STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

As he entered Toni and Matt Bogue’s garden, the man reached up and rang a bell as if to signify his arrival.

There were dozens of people already inside, having crossed a little bridge across a foot-wide Clear Creek enroute to viewing the garden, which was one of those on the Sawtooth Botanical Garden’s 30th anniversary tour held on Saturday.

To the left was a treehouse, made with stairs rather than a ladder for the Bogue’s daughter Georgia. A mobile made of purple beads hung from an aspen tree and prayer flags were strung across an archway.

This outdoor kitchen has a stack of wood nearby and a tree full of trophy heads woven out of grasses.

A teenager poured herself an iced Starbucks Coffee the Bogues had set out on a table along with a bowl of clementine oranges as she listened to Tim East and Ted Macklin sing “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and other folk songs. And Hailey artist Poo Wright-Pulliam painted bright red poppies spotted at the front of the house, using her fingers, rather than brushes.

The Bogues’ garden boasted the most fruit and vegetables of any on the tour this year with fruit trees, including a black apple heirloom, rooted in shallow boxes and vegetables growing amidst marigolds in 2-foot-tall boxed beds.

“It’s amazing Each garden is very special,” said Judy Whitmyre as she snapped a picture of a giant yellow knapweed to determine what kind of flower it was on her flower app. “All the gardens are very special. All the properties, so unique.”

Next door at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, Cherie Kessler, who championed the Sawtooth Botanical Garden since its beginnings, offered functional and artistic bird houses for sale, along with Sun Valley postcard plaques and little altars and shrines featuring teeny tiny rabbits and other figures in small decorated mint boxes.

A spirit house from Southeast Asia sits on one patio wall.

She used a magnifying glass to paint the detail on a new birdhouse featuring bark she’d found on the ground.

“Some are functional bird feeders that you can put outdoors. The others you can display indoors,” she said.

She pointed out some of the fun little trinkets, such as tiny animals, adorning the houses.

“A lot of it is from our old Vuarnette costumes,” she said referring to the popular girls singing group she appeared in for many years that went over the top with its colorful costumes, shoes and glasses made from scratch.

The Starks’ hot tub, which sits on a floating deck, has a view of the sun rising over the hills in the morning.

COMING UP:

The Sawtooth Botanical Garden will host its annual Walk, Wine & Art on Wednesday, Aug. 27. The event is a pleasant way to toast the end of the Sun Valley Music Festival season and the coming fall as caterers serve up hearty hors d‘oeuvres amidst wine pairings while music fills the air.

The twins--89-year-old Sibyl Hanson and Sandra Sheeline--were among dozens of people who biked around the tour. They showed up in bicycle jerseys from a 1999 Italia trip that were just as bright as the flowers the gardens boasted.