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A garden of plant specimens, including some transplanted from Nome, against a backdrop of Kachemak Bay. Fran Durner photo View Homer Gardens Gallery
Don't hate me because I'm in Homer, the weather is perfect and the gardens are beautiful!
A stairway path leading into the woods is lined with different color rocks to accent and delineate. Fran Durner photo.
Six lovely gardens were on the Homer Garden Tour today and each had something a little different to offer gardeners, from a professionally maintained formal garden by the seaside to a multi-generational Homer homestead. 
An on-site gardener maintains this landscape. The Alberta spruce grow in this form and do not have to be pruned. Fran Durner photo. The Homer Garden Club sponsored the weekend that began on Saturday with two lively lectures by Don Engebretson, known as the Renegade Gardener, of Minnesota. 
A larch tree at left softens the view with crab apples lining the walk down towards the water. In spring, they blossom white. Fran Durner photo. On Sunday, hundreds of garden lovers, from the East Coast to Willow, sporting colorful felt flower boutonnieres (the entry ticket) enjoyed the weather and each other's company as they toured the gardens. 
For forty years this system of stringing white plastic bags has worked to keep moose out of the extensive vegetable garden. Fran Durner photo. Garden owner Jim Reinhart kept close to his greenhouse where UAF developed tomatoes flourished in five gallon buckets, and explained over and over to admirers his system for success. 
Jim Reinhart, left, grows Sub Arctic 25 and F1 hybrid tomatoes in his greenhouse. Fran Durner photo. Except for the occasional traffic jam (if you could call it that) on the narrow roads, the afternoon seemed to go without a hitch, especially since the weather was cooperating. 
Driftwood played a big part in many of the gardens. Fran Durner photo Plants and shrubs that are not often seen in Alaska gardens were a highlight, such as a twelve-year-old olive tree that started off in Anchorage and was transplanted to Homer ten years ago. 
Blue oat grass in the foreground and a twelve-year-old olive tree at left just off the backyard deck in a high elevation garden. Fran Durner photo. Good thing I slathered on the sun block this morning before I started off because I forgot my hat! 
Sedum 'Purple Emporer' was stunning in this bed of many sedums. Fran Durner photo. Potter Paul Dungan and Jenny Carroll's garden will be in my memory for a long time, not just for the meticulous care shown but also for the way his organic sculptural forms looked so perfect in situ. 
Fired clay sculptures by artist Paul Dungan graced his gardens. Fran Durner photo. 
Dungan's sculptures (backround) looked at home without taking center stage in the vegetable garden. Fran Durner photo The tour ended today with a reception at the Bear Creek Winery with food and a wine tasting. 
A bed of rock garden plants complimented by family art pieces. Fran Durner photo. This is the third year for the Homer Garden Club's gardener's weekend and garden tour. 
Rock and driftwood from Homer beaches is one of the things that gave the gardens on the tour a sense of place. Fran Durner photo.They are to be commended for bringing up nationally reknowned speakers every year (Stephanie Cohen in 2007 and Dr. Allan Armitage in 2008.) I can't wait to see what they will line up for next year.
I'll post lots more photos to a gallery when I get home....
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