Artistic Garden Is A Stop On U City In Bloom Tour

University City will show off of some of its loveliest private gardens on  Sunday during the 2011 U City in Bloom Garden Tour.

For the next three days, University City Patch will give a sneak preview of three gardens on the tour.

The first garden highlighted belongs to Ed and Mary Dee Schmidt. They also happen to be the proud parents of Tom Schmidt. Toms owns Franco in Soulard and recently signed a lease for the old Brandt's Café space, where a new restaurant called Nico is going in.

Ed and Mary Dee Schmidt's garden is a watercolor canvas come to life. Actually, the garden is Ed’s very own artwork.

“My wife’s a watercolorist, and she paints. My palette is dirt and plants,” Ed Schmidt said. “I like the creative elements of getting different plants to blend together.”

Ed designed the garden as an extension of the couple's indoor living space. He even added a room that was designed to fit with the garden. Ed described the garden as a peaceful retreat from the world.

“I had a visualization of gorgeousness looking out from my deck and family room,” he said about how he determined the layout and plant selection.

But going from a vision to implementation required some work and planning.

“A lot of it is trial and error. I did a lot of studying to determine things like the right height, what plants bloomed at different times of the year, finding different textures.”

A 40-year resident of University City, Ed has been gardening for 20 years. Two years ago, he joined the board of U City In Bloom and serves as its treasurer.

“But for 15-20 years I’ve been giving away plants for the annual plant sale,” he said.

He said that throughout the years, the organization has become more conscientious of creating sustainable public gardens.

“We’ve evolved and become more sensitive to using native plants. We don’t put in invasive plants, and we have a whole list of plants we won’t use. In the western edge of the city, we worked with Metropolitan Sewer District to put in experimental rain gardens which will conserve water and manage runoff,” Ed said.

For this Sunday’s garden tour, Ed’s goals are to let the community know what the organization does and to raise money so U City In Bloom can continue its work.

“People like what we do so we’ve been pretty successful,” he said.

Ed said U City in Bloom designs and maintains approximately 330 gardens around the city.

This year’s garden tour is 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 day of event and can be purchased by calling 314-973-3541 or going to the University City Public Library. This year will also feature an art show and sale on the lawn of city hall.

For more details about the tour visit the U City in Bloom website.