The England garden is one of many throughout this area that will be open to the public this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is all part of the annual Tooele County Master Gardener's Tour and will provide opportunities to see the talents of neighbors and get ideas for home gardens.

The England's yard is a reflection of their interests and family sentiments. Joe D. England loves wood carving and his wooden birdhouses and bears mingle with the attractive flowers, shrubs and trees that his wife, Rodie, loves to tend. An iron fence from Joe D.'s parent's home helps set apart one small area and a water feature graces another.

A couple of tombstones worked into the landscape are great conversation starters. People wonder what they are doing in the back yard.

"When our children were home, one of our daughter's boyfriends asked about the stones and we told him that one of her boyfriends was buried there after it hadn't worked out," Rodie remembers with a chuckle.

"There are really some pet parakeets that we buried under one of them after they died. It was a traumatic time for the children," she said.

The headstones came from a family plot at the Tooele Cemetery when they were changed out a number of years ago. They had aged and the names had worn off and become unreadable, so newer stones have replaced them.

The Englands put in the water feature several years ago before they left for an LDS mission to Russia, so they had never gotten to use it.

"When they came to start it last week, it wouldn't work because the Settlement Canyon water was turned off. So we still haven't seen it," she smiled.

Rodie took her love of gardening with her on the couple's mission to Siberia. She says they grow a remarkable assortment of vegetables in that area despite the climate and she determined that they must have a single tomato plant for the balcony patio of their apartment. When she and Joe D. went to the store and asked for a single plant, the woman gave them 10. They decided to grow all of them and dutifully went home and planted them. Before frost marked the end of the season, they got a grand total of seven tomatoes.

"It means they cost us a dollar per tomato," Rodie chuckled. "I didn't realize why until I took the Master Gardener class. The teacher pointed out that you can't just put garden soil into a container and grow it without fertilizer. I needed potting soil and fertilizer for that patio."

Born in Durango, Colo., and raised in Red Mesa in the Four Corners area about 30 miles away, Rodie was one of 14 children. Her mother worked in their gardens most of every day. As a girl, she always wondered why her mother worked so hard in her garden until she started gardening herself.

"Then I realized what a joy it is. She (her mother) did it because she had to, to provide food for so many people. For me it is rewarding, almost like raising a family. To plant something and see it blossom and grow, is like raising children. You raise them and see them blossom and find satisfaction when they turn out the way you wanted them to," she said.

Her husband, Joe D., mows the lawn, and that's all the gardening he wants, she chuckles. He has hay fever and really doesn't enjoy getting outside among the plants very much. That is fine with her because gardening is one of Rodie's passions. Quilting is the other and the two are complimentary.

"I can work outside during the day and quilt at night," she says.

Except for lawn-mowing, Rodie has done all the gardening at their house, and the rental units and Best Western Hotel that she and her husband own until the past year or so. Now she has a helper in Rachel Myrick who works with her on all the projects. She says it is very helpful to have someone who really likes to garden to work with.

Her garden includes mostly perennials, which she notes are not necessarily easier because the plants require periodic digging and dividing. Some of the plants are moved around by design, while others take it upon themselves. Two quaking aspens started out in one area of the back yard and they continually mow off sprouts in the lawn. The lawn care company treats the sprouts with something to help keep them at bay, but some volunteer trees have come up in other parts of the yard where they have been more welcome.

"I wish they were longer-lived," England says. "If they die you can pull them out and there is always another to take its place, but it would be good if they lived longer. I love quakies."

An attractive smoke bush graces a border garden in her back yard. It was an unknown "gift" from a neighbor as a seed that blew in and planted itself there. Serendipitously it landed in the perfect spot to add its rich purple tones and fluffy seed heads to the lighter greens of other shrubs and plants.

Many other plants are in place by design. A snowball bush is reminiscent of her grandmothers' gardens and iris in various forms stretch their elegant blossoms in the spring. Some have variegated foliage that add color interest as well as shape through the rest of the summer. She has fallen in love with Rose of Sharon and has recently planted a shrub in her garden. And, no old-fashioned garden would be complete without daisies.

To "finish" the natural look, wildlife sometimes drop in to pay a visit. Some of these visitors are less welcome than others. Deer make regular appearances, but a cougar that took up residence in the neighborhood a few years back made everyone nervous. It had attacked and sometimes killed neighborhood pets before it was finally trapped in a neighbor's back yard. Local animal control officials captured it and took it away.

Rodie and Joe D's children learned to love gardening from their mother and they also grow plants in their own yards. That passion for plants will likely keep Rodie at it for many years to come.

Tickets and maps to this year's garden tour will be available at the homes of Gary and Janet Fawson at 187 Waterhole Way, and Barbara Barlow at 394 W. 200 South for a small donation to the Master Gardeners for planting more trees in area communities.

There are many beautiful yards in the community that the Master Gardeners don't know about. The Master Gardener Garden Tour will include just a few of them. If you know of other attractive yards that could be added another year, please contact the Tooele County Master Gardeners through Patty at the Tooele County Extension Office at 277-2400.