[Today your Lost Coast Outpost provides its readers the opportunity to wander into complete strangers’ beautiful backyards (without fear of being arrested for trespassing). The following garden tour report comes to us courtesy local wedding planner and beauty spotter Alegria Sita. She regularly blogs it up at the Gala Events and Weddings website here. —A. Goff]

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I had the luxury of spending the Solstice weekend in nine different local gardens as part of the annual Humboldt Botanical Garden Tour, a fundraiser for the Humboldt Botanical Garden Foundation (HBGF). The tour consisted of nine residential gardens throughout Eureka boasting a myriad of garden designs and styles. Visitors could visit the gardens in whichever order they chose from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. My friend Jodie and I started at 10 a.m. on the nose and we were glad we did — it took the entire seven hours to get to all nine locations! Each garden truly had its own personality, generating immense inspiration. With so many flowers in bloom, the gardens were full of color, fragrance and beauty! It truly was a day well spent!

(Throughout this post, click photos to enlarge.)

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1. Gardens of Robert and Stephanie McAfee

Our first stop was to visit the garden of Robert and Stephanie McAfee overlooking the Eel River Valley. I refer to this garden as the trinket garden; there were many creative odds and ends adding an artistic touch — statues, relics, gazing balls. 

The more eclectic sections of the garden included repurposed objects — painted bowling balls were used as gazing balls, old barbecues and old wheel barrels became flower pots. Some of the touches I loved I’d seen on Pinterest, such as using old bottles to build a border around a garden bed.


As we were discovering the garden’s intricate details, we had the honor of meeting Mr. McAfee. He shared a sweet story about a little girl that used to live next door that would come over to his garden while he was working in it. One day, she came over and went to sit directly in front of Buddha (one of the many statues in the garden). After a while, Mr. McAfee heard the little girl’s voice and looked up to find that she was sitting face to face with Buddha, having a lengthy conversation! Love this garden!

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Eureka Garden Tour Master List