Take a stroll through an art-filled rock garden or wander through an apple orchard on a 300-acre farm. The possibilities for exploration are diverse on this year’s “Orcas in Bloom” garden tour, sponsored by the Orcas Garden Club.

All gardens are located along the southeastern side of Orcas Island and will be accessed from Olga Road or Point Lawrence Road on Saturday, June 27 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, June 28 from noon to 5 p.m. The tour is self-guided. Watch for blue and yellow arrow signs.

Tickets are $20 and available at Smith and Speed, Driftwood Nursery, Darvill’s Book Store and at the Master Gardeners’ booth on Saturdays.

Garden Club vice president Midge Kraetzer says Orcas is a great spot for a garden tour.

“There are so many places that are intriguing, but not visible,” she said. “So this a chance to see them. And we have a lot of gardeners here, whether it’s avid amateurs or families doing vegetable gardens.”

First on the tour is Jim and Kathy Youngren’s property on 5546 Olga Road. With 300 acres on the east side of Eastsound, their late 19th century farmhouse is flanked by enormous beeches and surrounded by carefully preserved antique apple trees that were once used to develop the Washington state apple. The garden border in front of the house has plants that deer choose not to eat, as it is not fenced. In the spring there are flowering cherries, crabapples, and lilacs. The Youngrens have a total of five ponds, and a covered bridge that was built with wood milled at the property’s own saw mill. Visitors are also invited to visit the Long Live the Kings hatchery and see how salmon are raised on Orcas.

Ralph and Terrel Kaplan’s home on 380 Shore Drive has towering madrones above Eastsound and Rosario Resort. The owners have placed outdoor art throughout the garden that includes work by Orcas kinetic artist Anthony Howe and New York metal sculptor Robert Strimban, Todd Spalti and Portland artist Jim Burton. Errol Speed of Smith & Speed has designed and constructed a path to enlightenment, a juniper gazebo, rock garden on a hillside, stone paths and stone vegetable beds with Asian style. There will be garden benches by local artists and Carruth Garden Art for sale as well.

David and Barbara Evans property can be accessed by a shuttle at Rosario’s tennis courts. Through a cedar gateway visitors make their way into a peaceful Japanese-inspired garden with many “rooms.” Shade and scattered sun in this fenced portion of the garden provide ample areas for meandering paths, outdoor spaces and woodland garden opportunities. Following the Japanese design aesthetic, the garden features plant material in evergreen and perennial form with a few annual accents in a framework of native madrone, maple, alder, red cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir. Light refreshments will be served.

Olga Salsa Garden, on Olga Road at 3rd Street, is a large community garden. Since the late 1800s many years of gardens have grown on the Barfoot property in Olga to sustain family members. Venture into the hamlet today, and visitors will find a fence-enclosed plot of land adopted by local neighbors who have spent the past three years planning, digging, experimenting, and transforming it into the “Olga Salsa Garden.” The garden features an array of flowers and berries, raised beds with a huge variety of vegetables, driftwood art and a sturdy hoop house to extend the growing season.

Dick and Judy Evans’ garden at 871 Deer Point Road is located on its own cove in Deer Point off Obstruction Pass. The spacious garden slopes down to the water through plantings of salal, flowering currants, azaleas, rhododendrons and Japanese maples to a more cultivated garden at water’s edge. The garden features a rose pergola and a greenhouse full of tropical plants. Lilies, roses, espaliered apple trees, boxwood hedge, a cutting garden and a vegetable garden complete this area, which was once the site of a cattle pasture. Light refreshments will be served.

John and Wanda Evans’ land at 2963 Point Lawrence Road has pastures full of Icelandic horses and Jacob sheep. The couple left a nursery business in California only to find themselves right back in the business on Orcas with Evans Nursery. Specializing in fruit trees, Japanese maples, conifers, and shrubs of all types, this year they celebrate 20 years at this nursery.