By MIKE HALLIDAY

The Mirror

John and Sharon Mills live in a park of their own creation.

The Mills’ yard is replete with trees, lush plants, flowers in eye-popping colors and water decorations. The fences and gates have thick coats of paint in proud greens and purples.

Their backyard looks onto a greenbelt of native plants and a canopy of evergreens. One expects to see a deer wander through, unaware it has come into a painting.

As the eyes absorb all the colors and arrangements, the brain is having two conversations: “This is amazing!” and “Weren’t we just standing in a Federal Way neighborhood?”

Folks who like gardens and good landscaping can “ooh” and “aaah” over the Mills’ place and five others as part of the Federal Way Symphony 2004 Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 17. Money raised from the ticket sales will benefit the symphony.

This is the fifth year of the tour.

For them, the opportunity to be part of the tour is an honor, Sharon Mills said.

The couple have lived in their home on Sixth Avenue Southwest for almost 20 years. John, a company vice president in Seattle, has worked in the yard since they moved in. Sharon, as she gave a private tour, said while her husband was busy outside, she was busy inside decorating the house.

About seven years ago, she started coming outside to decorate.

“I see the yard as different rooms,” she said.

The work, and pleasure, of transforming the yard has been rewarding, although there is some good-natured teasing between the spouses and the neighbors, Mills said.

“Some of the other husbands in the neighborhood ask us why we’re changing the yard because they don’t want their wives to see it and ask” the husbands to do it, she said.

It used to be that John and Sharon divided the yard into “his” and “hers” areas. Now they share. Sharon admits she is most of the inspiration and her husband is a lot of the perspiration.

Whatever the arrangement of labor and ideas, the results are better described in a picture than black letters on pulp paper.

Neither Mills has any formal training in landscaping or horticulture. Sharon chooses plants based on their looks. John figures out where they can go in the yard and not get burned by the sun or die from too much water.

While the Mills don’t have a formal background, Gene White does. A landscape architect, White and his wife, Susan, are opening their yard on Redondo Beach Drive South for the garden tour.

For the Whites, making their garden unique was also an effort to make their yard seem larger than it is. At approximately 30 feet by 25 feet, there isn’t a lot of space in the back yard. But the Whites use every inch and give the yard depth and interesting visual features.

The gate, designed and built by Gene, is a blend of cypress, black walnut and western red cedar mounted on sturdy brass hinges. Sections of the fence are staggered a few inches in front of others to bring depth and visual interest.

The front yard looks onto Poverty Bay. A smaller fence covered with foliage screens the small driveway from the windows looking onto the bay.

A Monterey pine rises from one corner of the yard, while a small stand of bamboo rises from the other. The second-floor deck has an opening for the shoots to grow through.

The anchor pieces in the front and back yards are definite conversation starters. In front is a small pool with a sculpture of a mermaid and dolphin sitting in the water. The Whites had the one-of-a-kind sculpture made by an artist in Mexico. In the back, near the neatly trimmed lawn, a banana tree waves its broad leaves. When Susan brought it home as a three-foot stalk, Gene was ready to write its epitaph. The landscape architect thought it wasn’t going to survive. But it’s proof of Susan’s green thumb.

“This has been the most fun,” Susan said of planning and creating their yard.

Having distinct yards was part of the plan for the garden tour, said Helen Kutz, co-chairwoman of the fund-raiser.

“It shows the variety of styles,” she said.

About 800 people are expected to take the tour, Kutz said.

A master gardener will be at each home to answer questions and help those on the tour identify plants in the yards.

Staff writer Mike Halliday: 925-5565, mhalliday@fedwaymirror.com

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