Has your garden ever been on tour?

[SWMOgardens]

I've had mine on several tours. I have enjoyed it every time. Last time I bought a giant tub of ice cream at Sams, some hersheys syrup, sprinkles, small clear plastic cups, and had self serve sundaes. It was cheap, easy, and people loved it. We had about 75 visitors. It makes all the effort worthwhile when people say nice things about your garden. How about you? Ever hosted a tour? Any good/bad stories?



Couldn't help myself, I had to add a picture.

[viktoria]

Area garden clubs often have tours here. A nearby arboretum has included my garden a couple of times in their fundraiser tours. The compliments are secondary to the pleasure of sharing my garden. I also like seeing it through the eyes of others. When viewing the garden myself, I tend to see only the things that need to be done.

Viktoria

[Linda P]

My garden was the meeting spot for a midwest Hallson gathering a few years back, and two years ago was on
the local garden club tour.
The Hallson event was a pure delight.
The day before the garden club walk, my brother was in a very serious car accident and was taken to a major
hospital a couple of hours away for treatment of life-threatening injuries, and he was in surgery the morning of the walk.
I remember very little about the whole event. My good friend came to help me answer questions, and offer
moral support, and the day went quite well. I had only one person that day who thought she had to display
her superior knowledge of hostas by telling me that she had 'all 15 known varieties'. She said this as she
was standing in the chicken yard. Okay. She pointed at a huge Sum of All and said she had that one, and it
was Aueromarginata, and she wondered how I got mine to grow so large. I just smiled and said it was
good soil, good fertilize, and pointed at the cow yard.
I've had smaller groups at times as well, and I always love sharing my garden with others.
I agree with Viktoria. When I'm working in the garden, I sometimes forget to stop and enjoy the view,
seeing the to-do list instead.

Linda P

[Linda P]

Ooops...I've been trying to edit a mistake, but it seems the edit feature isn't working today, so I'll correct it here.
It was not Sum of All, but Sum It Up, and here's a pic of the place, taken earlier the same day, where the lady was
standing when she was offering her wisdom.

P1010078.JPG GrnShn, LmPcrst,SumitUp June 08.JPG (62.66 KiB) Viewed 962 times

[renaldo75]

This summer was the first time my garden was seen in its new location. Too much rain in the spring and early summer before. I just moved it to its current location last fall. I was a bit stressed trying to get it ready for the MRHS convention. Much better a couple of weeks later when I hosted the Iowa version of the Hallson get-together. But I have good memories of both.

[isadora]

Many times. For years this garden was on an annual water garden tour here, and a couple of times on the Historical Society fund raiser garden tour. And now every year the garden club and Master Gardeners come here to see spring. It's changed and grown a lot over the years, where there was ony woods is now an extensive wildflower and hosta garden with some 500 hostas and a fern walk, plus a moss garden. We love sharing it with everyone! It's a lot of work, but fun! Like getting your house ready for a big party--you get a lot of stuff done that you would normally drag your feet over and it always looks fabulous and you can sit back and enjoy it for a while after! I think the most we ever had was about 300 people.

[ViolaAnn]

My church has done several garden tours on which my garden was included. Unfortunately, the last time it was solid rain all day and since my garden was a bit farther away from the church than some, I didn't see many visitors.

Have also been on the Ottawa Horticultural Society tour. My neighbours across the street set up a lemonade stand and did a brisk business.

And most recently, I was included in the Ontario Hosta Society bus tour of Ottawa area gardens. That was a biggie because they were all hosta gardeners. The freebies I had were hosta seedlings in Styrofoam cups. I'm on a city lot and have limited space for hosta seedlings but that doesn't keep me from growing them. I selected about 80 cups and labelled them as to pod parents and they were really scooped up by others on the tour.

Ann

[jgh]

You mean like this spring? When we were an "open garden" for the AHS Convention? When we had the party for our Hallson friends and convention folks and everybody was driven into the house by severe weather. And then after the tornado hit a few miles away and we were all able to go outside, we found that the hail had shredded most of the hostas???

Thank goodness our hosta friends are gardeners and were both kind about the damage and smart enough to see what I call "the good bones" of the garden - the design... and see past the salad-bar look of the hostas.