RIPON – The Winters garden is the perfect setting for the auction and opportunity drawing portion of the Ripon Garden Club’s September Stroll garden tour taking place today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Winters family created a “comfortable and accommodating” ambience in their spacious back yard with the help of the King’s Landscaping whose designer envisioned “plucking a mountain stream out of a forest” and then turned into a serene garden centerpiece. The elegant water feature, which includes a serene free-form pool fed by a waterfall splashing down a rocky “mountain,” and another smaller waterfall flowing from a circular spa next to it, provides a stunning visual backdrop to outdoor gatherings. The spacious back yard garden affords more than ample space for large gatherings, such as the sophisticated graduation party that the Winters hosted recently for 150 people.

An outdoor fireplace, a cozy corner next to the pool complete with a campfire, an outdoor kitchen, and seating areas lend a lot of creature comforts for the family and their guests gathering al fresco. All around the garden are lush plants and flowers to provide the visual feast.

The Winters can even take a “hike in the forest” behind their gigantic waterfall, thanks to a walking trail that the landscape designer built in the middle of the lush plants and trees that include crepe myrtles, butterfly bushes, and Rose of Sharon that are still in full bloom at this time of the year.

The elegant landscaping at the entrance to the long driveway and all around the spacious areas in front of the house are just appetizers to the visual feast that awaits in the Winters’ back-yard Eden.

Tickets to the opportunity drawing will be available here with a host of big-ticket items waiting for the lucky winners. One of the major items that is being offered in the silent auction, which is also being held here, is a sophisticated porcelain Victorian tub that was donated for the Ripon Garden Club’s fund-raiser.

Those who want to take part in the garden tour but have not been able to obtain tickets can start their tour at 900 Topaz Lane in the Spring Creek Golf Course community and purchase a ticket there.