Shaler Garden Club tour and Great Garden Contest a summer smash

Around 200 people attended Shaler Garden Club’s 15th Annual Great Garden Tour on July 9.

“Spectacular, whimsical, and clever,” were words used to describe William and Catherine Heintzinger’s garden, which won first place in the 2022 Shaler Great Gardens Contest. The couple started their garden in 1974 and it includes a 95-foot water feature running the length of the yard. It emphasizes rocky terrain more so than grass.

Garden tour co-chair Karen Reilly said it’s part of a trend in gardening that emphasizes features other than lots of grass.

Something other than “the era of big, expansive lawns that started sometime in the 1800s when having these big green lush lawns became a symbol of being well to do,” Reilly said.

Reilly also singled out Woody Mucka’s garden.

“He has incorporated ornamental glass sculptures in his yard that are very reminiscent of Chihuly glass sculpture,” she said. “He’s got those kinds of glass sculptures placed here and there in his garden and it just really brings your eye around to see all the different plantings that he has. Instead of it being one full swoop of different shades of green, you have all these unique sculptures here and there. It’s really, really pretty.”

Proceeds from tickets sales went to Shaler North Hills Library — around $3,000 will be donated.

This year’s winner of the Great Garden Contest will be named before the end of the month.

“We went from house to house throughout the day and there were a lot of people coming out of one particular garden or another that we were at and a lot of people were saying ‘Oh, that was so fabulous. It was great. We loved it.’ We got a lot of good feedback on the tour,” Reilly said. “I think one of the reasons is because it was a different variety, there was something for everybody. Every garden was a little different.”