Bradley Huson stands in his Oysterville garden with a colorful backdrop of the historic Oysterville Church and a rhododendron. His is one of the five gardens on the tour.

The Water Music Festival Society is back for the season, planning a slate of activities on the Long Beach Peninsula to promote classical music. The nonprofit’s community events will also benefit Ocean Beach School District music programs.

Leading off the season, the group will organize a spring garden tour, set to take place in Oysterville on Saturday. Later in the summer, the group plans to add a summer tour in July.

“We are excited, absolutely, as we have been disappointed not to be able to do it for two years,” said Nancy Allen, who chairs the group’s tours. “We have always had musicians in the gardens, and we have had to cancel. People were disappointed, but now everyone is ready to get back.”

Proceeds will be shared with the Oysterville Community Club, which is raising funds for repairs and maintenance on the Oysterville School House. Tucker Wachsmuth, a club board member, emphasized that grants have helped pay to replace the roof and paint the inside. “There are still a few items we are trying to fix up,” Wachsmuth said.

The building, which replaced a larger structure after it burned, operated as a school until 1957. The location, remembered fondly by some longtime residents, was a hub for activities. “It was a real big part of the community at one time,” Wachsmuth said. Visitors to the Oysterville School House can now support another project, the Oysterville Science Academy, an educational program for children. Diane Buttrell, who leads that program, will be selling raffle tickets.

Wachsmuth noted that the academy, and a prior community lecture series, were excellent uses of the building. “That’s what we consider it’s there for,” he said.

Allen, a retired educator, is excited to broaden the garden showcase to the northern tip of the Long Beach Peninsula. “Oysterville has had spectacular gardens for many years, but they have been saying, ‘Not yet’ when we have invited them to show them off,” she said. “This year they are going to be on a tour of their own.”

She credits homeowner and keen club supporter Bradley Huson for spearheading the Oysterville display. “He has done a remarkable job with his garden, and he helps others,” she said. Huson, a landscape architect, has studied in Scotland, and returns often to Great Britain and Ireland to celebrate a love of gardens.

He and Oysterville neighbor Kevin Berry collaborated on a 400 foot herbaceous border. His own garden features rhododendrons, azaleas and hydrangeas, as well as ferns. His main challenges in selecting plants? Wind and deer. “If it’s not getting blown over, it’s being chewed down,” Berry said with a laugh.

Oysterville Spring Garden Tour

Featuring the Water Music Festival Society

Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission is $50, including a tour map and garden admission. Tickets are limited, masks and social distancing will be required. Gardens are not wheelchair accessible.

www.watermusicfestival.com

Allen noted that although tickets to the tour have been sold to people from Seattle, Portland and Cannon Beach, towns with enthusiastic community garden clubs of their own, the event is a way to link peninsula neighbors. “It is really a local, social event, people reuniting with their friends as well as seeing the gardens,” Allen said.