Quail Valley Backyard Tour

2014 Garden Tour

Our 2014 Gardens provide a variety of alternatives how different families create magic in their gardens and enhance their home's comfort and value.

Tour is April 26, 2014,
rain or shine from 10-4.

For a glimpse of What's Blooming 2014

The gardens were selected for variety including location and type of lot, price range, garden variety and/or maintenance ease. The common theme is making the most of your space. All gardens have challenges and twists and turns weather gives us. Whether it's a boring or unusual layout, drainage, creating comfort and intimacy, or space for various pastimes and family and friends, you'll gain creative ideas from home gardeners.

• 3614 Ridgeview        
  
• 3527 East Creek Club
• 2406 Glenn Lakes       
• 2926 Cypress Point
• 2910 Nancy Bell

 All gardens are in the Quail Valley sub-division in Missouri City, TX 77459

Garden art in a plant checkerboard.

All  five gardens reflect very individual styles and interests by the gardeners. All have been intimately involved in the garden and love to share their knowledge, interests and passions.

 Don't miss our Tropical Plant Sale!

 Purchase tickets at any tour location on April 26 or call Janice Scanlan at 713 301-3181 for advance tickets.

Your $10 donation benefit the many community service projects of Quail Valley Garden Club.

Map to Gardens        Buy Tickets

 

3614 Ridgeview

Sunshine and Joy

Come see the sunshine and joy of Dianne and Sam Livingston's garden. Full sun and flowers of every color with unusual settings, textures and areas for entertaining and enjoying family and friends. There's a reason this garden brings so much joy. Creating and caring for the garden is literally what got Dianne through cancer, and as she says, saved my life. Nooks and crannies through out this garden enchant!

 

 Dianne is a master of finding plant diversity and those small touches that can make gardens special to complement the many kinds of plants and colors of flowers or textures and colors of plants.

 Come bath in sunshine, joy, garden art and flowers including roses, natives, tropicals and unusual combinations galore!

  

3527 East Creek Club

Tropical Exuberance

There is an exuberance in every corner of Lulu and Peter De La Mora's tropical paradise . . . a difficult lot shape for many gardeners, Lulu's creativity and zest for life shows in every corner . . . includes a citrus grove, checkerboard garden, and fun art. Clever elements, flowers, fruits and textures incorporate De La Mora's Phillipine and Spanish heritage.

   

Exurberance finds its way into this garden in many ways.

 And there's a pool in a surprising place, which will feature a special tropical display as well as difficult to find tropical and exotic plants for sale. Get a jump on your summer garden with tons of ideas!

This garden views MacNaughton Park . . . and its beautiful paths being planted with a diversity of trees.

 

2406 Glenn Lakes

Sophisticated Palette

Michelle and Sal DiPaola bring their European heritages of German and Italian into a sophisticated garden palette. We have never seen this garden it couldn't show "that day." And people passing on the Quail Valley LaQuinta Golf Course paths agree. Here's a peek!

Michelle is a master of adding detail and displays that cause you to pause, say why didn't I think of that?

 European charm awaits you. Come experience the magic!

 

2926 Cypress Point

Zen of Green

Pat Jones' open space garden on the Quail Valley LaQuinta Golf Course achieves a surprising intimacy without becoming a tangle of plants. Shades of green, with flashes of color such as a Confederate Rose mallow bring peace, rest and privacy. A courtyard is full of seasonal color and texture. Just a peek . . .

 

Relax and enjoy the peace of this intimate setting.

2910 Nancy Bell

Wonder of Nature

Janice and John Scanlan's garden is mostly shady woodlands, but has a flash of sunshine in a courtyard entry that contains a kitchen garden and numerous attractors for hummingbirds and butterflies. Originally designed for easy care, the garden now has more varied plants and is less geometric to attract nature and have the restful sounds of water features in a challenging "sidewinder garden."

 Janice's original plan was to make a year round garden with color every month. She then became interested in making the garden a place to pause and view nature.

 Come see how the Scanlans have brought more desirable nature to their garden.

3418 El Dorado

The Color Purple

 

 

 Nikki Runge bought the home of one of the original developers of Quail Valley, Frank Marsters, Jr. With major renovation inside and out, the garden showcases some of the latest ideas for color and uses well-adapted tropicals and sub-tropicals plantings. An enviable pool is a work of art itself. The lake view isn't bad either.

The garden is a paradise for entertaining and gives the feeling of a vacation in an upscale resort in the tropics or a spa! It's one enduring theme is the color purple and variations of blue and mauve . . . with a little lime green thrown in. As Nikki says, if she walks in a store, and there is only one purple object, it will "find her."

Nikki loves to entertain and have parties. Frankly, she would live in the garden if it was practical. Using tested plants well adapted to our area and reflecting a tropical feel, the garden is an opportunity to display objects, start conversations.

Bottom line the garden is about enjoying life, art, the color purple and mood. Whether it's the Cheshire Cat, a kokopelli, flamingoes, a purple cactus, a dragonfly or a peacock chair, this garden is about expression and sharing the joy of life and the fun of design.

