Sun City Residents and members are gearing up for the Home &Garden Club on March 25th
For the more than 50 years that Danny and Debe Haller have been married they’ve shared not just a deep love for each other, but for all things growing outdoors. The Hallers moved to Sun City in January 2022. Shortly after their arrival they saw the Sun City Palm Desert Home and Garden Club on the cover of the Sun City Insider’s February 2022 edition. “I remember seeing the cover with four members of the Club holding gardening tools and smiling. I thought ‘That’s the club I want to join,’ Debe said cheerfully.
Fast forward a year later and Debe is now a member and is a busy bee organizing the Home and Garden Tour of 2023 that will be showcasing private gardens in Sun City. Her role on the Garden Tour Committee is to choose homes that will be featured and design marketing materials, such as flyers. “I’m a relatively new resident, but I have found it very insightful to tour all the prospective gardens and appreciate the creative perspective of each homeowner,” Debe says. “I’m looking so forward to our 2023 attendees’ excitement as they enjoy the beauty of our courtyards, backyards, patios and gardens.”
” GO DIG DIG”
In the early years of the Hallers’ marriage, Danny was a Project Specialist for the Boeing Company, and outdoor yard work was not on his radar. For years Debe encouraged him to go outside and get creative. Then almost overnight he developed a love for flowers in their Orange County yard. Debe, on the other hand, had loved gardening with her Grandma Pete ever since she was a toddler. “It was with her I discovered that tasting a ladybug was not a good idea,” Debe laughed. “I just loved when I could get outside and ‘get a ‘poon and go dig-dig,’ as I would often say to my mother in my toddler accent. There’s something so inspiring about gardening, but the inspiration c o m e s in knowing that God causes the growth.”
Debe relished in a fulfilling life path when she founded Hope Christian Academy, a private school for home- educating families, in 1984, and she continues as the principal to this day. In 2003, the couple also opened a country-themed bookstore for homeschoolers.
OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE GROWING AND BLOSSOMING IN RETIREMENT
For 48 years, Danny and Debe loved their home nestled between two 100-year-old avocado trees just north of Huntington Beach in Orange County. The pair raised their four children there, along with a variety of chickens, ducks, rabbits and Granny Goose, Nibbles the goat and a pot-bellied pig named Millie B Bacon. As homeschoolers, they had ample opportunity to till the ground for vegetable and flower gardens.
“I love to say that Sun City is our perpetual summer camp for grandparents since we moved here a year ago,” Debe says. “We thoroughly enjoy the warm weather, learning what to grow here and how to best establish and maintain a beautiful yard and garden.” Danny and Debe are looking forward to gleaning ideas from other Home and Garden Club members as they completely redesign their own spaces. “That includes a raised vegetable garden, water-feature pool and even a putting green,” Danny says. “We’ve decided to make this wonderful community our home, so we
are looking to bloom right here where we are planted and help encourage others to do the same.”
The Sun City Palm Desert Home & Garden Club’s 10th annual Garden Tour is coming up on Saturday, March 25, 2023. There will be nine beautiful courtyards and gardens
that are open for viewing from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., exemplifying outdoor living at its best.
SCPD residents can purchase Garden Tour tickets for themselves and their guests for $20 each. SCPD Home & Garden Club members receive a discounted ticket rate of $15. To order Tour tickets, contact Cherryl Chandler at [email protected]. The last day to purchase advance tickets is Monday, March 20. A limited number of tour tickets will be available for purchase the morning of March 25 at the bocce ball patio by the SCPD Sunset View Clubhouse.
A complimentary Tour Reception offering refreshments to all Garden Tour attendees will take place in the Sunset View Clubhouse Oasis Room from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For questions about the SCPD Home & Garden Club, contact President Louise Cummings: [email protected]. New members are always welcome!
