Construction crews jackhammering near Ben and Nancy Pounds' Bloomington home aren't exactly a peaceful backdrop— but stepping through the fence into their circular garden is like entering an oasis.
And the Pounds' idyllic yard should be quiet next weekend — just in time for the annual Glorious Garden Festival.
The Pounds are one of 10 families featured on a garden walk that is part of the July 11-12 festival, giving patrons a chance to glimpse some of Bloomington-Normal’s gorgeous home gardens.
The Glorious Garden Festival is hosted by David Davis Mansion and includes activities at the estate, too, with guided tours of Sarah Davis's heirloom garden, a kid-themed story walk through the grounds, gift shop and vendor fair taking place both days.
The Pounds have been plugging away at their garden for about three decades. They've done everything themselves, moving plants until they figured out where they'd be happiest, and seamlessly blending edibles and ornamentals. A sunny patch has green tomatoes, trellised grapevines and sunflowers about 7 feet tall. The vegetables are primarily Nancy's domain.
“There will be many gherkins and relish coming from these cucumbers,” she said, pointing to early-stage cantaloupe and recently-harvested garlic curing in the side yard that she planted last November. A cherry tree in the couple’s driveway will yield lots of dried fruit and smoothies, Nancy said.
“And the lettuce,” Ben chimed in, “the lettuce was fantastic this year.”
Plenty of rain and the recent heat wave have put the Pounds’ garden ahead of schedule. But when a garden walk organizer cold-called them at their front door, Ben said he wasn’t convinced this was their year.
“Last year was a horrible drought and I had been doing some major projects back here, so I didn’t think it would be ready,” he said.
“He said it’s ready now and that every gardener says that,” said Nancy.
The garden walk’s committee agreed, but Ben, who is the “chief gardener,” according to Nancy, said he’ll be tinkering up until the last minute.
“I’m a detail-oriented person,” he said. “I used to do car shows, so I was used to prepping cars — which are much smaller than a yard. I’m sure, day of, I’ll still be walking and fine tuning a few things.”
One of those things is a “koi pond with no koi” that Ben dug by hand, using locally sourced stones and rocks. Just this week, a floating lily pad bloomed, around which several goldfish enthusiastically swim.
The couple has intentionally avoided a meticulously sculpted landscape, opting to let plants thrive when and where they want to and ensuring various flowers bloom at different times of the year.
“I think the most time intensive thing we have to do — and I don’t take any credit for it, this is Ben — is we don’t put any chemicals on the lawn,” Nancy said. “That takes the most time — just the weeding and the watering. Weeding, mostly.”
Visitors will discover an abundance of lilies and irises. Peonies lend another pop of color. And one of the Pounds' statement plants is a 20-year-old bottlebrush buckeye, whose wispy white flowers emit a sweet fragrance through the yard.
Then, there are the hostas. Lots and lots of hostas.
“We used to track them very closely,” said Ben. “Over the years we’ve lost track, but we did have about 80 varieties of [hostas] of various sizes.”
Visitors may come across a few surprises, too, including the Pounds' success growing plants that don't typically thrive in Central Illinois. Among those is a fig plant brought to the yard from North Carolina — and now bearing fruit.
“We just experimented with ways to help them make it through,” said Nancy. “We finally had some success.”
“We have killed a lot of plants,” Ben added. “We’re very Darwinist on it. If things are happy, we let ‘em go. Like the milkweeds over here: The butterflies love them; the Japanese beetles also love them, but they kind of come up on their own. It brings the monarchs in, they’re happy, so we coexist.”
The Glorious Garden Festival and Garden Walk take place from 1-7 p.m. Friday, July 11, and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, July 12. Advanced tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for teens 13-17, and free for children 12 and under, available online at daviddavismansion.org and at participating businesses. After July 10, tickets are $22 on the mansion lawn starting at 1 p.m. on July 12.
