Share: 

Secret gardens revealed on annual Lewes tour

Plants, flowers, ponds turn backyards into oases
Flowers border a lawn and path behind Lindley and Laura McGrew’s historic house on Pilottown Road. Their house was the fifth stop on the 33rd annual Lewes Garden Tour held June 15. They said they wanted their oasis to feel like an English garden. BILL SHULL PHOTOS
Bill Shull
June 21, 2024

Karen Wilkins and Catalina Detweiler of Lewes looked closely at the plants in the backyard garden at 310 W. Third St. It was their first stop on the 33rd annual Lewes Garden Tour, organized by the Lewes Chamber of Commerce.

They could not have picked a better day to explore the plants, flowers, trees and ponds.

This year’s tour was held June 15. It brought throngs of people to Lewes – some master gardeners and many amateurs just wanting to get glimpses of otherwise secret gardens.

Seven properties were open for the tour this year, stretching from the historic district out to Hawkseye on Gills Neck Road.

“They’re all special. Everybody’s a little bit different,” said Pam Rankin, co-chair of this year’s tour.

“It’s quite private back here,” said Steve Hanzel, who, along with his wife Anne, opened their garden on W. Third Street to the tour for the first time. “Every year, the garden changes a little bit depending on the type of sunlight.”

Amy Marasco’s garden on Park Avenue is not just one garden. It is a maze of raised planters with vegetables and herbs, sitting areas, sculpted bushes and a secluded swimming pool.

“It’s a garden based on rooms,” Marasco said. “You have a French kitchen cutting garden, an English garden and then an Asian garden cottage.” 

The one section of garden that is no secret is her pollinator garden out front. “I ripped out the grass and planted in with seeds,” Marasco said.

Marasco said the Lewes Planning Commission’s Environmental Subcommittee, which she chaired before being elected to city council, wants to use it as an example of how to turn lawns into pollinator habitats.

On Pilottown Road, Lindley and Laura McGrew were proud to show off their historic house and garden. The original part of the house was built in 1802 and sat on a 1,000-acre farm at the time.

“I wanted this to feel more like an English garden, where it’s kind of a mish-mash of perennials, and every year we can change out the annuals,” Lindley said. “During the pandemic, we said if we’re going to spend a lot of time at home, we should have a beautiful garden, a place where you can spend a lot of time outside and not be worried about getting sick.”

Across town, Patty Storms and Morty Bachar opened up their backyard in Hawseye to curious garden tourers. Their oasis features a flower garden, organic vegetable garden and a koi pond, all just steps from the marsh.

“When I think about a garden, I try to think when I was 8 years old and what I’d like to see. I like to create little secret rooms, secret places to go, and make magic,” said Storms. She and Bachar own Lakeside Pottery and have a studio that overlooks their garden.

Storms and Bachar have had unwanted visitors in their yard in the form of otters, who have snacked on their koi. The current fish in their pond seem to be thriving.

During the tour, Zwaanendael Park hosted a garden market with vendors selling garden-related items and a lot more.

 

Stop No. 2 features Bob Hansen and Kevin Mallinson’s garden on W. Third Street.
People stopped to admire the greenery surrounding a pond in Steve and Lorraine Walker’s backyard.
Jane Madden of Milford wears a hat to match the spectacular gardens she is touring.
Karen Wilkins, left, and Catalina Detweiler check out the trees in Anne and Steve Hanzel’s backyard on W. Third Street, which was the first stop on the garden tour.
Debbie Walls and Mary Grant stroll through an organic vegetable garden at stop No. 7 on Peregrine Road in Hawkseye.
Amy Marasco tells a garden tour visitor how she planted the carrots in her raised vegetable and herb garden.
Anne and Steve Hanzel pose in their garden on W. Third Street.
The Hanzels’ shade garden held some interesting plants and trees.
Another part of Amy Marasco’s garden features sculpted bushes.
Artists from the Cape Artist Gallery painted the gardens during the tour. George Farrah created a portrait of Bob Hansen and Kevin Mallinson’s garden on W. Third Street.
There were lines at most of the seven stops on the garden tour. These curious garden tourers were waiting to check out stop No. 2 on W. Third Street.
A picket gate welcomes visitors to part of Amy Marasco’s expansive garden behind her Park Avenue house.
Morty Bacher, right, just fed the fish in his garden pond. He said they have had otters come up from the marsh behind their yard to snack on the fish.
Patty Storms and Morty Bachar opened their home in Hawkseye to this year’s Lewes Garden Tour.
Patricia Truitt from the Cape Artist Gallery shows off her work at Steve and Lorraine Walker’s garden on Kings Highway. Truitt painted the garden during the tour.
Flowers, plants and trees were what the garden tour was all about.
Pam Rankin, left, and Carolyn Marshall were this year’s co-chairs of the Lewes Garden Tour. They stopped for a photo at stop No. 5 on Pilottown Road.
Visitors to the garden market in Zwaanendael Park stopped to talk to a vendor. Their were arts and crafts, antiques and much more.
Visitors make their way on a path that crosses a waterfall in Steve and Lorraine Walker’s backyard garden on Kings Highway.

Most Popular

Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.

Most Popular