A usual rainy Saturday afternoon didn’t stop the Sayville Garden Club and Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts (BAFFA) from holding their biennial Garden Tour on June 14.
Despite the drizzle, …
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A usual rainy Saturday afternoon didn’t stop the Sayville Garden Club and Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts (BAFFA) from holding their biennial Garden Tour on June 14.
Despite the drizzle, a steady stream of garden enthusiasts navigated throughout Sayville and Bayport to tour the six backyard gardens on the tour after picking up a map at the BAFFA Gillette House. Depending on the time of day, attendees could enjoy live music from local groups or watch live plein air painting.
The first stop on the tour brought attendees to the back garden of Doreen and Bob Nyman. Visitors are introduced to the native plant, vegetable, and herb garden as they walk down the driveway, which suddenly transforms into a rustic sitting area, where wood chips replace concrete on the ground and the garage becomes a gardening shed.
After walking past the herb and vegetable gardens, where the Nymans grow tomatoes which they can into enough sauce to last them a whole year, visitors could watch the goldfish swim beneath lily pads in a pond beside the deck, where the local band Strings Attached performed during the late morning.
Since the Nymans moved in over 35 years ago, they’ve shaped the once completely open backyard into an ever-expanding garden, topped off with a chicken coop in the back and plenty of cozy sitting areas.
“Each year, we probably have made our gardens bigger and the lawn smaller!” Doreen Nyman, who is also the founder of the over 4,000-member Facebook Group, The Long Island Fig Network, said.
Next up on the tour were the expansive gardens of Liz Marcellus, for whom gardening isn’t just a hobby or passion, but a career.
Locals may recognize Marcellus’s year-round flower bouquet stand outside her Sayville home, but besides tours Marcellus offers in the fall, or during photoshoots, many might be unaware of the enchanting maze-like gardens, including rows of flowers she uses for events.
“Every plant here has a purpose,” Marcellus said.
Like the Nymans, Marcellus’ garden began humbly, starting with the construction of a picket fence to create a backyard where her daughter’s future dog could roam free.
But with each sapling and seed she planted, over the years, the garden has become her career, with Marcellus becoming a floral designer for weddings and other events using her chemical-free flowers grown at home in Sayville.
Every fall, as the leaves start turning, Marcellus opens her always-evolving garden to the public, where she raises money for charitable organizations, including the Sayville Food Pantry, and provides aid to Ukraine.
While the rain kept pouring throughout the whole day, dreary weather didn’t stop visitors from hopping from garden to garden, including Gary Fortcher and Kathleen Mulligan’s woodland oasis in Bayport.
Sparrows and other backyard birds flocked to the roughly dozen bird feeders tucked inside a wildflower garden, fitting for the owners of the Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop in Oakdale. Miniature gnomes and fairy statues stood watch over the “woodland trail” toward the back, leading to a “Bug Hotel” and composting area.
BAFFA board member Bernice Corbin painted the garden scenes beneath a canopy, including a goldfish pond, as the raindrops softly bounced off flower petals and leaves.
Around the corner, Debra and Daniel Jedlicka welcomed visitors to their “English cottage-style” garden. Fragrant honeysuckles and blue hydrangeas stand beside the iron entry gate, leading into the garden, lined with stone footpaths and dotted with columns holding ferns crafted from rocks the couple gathered over the years.
While the Jedlickas have refined their garden for around 30 years, they didn’t become a stop on the Sayville Garden Tour until their neighbor across the street, a member of the Sayville Garden Club, gave them a recommendation after admiring the preview from a distance.
The Smithtown-based classical group, Long Island Camerata, performed pieces on the back deck as visitors strolled by under the rain.
The next stop was the garden of the Yannotto Family in Sayville, whose perennials and annuals line the perimeter of their property, and for whom gardening has become a way of therapy.
The final stop on the tour was the “private sanctuary” of Lee and Tony Miller, with different conifers, shrubs and perennials lining the backyard pool.
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