Tina Hood pointed to different patches of her lawn as she described how it looked when she and her husband first settled there.

“We had a little bit of grass here, and everything else was horse pasture,” she said. “The first two years we had mules eat down the grasses and had it all rototilled.”

It looks a little better these days.

On Thursday, the single acre of Tina and Ed Hood’s Dalton Gardens backyard seemed to stretch on and on in a maze of orchards, fountains, trees and mammoth blooms. Bird songs filled the air.

The immaculately landscaped property — a certified wildlife habitat — would seem fitting in any city botanical gardens.

It only took 30 years.

“If someone had been hired to do it, it probably would have cost $50,000,” mused Tina, a Realtor who has invested a large portion of her life, alongside her husband, in the garden that will be featured in “Garden Bounty and Blossoms,” the 13th annual Garden Tour put on by the Coeur d’Alene Garden Club and scheduled for Sunday.

The couple did everything in their yard by hand, Tina said.

That includes putting up the massive pergolas, planting the living fence and apple orchard and 400 dahlias, and installing the five fountains the couple made with recycled materials.

“This is our big attraction,” Tina said, walking to the sprawling pond in front of the patio.

Snugly rimmed with rocks and cedar snags Ed found and hauled in during his work with the Forest Service, the water rippled from the several Koi and goldfish swimming beneath the surface.

A heater takes care of them in the winter, Tina assured.

“They kind of go to sleep in the winter. You don’t have to worry about ‘em,” she said.

If it sounds impossible, think again, said Bonnie Warwick, the garden tour chair.

“What I love about this garden is that they did it all themselves, and so can anyone,” Warwick said. “People can come, enjoy and learn. It’s an evolving, learning garden.”

It’s also a living scrapbook of the couple’s lives.

Every ornament, tree and fountain has a story: One fountain is cobbled from pipes, shower heads and plungers the couple acquired during fix-it periods as landlords; they amassed the more than 100 birdhouses during their travels across the country; and they have decorated with countless artifacts donated by friends, like an early 20th century water main transformed into a gurgling fountain.

Tina pointed to a weather-worn bell, stationed at the center of the garden. It was once a fixture at McGee Creek State Park in Oklahoma, she said.

“They used to ring it when it was time for dinner. Now we ring it when it’s time for beer,” she said with a laugh. “The neighbors know it, too. They’ll stop over here and we’ll go out for beer or wine.”

The Hoods’ garden can viewed on the tour at 6048 N. 16th Street in Dalton Gardens.

This is only one of the impressive sites folks can take in during the garden tour, Warwick said.

The other tour gardens are located at:

• 10743 Snowshoe Drive, Post Falls

• 3208 Lodgepole Road, Coeur d’Alene Road

• 10th Street and Foster Avenue, Coeur d’Alene

• 1009 East Coeur d’Alene Street, Coeur d’Alene

• 1510 East Jabbra Avenue, Coeur d’Alene

The tour is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Advance tickets are $15, and tour day tickets are $17.

Proceeds will benefit North Idaho College scholarships and local charities.

Tickets can be obtained at numerous locations, including Ace Hardware in Coeur d’Alene, Riverview Nursery, Vanhoff’s Garden Center in Coeur d’Alene, Huckleberry Nursery in Hayden and Aspen Nursery in Post Falls.

For more information, call 664-0987, or visit www.CdaGardenClub.com.

An impressive garden does take time, Hood admitted.

Ed, now retired, spends several hours a day in the yard, she said.

“When he comes in, he’s beat,” she said, ticking off the weeding, mowing, building and planting the 62-year-old does. “What he keeps saying is he can’t believe we did this when we were both working.”