It is always an interesting experience taking my wife on a garden tour. Last Saturday we did the Divide Garden Club garden tour in the Georgetown Divide area.
Georgetown, once a 19th century gold camp - founded in 1849 - is in El Dorado County.
Asked the question of why the club is called the Divide Garden Club rather than the Georgetown Garden Club, Gail McGonigle, president of the 57 member club, explained.
"Because Georgetown is a very small isolated area, and we focus on the entire Divide," she said. "This area is called the Georgetown Divide. But the Divide includes Georgetown, Greenwood, Kelsey, Garden Valley, Cool and Pilot Hill."
The tour began at Georgetown Park with a plant sale organized by Barbara Ardnan with help from club volunteers. Garden club members and local gardeners in the community donated plants for the sale.
Of course, my wife bought plants at the sale - three Ponderosa pines that she most likely will plant on our neighbor's property.
The funds from the sale and tour all go back into the community.
"We have a native plant garden in the Georgetown Park, part of the Georgetown Divide Recreation District," McGonigle said. "We sponsor the youth group at the Georgetown school. We donated quite a chunk of money for their greenhouse last year."
The Georgetown Divide area has a deer problem, so many of the plants for sale were identified as "deer-resistant."
Carolyn Singer, considered by many as the expert on "deer-resistant" plants and author of "Deer in My Garden," a highly acclaimed book from Garden Wisdom Press, answered questions and autographed her book.
What I will remember about this garden tour was driving on dusty, gravel roads to get to some of the gardens.
Fortunately, my wife took her Bonine, a car-sick pill, before we drove through the American River Canyon.
The tour was organized by club member Sharon Juchau. The five gardens on the tour were all very different from one another. All garden hosts were not members of the Divide Garden Club.
The first of the gardens we visited was in Volcanoville, 12 miles up the road from Georgetown. We traveled a long way on the dusty, gravel road. This was a unique shade garden in the midst of a pine forest.
The garden tour program for this garden suggested visitors see the worm bed and learn about worm compost and "tea" for fertilizing plants.
When my wife digs in her soil and finds a red worm, she gets excited. For a long time she has talked about raising red worms for her garden. She always wants more worms.
Since the garden host was so knowledgeable about vermiculture - the raising and production of earthworms and their byproducts - my wife listened and asked questions.
Of course, the temptation was too great. She purchased red worms. The garden host included printed material about raising worms. She is now involved in vermiculture. Now she has to buy a worm bin.
But at least we can now re-cycle most of the kitchen scraps.
We did get to the other four gardens on the tour, three in Garden Valley and one in Kelsey. We saw lots of "deer-resistant" plants, perennials and shrubs.
While in Garden Valley, we stopped at the Golden Gecko, the only nursery on the Georgetown Divide. I was impressed with the display gardens along Empire Creek.
Before we returned home, my wife took another car-sick pill.
Saul Wiseman can be reached at swiseman368@sbcglobal.net.