Have a wander through a sampling of Cranbrook’s botanical paradise, this Sunday, July 9.
The Cranbrook Garden Club’s 25th annual Open Garden Day will prove to be a tour that’s refreshing to the spirit and the senses.
This year’s edition features six beautiful and diverse gardens in Cranbrook and surrounding area, many of them in the corners of the interface, and the Garden Club is urging the public to come out and wander through them.
The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; tickets are $10 and are available at Huckleberry Books and Top Crop Garden, Farm and Pet. A map is included on the ticket, which will help guide you up Weeks Road way and into the lush environs near Lumberton.
• Rock and Melissa Leduc began building their home up on the “rock hill,” at Highway 3/95, near Lumberton Road. Starting with a few small flower beds and small lawn, the the years they added, changed, then changed again. Having an abundance of rock, they incorporated a lot of rock into their landscape.
“After many back-breaking years and trial and error, we are in love with the oasis we have created.”
• Doug Lowes property on Weeks Road offers amazing views of Fisher Peak, the Steeples, and Cranbrook spread out below. It is designed to take advantage of the relaxing nature of water, with four water features (two which have musical accompaniment). Many rose bushes have pride of place, as well as a large greenhouse and orchard. The entire property is nicely embellished with statuary.
• Jenny and David Humphrey’s mature, naturalized English garden on 15th Street South, 40 years old, has matured and evolved over the years. Raised vegetable beds have transformed into a meadow of crocus, violets, grass, and unexpected floral visitors. A variety of trees display the wisdom of age. Perennial borders follow different seasons, and surround a mature pond. Shrubs are gradually replacing the perennials. An organic, living, breathing jumble!
• The lush vegetation and exploding clouds of plants and flowers at Tim Benson’s and Eric Fisher’s backyard on 2nd Street South will make jaws drop. The backyard invites you in with the serene tranquility of the gazebo and rock formation, that promotes feeling of privacy and peacefulness.
• Mike Graziano has a beautiful vegetable garden on 4th Street North, that he plants and maintains with precision rows. A masterful gardener, he started gardening in 1965. He stores his seeds in the fall, and starts his tomatoes, peppers and squash in March. Eighty tomato plants and more than 50 varieties of peppers exemplify the wonderful cornucopia that is his garden.
• The Cranbrook Public Produce Garden, on 18th Avenue North near McKinnon Park, is a community produce garden open to the public. This free public space aims to increase food security and local food education, and offers an inviting pace to sit and relax in a natural setting. With the support of five partner organizations, the garden provides the community with food, a gathering space, and educational opportunities about gardening.
Artisans and crafters will be displaying or selling their creations in several of the gardens.
The Cranbrook Garden Club’s 25th annual Open Garden Day includes a plant and garden craft sale at 224-14th Avenue North.
