The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Garden Club had a busy Saturday morning with tours of the Callahan home on Preston Avenue, and Terry and Bettie Hofer's property off Highway 12.

The Callahan's shared recent improvements including a bee hive awaiting its first inhabitants, an orchard, berry bushes, and raised vegetable beds. Strawberries grow protected, above ground, in rain gutters atop a Pinterest-worthy arbor.

Brian Callahan explained his method of large-scale composting and Deb demonstrated how she puts worms to work making the rich, black soil she uses on her vegetable beds.

At the Hofers', the group enjoyed Terry's newly blossoming tulip garden and his primitive garden art. Terry said his yard art collection has grown over the 10-15 years he's been "fooling around with it" and now boasts "about 75" pieces.

Terry has collected items from yard sales and auctions and refurbished them into creative planters. His collection includes a scythe, dental tools, appliance parts, a car headlight, a child's potty chair, and vintage farm machinery.

Dena Wood

Deb Callahan grows strawberry plants in rain gutters placed atop an arbor to protect them from four-legged critters.

Among Terry's favorites is piece with two ladders and a rod hanging above a child's potty chair sitting on an old grate. A particularly unique planter is made from a cow stanchion and metal cones that once hung by a fireplace and contained carbon tetrachloride, once used to douse fires.

One oddity is a metal drum with a metal wheel inside. "No one's been able to figure out what that was for," Terry said.

Terry's tulip garden boasts 11 rows of tulips, with 50 plants to a row. He plans to expand from 500 to 700 plants in the near future. He currently has 16 varieties of tulips, but will soon increase that number to 25. He has several plants from the Mt. Vernon Tulip Festival.

The Garden Club will meet next on April 23 to plant Main Street planters. All are welcome to bring garden gloves and a hand spade and join in the fun. Flowers and potting soil will be provided.