2011 Summit Garden Stroll defies the odds

As promised by KARE 11 meteorologist Belinda Jensen, the weather remained clear and warm for the Garden Stroll and Tea. Our best estimate puts us at about 500 Garden Stroll participants, more than half of those tickets were sold on the day of the stroll, Sunday, June 26th. We had a more than our share of cold, rainy days in June which pushed our featured gardeners out into the inclement weather to prop up drowning perennials and pulling weeds, and more weeds.

We had many gardens featured for the first time this year, including Diane Anderson (340 Summit), Lucille McCarty (573 Summit), House of Hope Presbyterian (797 Summit), Jim Rutzik (1428 Summit), Mary and Bill Lynch (1728 Summit), Jeanette Frederickson (1889 Summit) and Gretchen Cudak (2007).

Strollers commented that we had a nice representation of gardens featuring a variety of styles representing everything from formal English and Japanese gardens with stunning views from the bluff to koi ponds, poultry coops and Minnesota native flowering arbors. We cannot thank these homeowners enough for volunteering their gardens and their time!

Surprisingly to many of the organizers, the event drew people from beyond the Saint Paul neighborhoods. We had people who drove in from Brainerd and northeast towns in Wisconsin to take in the stroll after the event was publicized in Midwest Home & Garden and the Star Tribune.

We held the informal tea at Mount Zion Temple on the terrace bordered by a beautiful rose garden. The Golden Fig catered a mouth-watering tea which attracted more than 250 revelers! Some of the menu items included tomato basil and cucumber dill tea sandwiches, lemon scones, skewered blackberries, espresso chocolate chip shortbread, macaroons with lemon curd and lavender-infused lemonade. We were delighted when Golden Fig owner, Laurie Crowell, talked about the tea and the Summit Garden Stroll on KSTP’s Twin Cities Live. The topping on the sundae had to be the string quintet, the Fiddler Conspiracy. These youthful musicians played for the entire four hour tea and provided just enough music to fill the space, but not over power the conversations.

Other features included Master Gardeners in a few of the gardens as well as at the tea location and a handful Twin Town Pedicabs picking up rides and depositing strollers at the far reaches of Summit.

"Mrs. Milton W. Griggs in her garden, 1082 Summit Avenue, St. Paul Photograph Collection 1936" Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society