Joanne and Mike Brown of 20 Park Avenue display a front yard garden that you just cannot miss. It exemplifies what you can do with a small space.  Joanne and Michael give credit to the good soil and the southern exposure. 

Their yard becomes added living space in the summer, the front porch becomes their living room and the garden gives them both privacy and beauty.  Mike and Joanne built the picket fence and the front yard garden consists of plants that were transplanted from the back yard.  There is an enormous rhododendron that grows on the side of the porch while variegated and zebra grasses assure them privacy in front.

Joan Baden’s gardens located at 205 Curtice Park simply shows Joan’s insatiable passion for gardens, flowers, and particularly roses.

Joan moved to Curtice Park in 1957.  Her home is one of the first houses built in the Schantz tract.  She has beautifully landscaped her property, which features over 150 roses.  A multileveled lot, it has some ‘secret’ gardens.

The chestnut tree in the front was started from a chestnut her daughter picked up on Main Street about 40 years ago.  A small green house enables Joan to winter her miniature roses in pots.  A member of the Greater Rochester Rose Society and the American Rose Society, she is a rose judge and a consulting Rosarian.  She has attended the World Federation of Rose Society meetings in Europe and New Zealand.  She often gives slide presentations to clubs and libraries.  Her late husband, Harry, an excellent photographer, took many of her slides.  Joan is a member of Country Gardeners of Webster

Judy and Henry Libera’s garden at 144 Sanford Street.

According to Maryjean, a gardener herself, whose backyard has always overflowed with flowers, the Liberas purchased their home in 1981 when foundation shrubbery and arborvitaes were in place. Each year the couple added a little structure and a small rock garden on the side of the house continued to grow.

Their inspiration has been the beautiful English Country gardens we enjoy in magazines…with lots of interesting nooks. Judy and Henry enjoy getting new garden ideas from their travels and constantly experiment with new plants that are introduced by local nurseries.

Tom & Heidi Smith

85 Fuller Avenue

Gardening, for Heidi, is a true celebration.  It supports her compulsion to organize and feeds her passion to create.  She is continually amazed when someone views her garden and expresses awe that such a space actually exists behind the fence.

Heidi Smith relaxing at her

poolside garden

At 66 Curtice Park, hidden away from much of the village, is a haven belonging to Tom and Dolores Foley. “The property is not so much about gardens as just a lovely yard,” said Maryjean Yengo, chair of the tour. The original house owners (1941) did a great job of giving the yard ‘good bones,’ she said. There are a number of very large beautiful trees: maple, Chinese elm, and larch, walnut and oak locust.  Hedges divide the yard into sections. This retreat-like yard could very well be called Foley Park.  The back of the property is mostly unmanaged and gives a sense of privacy.  The Foleys have been blessed to live here for 36 years.  Dolores is a member of Mill Creek Gardeners of Webster.