Garden tour features West Valley homes
By Shari Kaplan
April showers--in fact, a whole spring of exceptionally rainy and cold weather--have finally let up, allowing for an equally exceptional display of May flowers, lush trees and beautiful gardens. Four of those gardens--highlighted by Art and Noreen Christopher's secluded Saratoga property, "El Camino Senda," off Highway 9--are showcased in the third annual Spring Garden Tour organized by St. Luke's Episcopal Church on 20 University Ave. in Los Gatos.
The event takes place May 15 from 1 to 4 p.m. and raises funds for the many nonprofit organizations St. Luke's supports, including Los Gatos' Live Oak Adult Day Care Center and A Place for Teens, as well as the Santa Maria Urban Mission and the Georgia Travis/Inn Vision Women's Shelter programs, both based in San Jose. A portion of proceeds also helps maintain church grounds.
This year's event includes lunch in the St. Luke's courtyard as well as music, a raffle, a garden item boutique and plant sale. Each guest also receives a program that describes each of the gardens, their histories and information about the area. "We plan to display both large and small gardens, new and old, simple and ornate--each appealing to guests in a unique and different way," co-chair Julia Conway says.
Calling the Christophers' sylvan surroundings a "garden" is like calling San Simeon's Hearst Castle a "house." Made up of more than two acres of gently rolling woodland, a natural stream, man-made waterfalls, rock-lined pathways and hundreds of feet of wooden decking, steps and romantic benches, the property resembles a natural setting in the woods. The name El Camino Senda, loosely translated, means "pathway."
"It's a labor of love and a work in progress, pretty much all the time," Noreen says. "We keep it as a park-like setting because with the size of the property, we could never pull every weed or blow every leaf!
"Things keep popping up here and there that we don't even plant. We don't like to cut anything down or take anything away unless we really need to," she adds, pointing out patches of colorful wildflowers, some of which she can't identify. As for the trees, most of them invited themselves over long ago and have no plans of moving. These include groves of tall redwoods that filter the sunlight like a prism, pines and spruces and dozens of craggy oak trees, both deciduous white oaks and evergreen live oaks.
The Christophers have added arboreal accents of their own, planting gracefully weeping birches, heavenly bamboo, rose bushes and several varieties of Japanese maples. Showy flowers also abound; those planted intentionally thriving alongside those that blew in and grow wild.
"We did a lot of trimming back the first few years and tried to find the things that would do best here, based on the soil and lighting," Noreen says. Although she and Art select their own plants from nurseries and determine where they should go, usually the actual digging and planting falls to a gardening crew.
Walking through the property involves pathways delineated by steppingstones and pretty river rocks. They lead not only to different areas of lush vegetation but also to a network of wooden decks built by previous owners, who constructed a three-tiered pond system that the Christophers restored to beautiful working order, right down to the fat koi fish that swim happily beneath the surface. One of the Christophers' daughters even got married in this naturalistic setting.
The other three gardens, all in Los Gatos, are located on Glenridge Avenue, Los Gatos Boulevard and Kimble Avenue. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 on May 15. For more information, call the St. Luke's office at 354-2195 or the Conways at 376-0609.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
