Karen and Charles Potok’s garden, a sample of the Festival of Gardens Give yourself a full day of gardening without the sweat, toil, or thorns. Visitors to the 2010 Festival of Gardens can relax, appreciate, and enjoy the labor of others in a dozen dazzling Spring Valley gardens. Columbia Green hosts the open garden event Thursday, May 20 and Saturday, May 22 from 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Volunteers and Master Gardeners guide you down the garden paths. Registration and ticket purchase are online at www.columbiagreen.org/.

The annual event provides a peek into private gardens such as The Family Gathering Garden of Ann and Steve Holtschlag. The garden blends their lives as northern gardeners with the pleasures and perplexities of growing in a southern climate. Find the secret garden with stepping stones handcrafted by each grandchild.

Imagine a Garden in a Jewel Box, a colorful, fanciful, and compact world created by Jane and Greg Evans. Get on board the Azalea Railroad running through the landscape.

The Naturalistic Garden of Susan Hamilton and Tom Gross overlooks Spring Valley Lake. Explore the paths, ponds, bridges, logs, and rocks while finding delicious edibles along the way.

Contain Yourself! Francine and Phil Smith take container gardening to exalted heights. Moveable container gardens change location over a 12–month cycle. A collection of monkeys watches over the pool, firepit, and plants.

Background music heard in Betsy and Harry Mashburn’s garden bespeaks the owners’ talents in designing the Precise and Creative Garden. Attend to the detail on the handpainted fountain. Stroll shady walkways along the water or venture off the bluestone terrace into hideaways.

A Designer’s Southern Garden is only a year in the making by Steve Ford and Alonso Cuellar. Scent your way to the rose garden and wall of ginger lilies.

The Shades of Green Garden of Linda and Bill Stern is filled with pass–along plants from gardens near and far. Linda nurses ailing plants to their peak potential in a “second chance nursery.”

Gardening with Gravity on the downside of a hill is the challenge taken by Yvonne and Donald Russell. Delight in the many and varied garden rooms furnished in annuals, perennials, fruits and vegetables at the bottom of the slope.

Designated as the Best Rose Garden in the Southeast by the American Rose Society, Vijaya and Satish Prabhu grow roses for exhibition and competition. Their garden inspires rose fever among all who visit.

Painting the Landscape with color is the intent and achievement of Karen and Charles Potok’s garden. The artistic garden is not only furnished in plants but also in souvenirs from world travel.

Careen and Bill Frew’s Garden of Eatin’ for humans and wildlife demonstrates distinctive methods for growing herbs, fruits, and vegetables anywhere.

A Sunny Resort melding residence with garden creates a perennial retreat for Erika and Jack Swerling.

Visitors to Columbia Green’s annual Festival of Gardens support the organization’s largest fundraiser. Columbia Green has given an environmental facelift to the metropolitan area through landscaping, horticulture, gardening, education and conservation projects.