July 25, 2023, Garden Tour of Sandy Csikari's Garden

LAGC had great weather and a great turnout for the tour of Sandy Csikari’s garden. Sandy has had a busy month of garden tours because this year her garden was one of the gardens featured in the Shaler Great Gardens tour and the Wexford Garden and Pond tour for 2023. Sharing her beautiful garden is nothing new for Sandy as she has been showing her garden for many years.  She proudly displays a plaque of her participation as a garden site of the Passavant Hospital Foundation Enchanted Garden Tour in 2000.

 Sandy and her family have lived in their home for 50 years and she created her garden 15 years ago at the site of her former swimming pool. She has applied the knowledge that she gained as a Penn State Master Gardener to create a lovely garden that gives her a lot of joy to share with other people.  She is now a retired master gardener and is referred to as a PSMG Emeritus.

 

It was a very pleasant evening as we strolled through the grass amongst the mix of perennial and annual borders under a canopy of mature 50 foot Oak trees. We were happy to see many perennial favorites In bloom such as daylilies, hosta, echinacea, blackberry lilies, arum, daisies, Russian sage, coral bells, and phlox to name a few. Popular annuals such as cannas, zinnias, impatiens, and gladiolus acentuated the pretty garden beds.  Some of these plants, in addition to her shrubs have created a Certified Pollinator Friendly Garden.

 

In addition to the colorful perennials and annuals, Sandy states that she has 20 to 30 clematis vines. Most were past their bloom time but we admired their lush green foliage winding up trellis supports around the garden.

 

Sandy’s garden features hostas in abundance — she has approximately 400 hosta plants!  She has some fun with them by displaying the hostas in about a dozen different groups around the garden and she gives the hosta groupings whimsical names. One name that made me smile is carnival with plants named grape soda, curly fries, cotton candy, ice cream, roller coaster and merry go round.  SciFi, Beach Party, Tea Time and Hollywood are just a few of the other categories where she has given the hosa groupings a fun name.

 

The garden also features a small water garden with water lettuce, papyrus and a few fish.  The circular ball fountain and bird bath are enjoyed by the birds and butterflies.

 

Just like many of our members, Sandy has issues with deer in her garden.  She uses Liquid Fence and is very happy with it.  She tried the motion detector system and says that it doesn't work for her. (She has a perimeter fence for the back garden.)

 

After members finished walking thru the garden, we took a break to relax and enjoy the beautiful setting which gave us the perfect opportunity to indulge in the delicious treats of fresh fruit, cookies and blueberry bread.  Thank you to Diana, Cindy and Linda for bringing the treats, water and arrangement.  The beautiful vase arrangement was thoughtfully given to Sandy.

 

As if allowing us to tour her lovely garden wasn’t enough, Sandy let us each choose a potted perennial which are divisions from her own garden.  A huge thank you to Sandy for her generosity.  It was a very enjoyable evening where we were able to talk and learn about plants from fellow gardeners. Thank you to Mary Ann who made the arrangements for LAGC to tour this special garden.

(Pictures by RoseMary except for mourning dove by Evan.)

Sandy greets the fellow gardeners.

(This picture of the water feature does not show how truly lovely it is. )

One of the hosta groupings, in this case the miniature ones with mouse in their name.

Passavant Chapel Garden mourning dove nest in Viburnum.
(Picture by Evan Fingal who spotted the next and its occupant.)

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