Nikki's brother Chuck is also involved in the garden and is quite adept using paint and texture to surface various materials. He's created some very interesting applications. The latest lighting innovations set a mood and bring the garden into the home at night. Of course, in purple. The pool changes in a rainbow of colors.

 Come celebrate life, whimsy, magic and, of course, the color purple.

Map to Gardens        Buy Tickets       More . . . 2013 Gardens

2130 Glenn Lakes

Kaleidoscope

In 1984, Allen and Linda Barron bought their home on Glenn Lakes. It had minimal landscaping out front and no landscaping in a large, open space back yard. Keeping the open space, but making the garden comfortable is a challenge to any designer. Linda and Allen have done the design, planting and responded to things like Hurricane Ike.

It's now a graceful garden and literally and figuratively a kaleidoscope of ideas. As you enter, you'll see a plant kaleidocope. If you have never played with a plant kaleidoscope, it's entertaining. Unlike the kaleidoscopes most of us have used, it has two ways to change . . . both the planter bowl and the lens move, which can dramatically change depending on the plantings. You can see the difference how plantings of pansies contrast with snap dragons and kale.

Loving the shape of a teak bench but wanting a swing for the memories swinging brings, Linda and Allen fashioned a swing from the bench. Their 4 kids and 9 grandkids all live close and together are now making memories in this enchanting garden.

While the design is classic complete with roses, tiny privets, Azaleas and Purple Leaf Plum, the feel of the garden with its many native plants and the butterflies that visit, is open and easy going.

 

Bottom line the garden is a treasured and nurtured collections of plants, areas to enjoy others, read, or admire the statuary and view. All enhance a wonderful place to make memories with family and friends.

Visit this garden to see a real kaleidoscope of ideas, many beautiful objects and uses of plantings, color and texture. The garden brings together nature, butterflies, birds, as well as family and friends. Come be enchanted and inspired.

Map to Gardens        Buy Tickets       More . . . 2013 Gardens

3139 Glenn Lakes

Meditation Garden

Kyle Pedwell and David Clardy bought their English Tudor 7 years ago. The backyard was barren and ugly. Despite Hurricane Ike, today it is transformed into an English Country Garden with areas for meditation, relaxation and entertaining. Using ideas from QV Backyard Tours and others to build their garden, Kyle and David have done all the work themselves.

Part of the garden is reminiscent of a New Orleans style courtyard with both sun and shade areas, which allows for plant diversity as well as growing fruit trees. It also allows relaxing according to the weather.

Bottom line they especially love perennials, flowering shrubs and plant diversity. Dutchman's Pipe, native mallows, butterfly and shell gingers, Firespike, Esperanza, Hibiscus, Night Blooming Cereus, and several varieties of shrimp plant are just some of the plants.

Another strong point of this garden are focal points and areas throughout the garden, which really expands this garden and invites peeking around corners. The areas are built with easy-to-buy materials put together in pleasing patterns.

Come experience peace and relaxation . . . and what can be accomplished in 7 years from barren to a sanctuary.

Map to Gardens        Buy Tickets       More . . . 2013 Gardens

3530 East Creek Club

Heirloom Garden

Kelly Bourne and DJ Janota bought in Quail Valley a year ago for unique floor plans and trees. Avid collectors of "anything old" or that has an heirloom quality, they wanted a garden where they could entertain, but that would fit with their interests. The basic garden itself already had heirloom plants such as Live Oaks, Crape Mrytles, Nandinas, Plumbago, ferns and other well-adapted plants.

They continued with a garden design that was easy to care for as well as entertain, but added native plants such as Cestrum, Bottle Brush, Bauhinia Mexican Orchid Tree, Angel Trumpets and Vitex for more privacy. For easy care, they consulted with Kelly's mom, who is a Master Gardener to select varieties that "wouldn't take over."

Bottom line, the garden is about finding your interests and style . . . being realistic about maintenance and working in stages with your budget in mind. Just like their collections indoors, they are creating their own collection and style and having fun experimenting with plants.

Entertaining space includes a large bar and planters. Plumerias, Staghorn Ferns, other succulents and various collectibles adorn all areas. DJ loves rooting cuttings and sharing with friends with plants they are collecting.

A natural stone wall takes advantage of the golf course views with a backdrop of Oyster Creek. It also offers plenty of drainage for natives like the Shrimp plants, well-adapted such as split leaf philodendrons, and other plants that thrive in the shade of the large oaks--soften the stone.

Potted plants ease care, ensure more color and work well with a myriad of plant textures such as ferns that make the garden softer, more inviting. Two large Live Oaks frame the golf course.

Unfortunately, our gardeners live in the real world: pool pumps break, windstorms happen. On the date we were to photograph, both of those things happened the night before, but with the view, light and peaceful evening, who is worrying about a few leaves when the light filters through the oaks.

 Come experience the excitement of making a garden yours--with your stamp of magic!

Map to Gardens        Buy Tickets       More . . . 2013 Gardens