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Saturday, July 14, 2001

By Kevin Kirkland, Post-Gazette Homes Editor

Fern-filled hideaways, waterfalls and an heirloom garden populated with plants from relatives around the country are among the highlights of today's Passavant Hospital Foundation Enchanted Gardens Tour.

Registration and lunch begin at 11 a.m. at the hospital, 9100 Babcock Blvd., and tours begin at 1 p.m. Tickets, which include lunch and transportation, are $45.

Six North Hills gardens will be featured, including one overlooking a cliffside in Hampton. Beginning with a few wild ferns, the homeowner has created a refuge beneath a canopy of tall trees. Ostrich plume ferns, bleeding hearts, Jacob's ladder and Solomon's seal grow along the paths.

The conversion of a brick home to a log cabin set the tone for a creek-bordered series of gardens with a fish pond, fountains, benches, birdhouses and wind chimes.

The tour also opens to view a garden where the philosophy is: "What is willing to grow is allowed to grow." Many of the plants are gifts from the gardener's relatives.

In keeping with that natural theme is a garden built around a swimming pool-sized pond fed by three waterfalls. Frogs, mallard ducks, wild turkeys and blue herons live there, due in part to the gardener's avoidance of all pesticides and herbicides. A deck spanning the width of the house offers a view of the wildlife.

Another garden boasts a gazebo and greenhouse in which the owner can enjoy and cultivate a large variety of herbs, vegetables, shade-loving annuals and perennials like hardy hibiscus, yarrow, astilbe, Jacob's ladder, iris and delphinium.

The sixth stop on the tour begins with front beds filled with ornamental grasses, Alberta spruces, rugosa and fairy roses and a mixture of perennials such as daisies, lamb's ear, 'Moonbeam' coreopsis and daylilies. Around the back are a flower-bordered patio and twin bridges over a creek bed, leading to a quiet, shady place to rest.

Tour proceeds benefit UPMC Passavant's outdoor beautification project. At 2:30 p.m., a drawing will be held for 23 gift baskets now on display in the hospital lobby. Tickets are $1 each. For tour information, call the hospital at 412-367-6520.