Holly Barstow and Trish Longacre live next door to each other, are great friends and love to garden.
The gardens of Holly Barstow and Trish Longacre will be featured on the Munroe-Meyer Guild Garden Walk on June 9. The neighbors and friends both love to garden and have created two completely opposite landscapes.
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Their landscaping, however, couldn’t be any different.
“They are completely opposite. Hers, to me, is like a secret fairy garden,” Longacre said. “Mine is less busy, but there are still lots of places for your eyes to rest on. Lots of green space.”
The two friends have agreed to be a part of the Munroe-Meyer Guild Garden Walk. Seven gardens spread throughout southwest and west Omaha will be showcased during the June 9 event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Barstow said people are often surprised at what they find in her backyard. Up until the past few years, the front of the house didn’t match the “resort” behind it.
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“The word that comes out is: it is kind of magic,” she said. ”You are immediately relaxed. It’s the sounds, smells, it’s all that green and color and the little rooms. It just gives you this relaxed feeling like you are on vacation.”
The backyard is packed with the old-school flowers that she adores. When she and her husband, Bruce, moved in in 1991 it was just “sod over a cornfield,” she said.
The pond in Holly Barstow’s Omaha garden. She also has a stream.
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“I probably have 18 hydrangeas. I love peonies. I have hostas, clematis, lily of the valley, the old kind of daisies that self-seed. If it’s an old kind of flower I really really love that,” she said.
Her backyard includes a pond, a stream, an outdoor room for entertaining and a new interesting area that she hasn’t seen anywhere else, even on Pinterest. She’s looked.
Since finding a head-bust planter that’s 4 feet tall and 2½ feet wide in Mexico, she’s placed all of the other head busts of varying sizes she’s collected in the same area in her garden.
She calls it her “head garden.” She’s worked hard to coordinate the heads with a hairstyle that matches the planter. She’s planning a fun surprise for the day of the garden walk.
“My little ‘head garden’ is really cool,” Barstow said.
The other area she thinks is memorable is right next door, where a tree the family planted 32 years ago is now huge.
Holly Barstow has created a garden area filled with her favorite head planters.
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“We built an outdoor living area into the garden with a chandelier coming out of the tree,” she said. “It’s a nice seating space, a great outdoor dining room and living room.”
Longacre also loves to entertain. They laugh that for both, “the more the merrier” should be their motto. They also enjoy a glass of wine together at the end of the day, in either of their yards.
Longacre’s guests can spread out on the lush grass that covers most of her backyard, which is much larger than Barstow’s lot. She can easily host 200.
Since her and husband, Tim, moved in in 2006, she’s changed the entire look. She started with some big trees but no garden beds or plants.
“I love looking outside,” she said. “I just have so many shades of green.”
Borders now surround the green space, filled with flowers she’s found will flourish in shade.
Borders filled with color surround Trish Longacre’s lush grass in her Omaha backyard.
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She’s planted hostas, several hydrangea varieties, ninebarks, verbena, many grasses, coral bells, day lilies, shasta daisies, clematis and Rose of Sharon.
“Any perennial that I can get color,” she said. “Pretty much all the perimeter of my yard is planted.”
As well as guests, the big expanse of turf comes in handy for their two dogs. One of them, 5-year-old miniature labradoodle Hank, is crazy about catching a ball.
“We could throw the ball 10 hours a day and it would never be enough for Hank,” Longacre said. “That grassy area is Hank’s ball catching area.”
They’ve also added some outdoor living areas. A pergola has a retractable awning and covers a sectional, TV and fire pit.
Next to that is another deck area with a 12-foot swim spa that her grown-up children still enjoy often with their friends.
“It’s kind of fun to have a whole extension of the living area,” she said.
The Longacre family and friends enjoy the outdoor living areas in their Omaha backyard.
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The garden is no longer Longacre’s sole domain. Tim has retired after a 45-plus-year career as a physician, including 26 in the Air Force, and has taken over some of the watering chores. He’s also started offering advice on what to plant.
“He’ll be like, ‘We need to add something in this corner.’ I’m like, ‘Go ahead,’” Longacre said. “It’s like having my own pool boy.”
Photos: Two neighbors, two entirely different gardens
Holly Barstow and Trish Longacre sit in Longacre’s Omaha garden.
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Borders of plants surround Trish Longacre’s lush yard.
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The Longacre family enjoys the outdoor living space.
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A flower blooms in Holly Barstow’s front garden.
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Holly Barstow’s front garden.
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Holly Barstow’s front garden is full of color.
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Some of the head planters in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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Holly Barstow loves collecting head planters.
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One of the head planters in Holly Barstow’s yard.
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The entertainment area in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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Holly Barstow in her garden.
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A pond in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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A pond in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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A mirror reflects the pond in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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A bench in Holly Barstow’s garden.
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A look at a pathway in Trish Longacre’s garden.
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The sitting area in Trish Longacre’s garden.
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The sitting area in Trish Longacre’s garden. She loves to entertain.
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Colorful borders surround Trish Longacre’s backyard.
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A flower pot hangs in Trish Longacre’s garden.
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The family loves to use the living space in Trish Longacre’s backyard.
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A Tricolor European Beech grows in Trish Longacre’s garden.
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Trish Longacre’s backyard sitting area.
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Trish Longacre’s sitting area.
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Trish Longacre in her Omaha garden.
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Trish Longacre’s front garden.
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Garden Calendar
• Early June is a good time for a second application of a preemergence herbicide to lawns with a history of heavy crabgrass, foxtail and spurge pressure.
• As summer temperatures increase, frequently check the soil moisture content of patio planters and houseplants set outside for the season.
• After spring blooming shrubs (lilac, viburnum, dogwood) have finished blooming for the year, thin them out by cutting off a third of the stems at the ground level.
• Tie tomato stems to cage supports to limit wind damage and create good air flow across the leaves.
• Check the mulch layer around perennials, trees and shrubs. Add 2-3 inches of wood chips if it has blown or washed away.
• Inspect apple and pear trees for wind-damaged stems and crossing branches. Prune lightly to remove damaged and competing stems.
— John Fech, Nebraska Extension in Douglas and Sarpy Counties
Munroe-Meyer Guild Garden Walk
The Munroe-Meyer Guild Garden Walk will be held June 9, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine.
Tickets are available at Hy-Vees, Mulhuls, Conoyer Gardens or on the website, gardenwalk.info. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 a day of the event.
The gardens:
Delanty Garden, 119 S. 167th Circle, from a clean slate to a tranquil garden.
Gerber Garden, 618 S. 184th Street, Cuttings from family and show-stopping sculptures.
Carlson Garden, 1417 Peterson Drive, Japanese garden in the heart of the city.
Longacre Garden, 13018 Charles St., conquering the challenges of shade.
Moore Garden, 4303 N. 166th St., a garden with a spot for every plant.
Barstow Garden, 13012 Charles St., check out the new head planter garden.
Cornwell Garden, 1621 S. 186th Circle, a midsummer night’s dream that flows through a pool, pergola and fire pit.
