To all of you who toured our gardens this year and of course to all our garden hosts, the Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour Board would like to extend a BIG THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!

Even though there is no cost to view the gardens, through your kindness and generosity, our treasurer Jan tallied up all the donations and announced that the tour raised $32,662.35. After deducting for the yearly operating expenses, our president Jennifer was able to present a check in the amount of $29,130.89 to the Sheepfold Women's Shelter!

Jennifer, Jan, Vicki, Sarah, Autumn, Laura and myself also want the thank the following garden centers who support this wonderful tour and our garden hosts: Plant Depot and Tree of Life Nursery both in San Juan Capistrano; Green Thumb in Lake Forest; Nursery by South Winds in Irvine, Roger's Gardens in Corona Del Mar, Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana, M & M Nursery, Orange County Farm Supply, Upland Nursery, The Potting Shed, Village Nursery all in Orange; Heavenly Vintage Nursery in Fountain Valley; Village Nursery in Huntington Beach; Brita's Old Town Garden in Seal Beach; Ricardo's Nursery in Long Beach; and H & H Nursery in Lakewood.

Our garden was open on Saturday, so that my hubby and I could spend Sunday viewing some of the new gardens and of course some of our favorites as well. I love how the gardens are laid out in the Tour Guide (thank you to tour guide editor Laura) so it made it easy to go from one garden to the next. The toughest part was figuring out our starting point!

It always brings me such joy when following my GPS, I spy the yellow signs with the arrows pointing me to the next garden. Then I know I've arrived when I see the Mary Lou sign announcing that I'm about to step into one of the "Real Gardens by Real People"!

I'm always looking for the little gems in each garden, and as we approached the Mermaid Cottage's back yard, I knew that besides being in an "underwater realm", I was hopefully going to meet the resident tortoise that I knew ruled this domain due to the hilarious signs announcing his presence!

At the Osti's garden in Seal Beach we delighted in the serenely calm zen feel and the fun adult treehouse. Kai used palm tree bark to make "pockets" on a tree trunk that held a wonderful assortment of ferns, and we loved seeing the stages and sizes of their pineapple plants grown in raised beds.

There was not a bare fence/wall to be seen in the Smith's garden as RJ has "Wall Pockets" attached to every conceivable inch. There is also a "tree" supporting beautiful hanging baskets, colorful wall planters and amazing mosaic "curbing". You'd never know that there is a busy street right behind this colorful, yet tranquil garden.

I spied a "famous kneeling gardener" in Patty Debowski's garden in Fountain Valley, along with a wee small hummingbird nest. I loved the red rimmed raised planters in her grandchildren's gardening area. She's training up the next generation of green thumbs!

Caryn Rivera's home in Tustin had such a beautiful front garden that it took me awhile to meander towards her equally beautiful backyard garden. She has some amazing repurposed garden art, and it was on her  gardening bench (that many gardeners would love to have) that I found this plaque with my new favorite garden quote that I'll sign off with...                            When Heaven falls to earth it becomes a garden.