From fruits to aspens, garden on tour has it all

You’ll see lots of kinds of gardens on the master gardeners’ garden tour next weekend – from no-lawn, to children’s to shade. And in one of them you’ll see how you can fit pretty much a little bit of everything in one backyard.

In fact, in the west-side garden of David and Gwynne Bonifield, as pretty as it is, the primary theme is fruit, said Gwynne, a designer, writer, educator and master gardener.

“My grandmother taught me how to make pear preserves and I always wanted a pear tree,” Bonifield says.

Now she has friends over and teaches them how to make not only pear preserves but strawberry jam, grape jelly and other sweet concoctions from the harvest in her backyard.

The Bonifield garden, at 10126 W. Westport Court, is one of eight residential gardens on the tour, which will be over three days – Friday through June 5 – and covers both the east and west sides of town, as well as a stop in Bel Aire. One of the gardens, Kreative Kids Pre-School at 7007 W. 12th St., is the botanical playground for the children who attend the colorful day care.

At the Bonifields’, you can see how to incorporate fruit trees, berry bushes and vines and patches, a vegetable garden, a shed, and shade and sun plants into one pleasing whole – with lots of places to sit and take in the view.

The thoughtful touches include wrought-iron gates that offer neighborly views into the privacy-fenced backyard, and slate stones placed in the grass for a pretty, easy walk through the yard. The stones at one time matched the stone patio, until David decided he didn’t like it and took up the patio stones and stacked them to the side while had a concrete patio poured.

“It turned out it made a nice stone shelf to put plants on,” he said of the stack.

And when it came time to putting in a shed for all his tools, he made sure it took the form of a cottage, with its own front porch. “That way my shed doesn’t look like a shed sitting in her garden.”

The fruit trees were among the first trees planted in the yard as far back as the 1990s. After a pear and two apple trees, cherries and peaches eventually followed.

“That is what the emphasis is in our garden: It’s fruit. We had a little bit here and there and have added to it,” Gwynne Bonifeld said.

When David Bonifield retired in 2010, the couple started to landscape more of the large backyard at 10126 Westport Court near 13th and Maize Road.

Neat beds edged in new pine timbers hold blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes – the size of the beds having to be increased two years ago. Cross posts of the same timber hold wire for the brambles to climb.

Next to these beds – in the big sunny middle of the yard, not off to the shady sides – is the vegetable garden. Trellises of galvanized-steel cattle panels give it a sleek look and also provide a good growing surface for green beans, cucumbers and peas.

An old rusty cultivator leaning against one of the trellises adds character, as does a garden fork plunged into a bale of straw.

As mulch for the vegetables the Bonifields use cotton seed hulls (not to be confused with cotton burr compost). The cotton seed hulls don’t blow away, and at the end of the season, you can till it into the soil to add organic matter and help break up clay.

Grape vines and a strawberry patch grow in other parts of the yard, melding edibles with ornamentals. Brian Nelson who lived in the Wichita area and worked at Brady Nursery at the time designed the ornamental part of the landscape about seven years ago.

David Bonifield loves aspen trees and planted a Prairie Gold aspen. This is the type that has been developed in Nebraska and takes Kansas heat and wind.

“It’s one of those trees where it’s a little something unusual,” said Cathy Brady of Brady Nursery, which sold 20 of the single-trunk type last year. The Bonifields have a clump version.

A giant weeping willow and globe willow anchor one end of the yard; a columnar oak goes right up the chimney at the back of the house.

The seating areas in the yard are as notable as the plants. They include a hammock slung under a sweeping weeping willow and nestled up to the aforementioned stone shelf. Three sets of tables and chairs are set up on the patio, and a wood deck up a few steps overlooks the patio. At the back of the yard is a little brick patio where two grills are kept. There’s even a two-person swing on a stand in the shade garden.

Making these sitting areas into charming vignettes is some of Gwynne’s indoor handiwork. She makes pillows and little garden flags out of coordinating material, putting the pillows on the seats and the flags on posts alongside.

Despite her love for fruit, “my favorite part is the shade garden,” Gwynne Bonifield said, where white impatiens spark huge hostas and coral bells.

In the hosta bed, Cathy Brady recommends a mulch of pecan hulls, because their sharp edges help deter hosta-loving slugs.

Tickets for the garden tour are $10, come with a map and are good for all three days, so you can break it up if you want.

Here are the addresses and brief descriptions that the master gardeners give of the other gardens:

From Family Farm to City Chic: 2538 Glacier Drive. It borders Pawnee Prairie Park features pieces of the Whitewater farm where the residents used to live.

Kid-Sized Garden for Growing Minds: Kreative Kids Pre-School, 7007 W. 12th St. This day care includes a clematis-draped arbor; a hopscotch trail through zinnias, elephant ears, gazing balls and windmills; and a fern-filled hidey-hole.

Bird’s-eye View of a Shady Retreat: 2905 N. Wild Rose Court. A tall deck overlooks a shade garden including hammock, a “lover’s settee,” fountains, hot tub and angels.

Mighty Oaks and Memories: 3382 Riverdale Road. The family has lived at the house for 43 years, and a giant oak dominates the sprawling backyard, full of twinkling lights.

From Rookie to Results: A Garden of Growth: 4317 Eagle Lake Drive in Bel Aire. The owner put her stamp on a blank slate starting 27 years ago, turning clay soil into a landscape filled with combinations of annuals, perennials, sculptures and surprises.

A Kansas Garden for Pollinators: 6409 Abbotsford: A master gardener plants plants that attract pollinating bees and butterflies and that tolerate Kansas weather extremes.

No Lawn Needed, Just Abundant Color: 10 Hawthorne. The only grass in this yard is ornamental grasses, among flowers, shrubs and trees plus artistic embellishments and a pond.

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 7:23 AM with the headline "From fruits to aspens, garden on tour has it all."