CHAUMONT — An inukshuk will be available for looks at Saturday’s Lyme Garden Tour. The garden of Ronald and Lynn Cornell, at 9728 County Route 125, Point Salubrius, is one of the six stops on the tour, which is held about every two years and sponsored by the Lyme Garden Club.

Other stops will be at a restaurant, a yacht club, an old farmhouse, a “landscaped oasis” on Three Mile Point Road and a sprawling property featuring an array of plantings and fruit trees.

The Cornell Garden

9728 County Route 125

The inukshuk (in-ook-shook) has been in residence for about two years. Its inspiration came just before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver when the Cornells were on an Alaskan cruise and they noticed an inukshuk was the mascot of the Olympics. An inukshuk is a stone landmark created by the Canadian Inuit used as milestones or directional markers. An inukshuk in the form of a human being like the one at the Cornells’ garden is called an inunnguaq.

Mrs. Cornell said they had the inukshuk made from stones left over when a retaining wall was built along the shore by Bach & Co.

The inukshuk, on top of a stone wall near a boathouse, shares the property with a replica Statue of Liberty along the Cornells’ driveway.

“We got it about 10 years ago when we went to Florida for bike week,” Lynn Cornell said. “In Barberville, there was a guy who had all these different things. We picked her up and brought her home. She’s been around before she made it here.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cornell purchased the 1859 summer home in 1999 and began extensive renovations. Tour organizers say the property is a showplace of Point Salubrius. The landscaping, done by local contractor Pat Burns, consists of shrubs, trees, perennial borders and island beds with summer annuals for color. A patio surrounds an old stone fountain. Lynn’s favorite plant is the clematis vine encasing the nearby lamp pole.

At the water’s edge, there’s a large gazebo that includes a complete kitchen and dining area, a shuffleboard court and the boathouse.

Bay View Gardens

26940 County ROAD 57

Douglas and Rene E. Warneck purchased this property in 2004 and have created a broad range of plantings on the six acres.

Two stone pillars mark the entrance with grape vines lining the driveway on the left. On the right, there’s a vegetable garden and several varieties of fruit trees.

In the bed by the driveway are burning bushes, hosta, and a Harry Lauder’s walking stick, which is shrub with contorted branches.

The wrap-around bed by the cottage sports baby-blossomed iris, roses, lilies and black-eyed Susans. The slope near the water features lavender, dianthus, day lilies, hosta and an oak tree.

The Higgins Garden

27237 Three Mile Point Road

Groomed lawns are dotted with beds brimming with colorful annuals and perennials. Duck-shaped planters, fish nets made of wood, wagon wheels and birdhouses add to the property’s charm. The one-room “guesthouse” has a stained glass window. The red brick pavers of the patio by the water were salvaged from Watertown’s Court Street bridge renovation in the early 1990s.

The Moore Farm and Garden

27587 Three Mile Point Road North

Laura Moore bought this old farmhouse property several years ago and three years ago replaced the house with a new home in the same style. The property’s barn, circa 1889, is being restored.

As you roam to enjoy the flowers, look out for ducks and chickens. Besides the gardens near the barn and the chicken coop, there are rock gardens with wildflowers down by the shore.

The Blue Heron Garden

12050 State Route 12E

The original garden was started by Laurie Borden, owner of the former That Borden Thing. The restaurant’s current owner, Cari L. Greene, along with gardener Cindy Fusco, extended the plantings.

There are differences in maintaining a residential garden as opposed to a restaurant garden, Ms. Greene said.

“You can let your home garden slip a little unnoticed,” she said. “That’s very unlikely in a busy patio garden filled with a continuing stream of guests.”

Several striking mugo pines and other shrubs help buffer traffic noise along Route 12E. Hostas, bee balms, alyssum, blue salvia, black-eyed Susans, weigela and coral bells fill the beds along the restaurant wall. Many other perennials and annuals are in front of the bandstand and in flower boxes.

Crescent Yacht Club

Independence Point

On the left, as one approaches the club from the driveway, near the lilacs, there are raised beds with chives, geraniums, marigolds and moss pink phlox. Nearby, below honeysuckle bushes, is another raised bed with petunias, coleus, hostas, geraniums and marigolds.

There are hanging pots by the pavilion filled with daises, geraniums, licorice and nemesia plants.

The barrels along the walk to the dock are filled with bacopa, petunias and coleus.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer