Hastings-Prescott garden tour showcases creativity in bloom

Most days, the peacocks wake the Sarrazins at 5 a.m. "They make a horrible racket this time of year," said Hubertus Sarrazin. "It sounds almost like a baby crying."

He and his wife, Colleen, have lived on their hobby farm south of Hastings for the past 25 years, and every spring, the peacocks admire themselves in the reflection of the front door and fan their tails for the peahens or even the wild turkeys that often appear in the yard.

"They'll try to impress anyone," Sarrazin said.

The couple's "farmette" is one of six stops on the Hastings-Prescott Area Arts Council's Art in the Garden tour on Saturday, each of which features a grounds tour and the work of a selected visual artist.

The goal, said volunteer Heidi Langenfeld, "is to showcase gardening as an art form in its own right." She said organizers try to vary the lineup, and the third annual tour includes several gardens with water features and, in the case of the Sarrazins, a unique variety of animals.

A look at a few of the stops on the tour:

The Sarrazin house is ringed with roses, clematis and various annuals, and fruit trees such as chokecherry and apricot shade the grounds. The couple has created a huge vegetable garden, a lily garden and an area for native prairie plants.

At the Sarrazin farm, chain saw artist and carver Bess Freeman Coy will discuss and sell her work.

A few miles away, Jody and Kim Reinardy have created meticulous landscaped garden islands — an iris garden, a peony garden, a water garden — on their expansive property. A small orchard provides them with plums, peaches, cherries, apples and pears, and more than 150 different types of hostas cover a wooded hillside.

About six years ago, the couple and Kim's brother started designing and creating metal garden sculptures, some in the shape of butterflies; some delphiniums, zinnias, irises or purple coneflowers; some birdhouses that resemble quaint farmhouses. The sculptures weather rain and snow, and within a year take on a patina of rust.

"I've always loved the look of it," she said, "and my husband said, 'I can do that.' "

During the winter, they cut and weld the sculptures, and Kim and her brother spend summers selling them at various art shows.

"They all sold out," Elizabeth said proudly.

Across the border in Prescott, Wis., John and Jodi MacLennan will show off a landscaping project that took about six years. They revamped a trail on a steep hillside behind their house by integrating limestone staircases that wind past ponds, spillways and waterfalls, one of which drops 40 feet and turns a water wheel.

"We always wanted to do something with the hill because it was so dense with brush and wood," she said. "My husband always wanted waterfalls on the hills."

"It became kind of our passion and our hobby," she said. "Sometimes it's nice to go out after a tough day at work, and do what I call 'dirt therapy.' "

Potter and watercolor/oil painter Art Nordstrom will show his work at the MacLennan residence.