The fourth in a series highlighting each of the six private gardens featured on this year’s Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour scheduled for Saturday, June 8. The tour is presented by Mount Airy’s three garden clubs. Proceeds will benefit a variety of charities. Ticket-holders will have a bonus opportunity to drive through the Healing and Prayer Garden at Northern Regional Hospital. Tickets for the Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour are available at Eventbrite.com, the Mount Airy Visitors Center and at each garden site on the day of the tour. Advance tickets are $20 while tickets on the day of the tour are $25 (cash only). For more information contact mountairyblooms@gmail.com.
When Kathy and James (Dirk) Wagner moved to Mount Airy almost 20 years ago, they needed a safe, quiet neighborhood where their adult autistic son would be safe walking. They found the perfect house on Robin Road but the house needed some renovating inside and out, as well as some personal touches.
The Wagners moved to Mount Airy from Dirk’s home state of Indiana because, Kathy says, Dirk had always promised her they would retire in the South. Kathy, who is originally from Georgia, says she loves being back in a small Southern town where neighbors are friendly and help each other. The Wagners chose Mount Airy because Dirk found a job teaching in the ROTC program in Patrick County, Virginia, after spending more than 24 years in the US Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. When the Wagners bought their home (originally built by Charles and Norman Lawrence many years ago), the front yard had no grass and consisted primarily of mulch and gravel. The back yard was a forest, also featuring mulch, and no grass. The Wagners removed 28 trees from the back yard and planted grass in both the front and back. In addition, they changed the cedar shakes on the house to white siding and replaced the windows, giving their home an updated look.
Today, the front of the house features a well-groomed small city yard of grass, trees, shrubs and flowers. A bird house sits alongside a two-tiered fountain-style birdbath welcoming feathered friends to the front yard. Variegated hostas, million bells, boxwoods, dwarf red maples and evergreens are strategically placed around the perimeter of the front yard. Pots of petunias, verbena, begonias, and ferns are tucked in to the landscape around evergreens, creating a soothing contrast of cool green and bright colors. The side yard features an old-fashioned wooden swing, surrounded by a large snowball bush (viburnum).
Although the front yard is beautiful and perfectly manicured, thanks to the hard work of Kathy, Dirk, and their son, Michael, it is the back gardens that are truly stunning and expansive. Visitors who participate in this year’s Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour will be amazed when they stroll past the swing and around the corner of the Wagner house to see a surprisingly large, open back yard—a peaceful oasis in the middle of the city. The back garden is expansive now that the 28 trees are gone; however, there are still enough large poplars, maples and oaks to provide welcome shade on a hot, summer day. A garden shed, which blends with the siding of the house, sits in the back yard. Not only does it provide shelter for lawn mowers and garden tools, but it also serves as a backdrop for a trellis holding climbing red mandevila.
A decorative white gazebo features wrought iron seating for four and also provides shade. Ferns hang from the roof of the gazebo, while roses and azaleas are planted around the outside. Pots of annuals provide additional color. A nearby lamp post sports another climbing red trumpet mandevila.
An assortment of concrete angel figurines Kathy Wagner has collected over the years are tucked strategically into the landscape. Kathy says working in her gardens is both calming and healing for her—and was especially therapeutic when her seven-year-old grandson died 15 years ago. One of the angel statues reminds Kathy of her grandson when he was 4 years old.
Like many gardeners, Kathy loves a variety of annuals and perennials. Her back gardens feature Mexican petunias which Kathy says bloom all summer but close up at night. Limelight and strawberries and cream hydrangea are almost ready to bloom. Other flowering plants include impatiens, verbena, Lenten roses, lavender and daylillies.
The Wagner remodeling project extended to the back deck where they renovated the existing deck and added a lower-level deck plus a ground-level curved patio. Seating for relaxing and dining under umbrellas or under a pergola provide multiple spaces for outdoor entertaining. Planters of flowering annuals abound, welcoming family and friends.
Solar panels on the roof of the back of the house provide about half of the home’s electricity, according to Kathy.
It is obvious that Kathy enjoys nature: planting, watching her flowers grow and bloom and nurturing new growth. More bird feeders dot the back landscape and numerous benches allow for peaceful meditation or a quick break from yard work.
Kathy also loves children, as evidenced by the path and archway leading from the Wagner back yard to the home of Dr. Lauren and Blanton Youell, whose home is also on the Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour. Kathy and the Youells consider her their “in-town grandmother” since she loves having the Youell children run through the archway to visit.
Note: Because parking is limited on Old Springs Road, participants in the Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour will park at the Wagners and walk through the arch to the Youells after touring the Wagner gardens.
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