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Cranbrook’s Gardens of Earthly Delights

Take a tour through our botanical paradise on the Cranbrook Garden Club’s 20th annual Open Garden Day
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Images from the Guido

Barry Coulter

Have a wander through a sampling of Cranbrook's botanical paradise, this Sunday, July 10.

The Cranbrook Garden Club's 20th annual Open Garden Day will prove to be a tour that's refreshing to the spirit and the senses.

This year's edition features seven 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 Lotus Books, Trends & Treasures and Top Crop Garden, Farm and Pet. A map is included on the ticket, which will help guide you up New Lake Road way and into the lush environs of Gold Creek.

• Albert and Janice Pelletier's garden is 15 years old, but an ongoing project, featuring a goldfish pond surrounded by different shrubs, a vegetable garden watched over by different fruit trees, and different beds of irises in full raging bloom. The Pelletier's live on Stropky Road, just west of Cranbrook.

• Up New Lake Road way, down Harris Road, Judy and Mike Guido's beautiful yard is centered around a rainbow trout pond — a bucolic setting featuring perennials, shrubs, rock and an expansive lawn.

• Also on Harris Road, Corrina and Rod Barth are working on creating an all-season setting, putting in Carl Forrester grass and other shrubs, large vegetable garden and strawberry patch, and amenities like fire pit and soccer pitch (outdoor rink in the winter).

• Farther along, down Wilson Road to Klahanni Drive, Janet and Bruce Jackett's five-acre property is also a work in progress, with the current focus on landscaping. Hanging baskets, planters, gardens located around the property and a new greenhouse are part of the attractions. "An ever-changing landscape is the best garden!"

• At the opposite point of the compass, to 25th Street South off Hidden Valley Road, Lynette and James Eliason's property is an agricultural delight — a bird-friendly setting with fenced off garden and separate test orchard, many varieties of fruit trees, fruit-bearing shrubs, grapevines, and all sorts of fantastic experiments going on. And don't miss the bees — Lance and Bobby Cuthill will be on hand Sunday to demonstrate a glass observation beehive and hold forth on bee theory.

• Back into town we go, to Daphne Breus's place on 14th Street South, near Kootenay Orchards School. Daphne's garden may be small in comparison, but it is lush and wonderfully designed. Her garden's performance invites you to be the audience.

• Closer into downtown, to 7th Street South, where Werner and Susan Froese have been working hard for 12 years to transform a clay-heavy, hilly terrain into a veritable park bordering on Joseph Creek, with Nanking cherries prominent among the natural and plant flora, and wild deer wandering through.

The Cranbrook Garden Club's 20th annual Open Garden Day includes a Garden Day luncheon at Christ Church Anglican's Centennial Hall (nine dollars at the door), and a plant and garden craft sale at 224-14th Avenue North (by the Key City Theatre). More information available upon purchase of ticket.

Let it be noted: This August marks the Cranbrook Garden Club's 25th anniversary celebration. Watch these pages for more information.