4th Annual Garden Walk offers beautiful variety

The 4th Annual Kimball Garden Walk, sponsored by the P.E.O. Chapter GN, will feature four new yards this Friday, July 14 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Gardens featured for this year's Garden Walk include that of Pat Quillen, located at 13 Dowd Court. Pat's garden features numerous small flower beds throughout the front and back yards but the truly impressive feature is the transformation of the lot behind her home.

Since purchasing the vacant lot several years ago, she has blended the original Nebraska prairie with several garden areas, making it a private park with seating benches, birdbaths, a variety of flowers, trees and bushes. The space is a favorite of Pat's and of local wildlife.

Several aspens greet guests as they enter the outdoor space Jason Lockwood and Blain Schilreff have built at 617 S. Jefferson. These trees, surrounded by ornamental grasses are a perfect addition to the full garden beds of cheery colorful flowers, including Columbine and miniature sunflowers – a favorite.

Their gorgeous gardens are decorated with patriotic yard art and they have three fountains surrounded by more flowers – and all of this is found before one even enters the back yard.

There, more cheery flowers, oriental grasses and hostess plants are found alongside transplanted raspberries from Jason's grandmother. The crown jewel of their gardens might just be the bird sanctuary with inviting birdbaths beckoning to feathered friends throughout the year, or perhaps it is their vegetable garden, thick with tomatoes, corn, pumpkins and hot peppers – that is a distinction each viewer must decide for themselves.

The gardens of Bert and Donna Linn, located at 4 Crestwood Drive, are both soothing and beautiful with several Ninebark shrubs serving as a backdrop for the colorful perennials, including tulips, sedum, daylilies, salvia, mums and daisies in the front yard. Other perennials plants surrounding the Linn home include butterfly bush, Russian sage, Jacob's ladder, anemone, bleeding heart and astilbe.

Big, bold hostas rest comfortably along the north and west sides of their home and potted annuals add a burst of color on the patios.

Just two doors down, at 6 Crestwood Drive is the home of Greg and Penny Stull, whose gardens sit away from the street in the quiet neighborhood. A curved path leads visitors to the front porch which is lined with bushes and Columbine, as well as perennials like daylilies, tulips, roses and mums.

Color, in the form of potted annuals, join the greenery of spikes, bleeding hearts, iris and pansey. Ornamental grasses, yarrow and tansey are inviting to all of God's creatures, according to Penny, even snakes, toads and rabbits.

As one travels to the back yard, delineated by a tree line on the north, more greens mingle with decorative rocks and a "mysterious stone figure." The quiet property are landscaped with a variety of evergreen trees, flowering crab, cherry, hackberry, aspen, oak and crabapple, providing welcome relief from the summer sun.

This event is a fund-raiser for the chapter and the monies collected support national and international educational opportunities for women, including loans, grants and scholarships.

One such scholarship is the International Peace Scholarship, awarded to women from other countries for graduate study in the United States and Canada.

The International Peace Scholarship, established in 1949, is based on need, but is not intended to cover the total winning applicants total expenses. Still the maximum amount awarded to a student is $12,500, though lesser amounts may be given depending on individual needs.

P.E.O., a philanthropic chapter focused on educational opportunities for women, also supports a fully accredited girls college, Cottey College, located in Nevada, Mo.

Cottey College is an independent, liberal arts and sciences college for women, founded by Virginia Alice Cottey Stockard in 1884 and owned and supported by the P.E.O since 1927.

According to Barrett, the college has offered young women the opportunity to learn and grow into leaders, role models and confidant individuals.

Until 2011, Cottey College offered only associate degrees, but in the Fall semester of 2011 Cottey began offering Bachelor degrees in english, environmental studies and international relations and business.

The following year the school offered a B.A. In psychology and in 2013 in business and liberal arts.

In addition to Cottey College, funds raised through the Kimball Garden Walk may support the Nebraska P.E.O. Home in Beatrice is an assisted living facility for women in gracious and elegant, home-like, family-oriented atmosphere. According to Barrett, it is open to active P.E.O. members or family members of the Nebraska State Chapter, P.E.O. Sisterhood.

Nebraska P.E.O Home is not just a residential care facility, but also a micro-community, boasting just 20 apartments, making it preferable to many for it small size.

For more information about the P.E.O. Chapter GN or the Fourth Annual Kimball Garden Walk, please contact Carla Gunn at 308-230-0822.