This year’s garden tour was everything that Fergus Horticultural Society could have hoped for.
Excellent weather, stunning gardens and an exceptionally well attended event made the June 20 show a huge success.
The society’s garden tours present an opportunity to meet other gardeners, praise outstanding gardens, and to raise funds for a good cause.
The tradition was carried on by offering five charming gardens, each one unique, and yet all designed around our ever fluctuating climate.
The gardening season started very early this year and many blooms were at their peak days before the scheduled tour.
This year’s gardeners who chose to have their properties showcased were Marilyn and Bert Peel, Verna and Duncan Sanderson, Roberta and Rienk Vlietstra, and Chris and David Whitehead, plus the Terry Fox Park garden maintained by the Society.
Some of this year’s travelled visitors were from Houston Texas, Red Deer Alberta, Barrie, Toronto, London, Niagara and Oakville.
Donations to the Centre Wellington Food Bank raised $217 and 530 pounds of food.
The major objective of the Fergus Horticultural Society is education for all. Novice gardeners to seasoned horticulturalists spoke of the value of touring neighbouring gardens, to see various treatments and presentations.
The garden tour committee looks for these elements when selecting specific properties.
This year’s committee was co-chaired by Cheryl Yuill and Joan McWilliam.
“The main thing we look for in selecting a garden to be on the tour is some unusual feature or an interesting way of handling a problem,” said Yuill.
Specific usage of drought-resistant plants, mosses, ferns, conifers, and similar colour flowering plants are of a special interest.
Recent trends of shade loving plants, aquatic collections, and extensive colour variations of the same flowering cultivar is always a hit with garden visitors.
A specific example that was used in this year’s tour was the ubiquitous hosta. The leaves on that favourite ranged from dark blue-greens to yellow, lime greens, and many varieties in between. Variegations, leaf textures and myriad leaf shapes completed the collection.
The committee keeps a keen look out for a design where a gardener has developed distinct areas of interest or spaces with unifying themes.
Water features and scree beds that are interwoven with regular beds are a particular interest of touring gardeners.
“We would like to get a ‘low maintenance’ garden on the tour – a garden that has been developed to require relatively minimal amounts of work at specific times of the year,” said Yuill.
The society is always on the
lookout for new gardens – either the homeowner has acquired the property or garden has been recently revamped.
Past tours have had country, subdivision and heritage properties.
Many individual gardeners are urged by family, friends, or neighbours, to allow their property to be on the ssociety’s tour. Those comments are accolades that need to find a showcase.
Those who have contemplated sharing their gardening efforts with visitors should note that the ssociety is always looking for gardens of distinction. If you would like to be considered for next year’s tour, contact the society at fergushortsociety@hotmail.com.
