Bellemeade garden featured on 2023 Kilgore Home and Garden Tour

Oct 15, 2023

Peggy Campbell has a sign hanging on her front lawn welcoming guests to visit her garden. From that vantage point, it's difficult to tell just how massive the garden is. But around the corner, there's a vast area full of plant life and designated areas to sit and enjoy the surroundings.

It is one of six gardens on display for this year's Kilgore Home & Garden Tour, but as Campbell explains, her sign stays up almost year-round.

"I always put it out before the Kentucky Derby," she told The Courier Journal. "People come all the time, just walking through the neighborhood."

A retired nurse, Campbell is now a master gardener. She explains that the master gardener program is offered by the Jefferson County Extension Office and the University of Kentucky.

"You go to classes for three months, twice a week," she said. "You have a lab, and you have a final exam at the end. And you learn everything — landscaping, botany, diseases, everything. After that, you’re obligated for (a certain number of continuing education units) that you have to get each year. I have to have 20 volunteer honors and 10 CEUs in education … and my project is the Kilgore (tour)."

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Curating her collection of plants, then creating and maintaining her extensive garden more than covers the number of hours needed to maintain her master gardener status. Campbell wakes up early each morning to tend to her one-acre property, working until about 1 p.m.

"With COVID, this was a good outlet," she said.

Walking through Campbell's backyard is like browsing an outdoor garden gallery. Everywhere you turn, there's greenery. The space is chock-full of plants, flowers, and trees — and it's all labeled.

Everything from St. John's Wort and hypericum to coral bells and hostas have little signs placed in front of them. Campbell explains that part of being a master gardener is labeling your flora.

"It's also so I can remember them," she said with a laugh. "After a while, you forget."

Forgetting wouldn't be hard to do, because there are a wide array of plants throughout the space. Just along the garden entrance on the left side of the house, there are a plethora of shade plants surrounding the hanging swing on a large white oak tree.

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"Most people have questions about the plants in the shade garden," she said. "I spend most of my time (telling) people that you can plant under trees — you have to know how, but you can do it."

The master gardener's shade garden — as well as the other areas of the space — are flourishing. And Campbell doesn't use any chemicals to make her garden grow.

"The thing I do that a lot of people are doing now is called layering, or lasagna gardening," she explained. "I do a 10- or 20-foot piece at a time. I put cardboard down, then shredded leaves, peat moss, and compost. Then I layer it again. I do that in the fall, and in the spring, I plant — and that's how I started all of these gardens."

Campbell is especially fond of her rose garden. "I love roses," she exclaimed. "That's my favorite — (but) they’re the most work, unfortunately."

She adds that she loves peonies and clematises as well.

"That's my favorite thing in the spring," she said, adding that there's an area of the garden that is full of wildflowers in early spring. "(There's) trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, Virginia bluebells, wild geranium. (It's) all here, and it dies down, then all the ferns and other plants come up."

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The space boasts several places to sit and enjoy all the plant life. Campbell has created multiple seating areas with chairs and benches throughout. There are also two back decks connected to the house — one of which overlooks a koi pond. Though the roses are her most-loved plant, Campbell says these sitting areas are her favorite aspect of the garden.

"(I like) sitting out here on the swing," she said. "I’ll never know if people are coming, (then) I’ll look out here and see someone just sitting out here and swinging. It's nice."

Know a house that would make a great Home of the Week? Email writer Lennie Omalza at [email protected] or Lifestyle Editor Kathryn Gregory at [email protected].

WHAT: The 2023 Kilgore Home & Garden Tour showcases six of Louisville's most outstanding gardens, as well as the interior of two homes. Proceeds from the self-guided tour provide support to the Kilgore Samaritan Counseling Center for those who are unable to pay the full fee for counseling.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 10-111

WHERE: The self-guided tour can begin at any of the six addresses listed on the event website.

TICKETS: Tickets are $40 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets can be purchased online, at any of the garden locations on the day of the tour, or at one of the offsite locations: Second Presbyterian Church (weekdays only), St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church (weekdays only), St. Matthews Feed and Seed, Digs Home & Garden, European Splendor, Secret Garden, or the Kilgore Counseling Center.

MORE INFORMATION: Visit kilgorecounseling.org/home-garden-tour/the-tour/ for more information, full descriptions of the gardens, and to purchase tickets.

Owner: Master gardener Peggy Campbell, who is a retired RN.

Home: This is a 3-bed, 2-and-a-half, 3,000-square foot, Bedford stone ranch house in Bellemeade. It was built in 1954.

Distinctive elements: One-acre lot; raised garden beds; outdoor hanging bench; koi pond; completely chemical-free garden.