By Emma Bouthillette
Staff Writer
Pink, yellow and white lilies, yellow coreopsis, bonica roses, hibiscus and hydrangeas are a few of the flowers in the eight gardens featured on the 14th annual Private Gardens of the Kennebunks garden tour.
The self-guided tour is an annual fundraiser for the Child Abuse Prevention Council of York County and runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., this Saturday, July 19.
The council is a nonprofit organization with a mission to prevent child abuse and neglect, said Executive Director Laurie DuPaul.
She said the council visits schools and offers programs such as “Break the Silence,” a video program educating students about types of abuse, and “Baby Think it Over,” a program for middle and high schools, giving students a baby simulator to show them what it is like to care for a child during a 24-hour period.
The eight gardens featured along this year’s tour are in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. Homeowners have volunteered their time preparing their gardens, allowing people into their yards and guiding them through the gardens. The day of the tour, visitors are given a map  and homes will be marked with balloons, DuPaul said.
“We get suggestions of who should be featured and talk to local landscaping businesses. Some of these people, gardening is their hobby, and for others they hire people to do the landscaping,” DuPaul said.
Bob McLaughlin and his wife, Elaine Triplett, spend at least 20 hours a week tending to the gardens that encircle their Kennebunkport home. McLaughlin has put together an eclectic mix for his landscape, and said he designs the stonework and structural layout of the gardens, while his wife selects the flora to design the flowerbeds. He said his influences come from cultural interest in China, Japan, Italy and England.
The Japanese Zen Dry Garden includes a wide space of crushed stone, which McLaughlin said he raked in a wave pattern. McLaughlin said raking the crushed stones in the Zen garden is a form of meditation. Surrounding the garden are various types of plants including lilies, coreopsis and a Japanese maple.
“I think I’ve found the secret of gardening. It could take me half an hour or two hours to weed a section, but I do it in two hours. This isn’t work for me – it is fun,” McLaughlin said.
Walking through the garden, McLaughlin points out the Italian style bocce court and stepping stones with imprints of his grandchildren’s hands he created among the flowers on either side. His latest addition is a shovel spearing the trunk of a tree, holding a pot of petunias. He said when the shovel broke, he had this idea, and just had to do it.
“None of the gardens in last year’s tour are featured this year. We have all new gardens, and typically we see around 800 people that do the tour,” DuPaul said.
Kennebunk’s Paul Parent hosts “The Paul Parent Garden Show” on five Maine radio stations airing from 6 to 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings. He fields questions from listeners and interviews people in the gardening business from around the state. When he isn’t hosting the radio show, he said he is tending to his own gardens or assisting in the design of others.
While Parent’s front yard boasts gardens along the walkway and fencing, the backyard looks like a different world. Somewhere between the flowers and greenery there is a deck, pool and hot tub, but the garden dominates. Those on the tour will walk through the gate alongside the house and find themselves beside a newly installed Japanese garden. Closer to the back deck is a small waterfall and pool with lily pads and a resident turtle.
“We choose the flowers that bloom at different times of the year so you don’t have a big show then it is all done. Perennials only bloom for up to four weeks and that is it. You have to like a lot of foliage. We spend a lot of time out here (the backyard) and that is why we decorate so much,” Parent said.
The garden tour raised $13,000 last year. The Child Abuse Prevention Council of York County Interim Development Coordinator Debbie Duross hopes to raise at least the same amount this year.
“We are very hopeful. Having Paul Parent, he has publicized the event on his radio show. It has generated a lot of calls for people who are interested in seeing his garden,” Duross said.
Tickets can be purchased for $20 on the day of the tour and  are available at Carrots & Co. in Kennebunkport, Marlows in Kennebunk, Blooms and Heirlooms in Kennebunk, Rivergreen Bank in Kennebunk and Focal Point Gardens in Arundel.
For more information on the Child Abuse Prevention Council of York County, call 985-5975.