BROOKINGS – It’s that time of year when the Brookings Area Master Gardeners show off what growing and greens-keeping are all about: the annual Garden Tour, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Featured this year are two public and three residential gardens.

McCrory Gardens and Douglas Chittick Community Gardens are joined by a trio of at-home gardeners: Laron and Lori DeBoer, 1718 Derdall Drive; Prudence DeBates, 1729 Third St., and Allen and Linda Whitaker, 1227 Pheasant Run Road.

At 1.2 acres, the Whitakers have several smaller gardens within what they call “a generous-sized lot.” The couple married in 1976 and moved to Brookings in February 1977. They lived on 12th Street South for 33 years; they built their present house in 2010.

“It looked like the Badlands around here,” she said. “We’ve been gardening here for 10 years.” They planted trees in 2012.

“It’s been a fun 10 years. It’s a lot of work. I’m glad we started then and not now,” Linda said, laughing. “Every garden is a work in progress.”

“We learn from trial and error,” she added. She also noted that while she comes up with the ideas, Allen is “the doer.”

The couple are native South Dakotans. He’s from a farm outside Willow Lake; she’s from Canby, admitting that she’s “a big city girl compared to him.” They met in the Black Hills working at Sylvan Lake while they were in college. He graduated from South Dakota State University in 1975 with a degree in chemistry.

Allen is retired from 3M. Linda calls herself semi-retired; however, she   works full-time from February until closing in June at Medary Acres, noting, “It’s the perfect job: hard work, full-time.”

“We just bed everything down,” Linda said, looking back to their winters before spring arrives. “There are the perennials, and we relax. I can’t imagine living someplace where you garden year-round. It would kill us.”

Gnome Garden and the Black Hills

But come spring, the couple “work a lot.” However, in spring she’s also working at Medary Acres and comes home sometimes too tired to do much of her home gardening.

“This year (Medary Acres) closed on June 15, so I really wasn’t able to get any planting done (here) until then,” Linda explained. “I was planting up until the first week in July.” The couple were then putting in about 40 hours a week.

“Now things are pretty much done,” she said. “It’s just deadheading, weeding and just enjoying it.” 

The Gnome Garden and the miniature Black Hills garden are a couple of the couples’ favorite and unique among the several different gardens spread over their acre-plus lot.

“We both love the Black Hills,” Linda said. “We have such affection for it.” One of what Linda calls the “fun little details” of their miniature Black Hills is a miniature model car reminiscent of the 1964 Chevy Malibu station wagon Allen was driving when they “met out there.”   

 “It’s those fun little details,” she added. “You’re never too old to have fun.”

When it comes to the groundskeeping, Allen does the heavy lifting: mowing (rider mower, of course), edging, mulching, fertilizing and irrigating. The lighter stuff, like planting of individual flowers, that’s Linda’s job. 

“We are definitely a team,” she said. “This year, with the lack of rain, there wouldn’t be anything alive in this yard if it weren’t for him dragging the hoses (and watering).” However, they are glad they escaped the derecho that rolled through the Brookings area in early May.     

“We had a couple of pine trees that tilted,” Linda said. “I guess our trees were young enough and resilient. It was terrifying, but we were fortunate. Neighbors around us lost big trees. I think our trees were young enough. They didn’t quite catch the wind.” 

The Saturday tour begins at McCrory Gardens at 10 a.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 on the day of the tour. To place advance orders, email skmeyer10@hotmail.com or call 605-228-1752. Cash or check only. Tour maps and wristbands will be given at McCrory Gardens prior to the start of the tour.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.