Tour the city's finest gardens this summer
By Tayla Scott
They say to look in your own backyard – but how about taking a sneak peek into some of your neighbours’ most beautiful landscapes instead? It’s almost time for the 13th annual garden tour, run by the Castlegar Garden Club.
This self-guided tour takes place on June 22 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and allows garden lovers to view and appreciate some of the beautiful gardens in Castlegar and the surrounding area.
“We focus on a different area each year. This year it’s Ootischenia, Robson and Castlegar,” said Nora Jukes, co-ordinator of the garden tour.
Participation in the tour is by donation.
“Every year we submit our donations to a charity and we choose a different one each year,”said Jukes.
This year the donations will go to Castlegar Friends of Parks and Trails.
“[The tour] was started back in 2001 by two garden club members. They moved away a number of years ago but the garden club kept it on,” said Jukes. “It was part of our whole desire to help people appreciate nature, to share beautiful gardens in the area. We wanted to have a day where we could celebrate gardens being open to the public.
“You don’t sign up for it, you just arrive on the day out at the Windborne Bed and Breakfast. Mirja Vahala is an artist and art teacher, and she will be having other artists working, painting or drawing. So you can enjoy seeing the artists at work there.
“We’re having music at garden number four between 10 a.m. and noon. The Wind River Flute Quartet will be playing there,” said Jukes. “Its really fun to go out and meet other gardeners and we do give the people who are hosting the garden tour on the Sunday the opportunity on the Monday evening and the Tuesday evening to go around to each others’ gardens,” she said. “Then we have an evening where we show our appreciation to the people who’ve been hosting.
“We only ended up with eight gardens this year, we usually have between eight and 10 gardens each year,” she added.
The Castlegar Garden Club is looking for new gardens to be in the garden tour next year.
“It is on the same weekend every year, the Sunday after fathers day,” said Jukes. “Next year we were hoping on focusing on Pass Creek and doing the loop coming back through Thrums.”
Anyone interested in showing their garden next year can contact Nora Jukes at 250-365-6753.
Comments