said. "I put iteverywhere," she said.
The gardens even feature a tea house with marble-topped bencheswhere Kathleen conducts Japanese tea ceremonies. Their garden istheir sanctuary from the stresses of modern-day life.
Always the writer, Kathleen quoted a familiar garden saying that isthe motto of the magazine Herb Quarterly: "When the world weariesand ceases to satisfy, there's always the garden."