The Boca Grande Garden Club held its annual garden tour on Wednesday, and visited three gardens designed by Mary Ellen Flanagan as well as two other incredibly different gardens in Boca Grande. 

The gardens by Mary Ellen were the Hamilton Garden and the Chapman Garden, which are both located in the historic district, and the Walbridge Garden on Shore Lane. They all featured many native plants and included a number of flowering plants. In addition, they all had interesting and unique places to sit and relax among the plantings. All were low maintenance, especially the Walbridge garden on the Gulf, which had artificial turf that was so realistic members had to keep touching it to make sure it was not real grass!  

BY LIZA STROUT - Dept. Dave Kardys spent his childhood looking up to his police officer father, so no one was surprised when he attended police academy and became an officer himself.

The new Lee County Deputy spent 25 years as an officer in the Hartford, Conn. police force before retiring in 2007 and moving to Florida.

In our time-honored April Fool's tradition, the Bogus Beacon has made its annual appearance in this week's edition. Check the cover of the B section, and remember ... everyone's fair game on April Fool's Day.

The public opinion surveys sent out by the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority are in the mail, and residents are asked to turn them in no later than April 15.