Colleen Zacharias / Free Press
Lenore and Bill Linton welcome you to their garden, one of the featured gardens on this year’s Nature Manitoba Gardens of Distinction garden tour.
Holiday Avenue Project
The 2nd Annual Holiday Avenue Project garden tour features the Winner of Best Urban Grounds 2023. Shown: Bill and Sherri Calder with City of Portage Mayor Sharilyn Knox, right.
Dennis Fast
Steinbach Area and Garden Club features seven residential gardens, a High Tea, and the Dirk Willems Peace Garden at Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach.
Talk to any gardener in Winnipeg, Brandon, Neepawa, Steinbach, Selkirk, and surrounding areas and they all say the same thing: plants are bigger, happier, and lusher than any of us have seen in recent years. That’s one very good reason you need to mark your calendars for this year’s garden tours. But you will also be treated to plant sales, high tea, artisanal crafts, artwork, music, a garden themed yard sale, homemade jams and baking, and more. Garden tours are a rare opportunity to see exceptional design and creativity and an extraordinary variety of plants as well as a chance to meet knowledgeable garden owners.
Let’s not waste another minute and dive right into a packed summer lineup of garden tours.
The Urban Retreats Garden Tour starts today, June 22nd, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 and will be available at Charleswood United Church, 4820 Roblin Blvd., starting at 9:30 a.m. Cash only. “This year will mark our 25th anniversary,” says Sara Arenson, media coordinator. Proceeds from this popular annual tour are in support of 1JustCity which provides meals and programming for three drop-in community centres in Winnipeg’s core neighbourhoods.
Visit 14 beautiful Charleswood gardens including an allotment garden with 48 raised vegetable beds and an Italian rose garden. In one of the private retreats on display, the emphasis is on plants with structural appeal achieved through expert pruning. This year’s event also features a tea, plant and craft sale at Charleswood United Church from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is $5.00 at the door.
Nature Manitoba’s Gardens of Distinction garden tour takes place on Saturday, July 6th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This is a self-guided tour with 13 gardens in the St. Vital, St. Boniface and Osborne Village areas and includes a plant sale at the St. Boniface Heritage Gardens. Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased online at www.naturemanitoba.ca or at one of several retail locations (a full list is available online).
“This is Nature Manitoba’s major annual fundraising event,” says Tami Bradford, program coordinator. The garden tour was established in 2000 and was originally named Our Natural Garden Tour.
Tim Evans, garden tour coordinator, says that the gardens on display are well established and gorgeous, from an English-style cutting garden to shade gardens, riverside gardens, and native prairie and pollinator gardens. Lenore and Bill Linton’s spacious garden is one of the featured gardens. Their expansive vegetable garden is a master class in how to grow your own food. The Linton’s have lived and gardened at their current address since 1962. Check out their innovative deer fence, backyard greenhouse, and interesting varieties of ornamental plants.
The 2nd Annual Holiday Avenue Project garden tour in Portage la Prairie takes place on Saturday, July 13, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eight tour locations are featured including Bill and Sherri Calder’s garden, 2023 Winner of Best Urban Grounds. It’s worth noting that a Portage garden has won this prestigious award the last three consecutive years.
Tickets are $25.00 and include a garden yard sale, silent auction, and craft vendors. For more information or to purchase tickets, email holidayaveproject@gmail.com. Tickets are also available at Hill’s Drug Store in downtown Portage. Holiday Avenue Project is an initiative to bring seasonal magic to the city of Portage. “The garden tour was new to us last year but proved to be very popular and a great fundraiser,” says Byrna McDermid, co-chair.
On Sunday, July 14, the Steinbach and Area Garden Club celebrates its 25th anniversary with a tour of gardens in Steinbach and a High Tea at the Mennonite Heritage Village. The ticket price for the tour and tea is $15.00. Tickets must be purchased in advance by July 9th. The tour is from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and High Tea is from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The High Tea is being held in partnership with the Mennonite Heritage Village Auxiliary who will be serving tea outdoors on the lawns of MHV.
This event will also be an opportunity to tour the Dirk Willems Peace Garden at MHV. Designed by Mike Plett, Skyview Landscaping in collaboration with SAGC, this expansive garden features a matrix of perennials and grasses inspired by famed Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf.
Ken and Barb Dyck’s garden is one of the 7 residential gardens featured on SAGC’s tour. Ken is an avid gardener who says he is astounded by the lush growth of plants in his garden this year. He has been actively working to get ready for the tour. Visitors will enjoy learning about how he converted his pond to a low-maintenance dry stream bed.
On Saturday, July 20th, the Manitoba Master Gardener Association will host its annual garden tour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 and can be ordered online at www.mgmanitoba.com. Tour 12 gardens including a community garden as well as Vimy Victory Garden located in Vimy Ridge Memorial Park. Master gardeners will be on hand at each of the gardens to answer your gardening questions.
“There will be lots of inspiration for the visitors to our tour this year,” says Shelley Walker, tour organizer. Flower-filled container gardens, vegetable box gardens, vertical accents, an English country garden, inspired tapestries of perennials, water features, architectural details – it is all here.
“We don’t live in a monochromatic world,” says Audrey McPhaden, owner of one of the featured gardens on this year’s MMGA tour. Her painterly palette is inspired by best-selling garden writer Lois Hole.
The Margaret Laurence Home, provincial heritage site and museum honoring one of the most pivotal figures in Canadian literature, is hosting its 3rd annual Manawaka Garden Party on Saturday, July 20th. Tour three extraordinary gardens in Neepawa. Every garden tells a story. Leanne Dowd’s garden which she has named Alice’s Wonderland tells the fascinating story of well-known hybridizers and plant collectors, Bill and Alice Moger, through an unrivalled collection of heritage peonies, roses, lilies, clematis, and delphinium. Dowd, author of Canadian Lily Hybridizers and Their Lilies, has worked tirelessly to research the vast plant collection she inherited when she purchased the property a few years ago.
Glenda MacPhee’s farmyard is a revelation that includes an orangery greenhouse, orchard, labyrinth, long perennial borders, a flower meadow, pumpkin patch, and barbed wire creations.
Open Garden Tours, July 20th and 21st, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. is a free weekend event where visitors gain access to some of Brandon’s most beautiful private and public gardens. For ticket information, email recreation@brandon.ca.
Red River North Tourism Garden & Art Tour features 7 gardens in the RM of St. Andrews, St. Clements, and the City of Selkirk on Sunday, July 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Native plants, water features, and beautiful vistas await you. Enjoy the works of over 15 artists including local authors as well as live demonstrations and live music. Self-guided tickets are $25.00 or travel by VIP bus to all the gardens on the tour. VIP tickets are $65.00 (includes lunch at the Shops of St. Andrews). For more information, visit https://www.redrivernorthtourism.com/-garden-and-art-tour.
Take the time this summer to see as many gardens as you can!
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