The Creston Valley Garden Club, in keeping with a long-standing tradition in Creston, is once again sponsoring its biannual tour of gardens in the area from Wynndel to Erickson. On June 23, six private gardens, representing the labour of love of local gardeners, plus the five-acre arboretum at the former Wayside Gardens (now Beltane Nursery), will be open to the public to enjoy.
We are fortunate in having Creston’s wonderful climate and natural beauty helping our gardeners create very individual works of art in the form of gardens. All seven venues on the tour bear the mark of individual creative efforts. The tour gives the public an opportunity to enjoy the variety, the colour and scope of expression a garden provides. Perhaps they may motivate other budding gardeners to work on their own garden projects.
The tour is $10 per person, and the gardens will be open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The GoGo Grannies will be serving a lunch to the bus tour passengers in one of the gardens between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., after which lunches may be purchased by others for $8. The bus tour is limited to 40 persons and is $25, a package price for the garden entry fee, cost of the bus and the lunch.
Tickets for the bus tour are available only at the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. Garden tour entry tickets are also available at the chamber, as well as at Beltane Nursery, Morris Flowers and Morris Flowers Garden Centre until June 23. Tour tickets will also be available at each of the gardens on June 23 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Support from the Creston business community has been gratifying and helpful, with those mentioned offering to sell tour tickets and many others helped by displaying publicity posters and brochures. Three restaurants, A Break in Time Caffé, Creston Country Family Restaurant and Renee’s Roadhouse Diner, are supporting us by offering 10 per cent discounts from their menus to tour ticket holders on June 23. The local media, press and radio, are also being generous with their assistance.
Finally and most importantly, the club extends its appreciation to the garden hosts, who will have laboured hard and long to prepare their gardens for the tour. It is this wonderful spirit that makes living in a small town a great life experience.
The CVGC is a group of like-minded people who share gardening knowledge and promote activities to enhance the natural beauty of our community. The members meet the last Thursday of each month at the College of the Rockies at 7 p.m. No meetings are held in November, December or January. Anyone interested in gardening or wishing to meet other gardeners is invited to attend and become a member.
— CRESTON VALLEY GARDEN CLUB