Gardens were just about the last thing people were thinking about not that long ago with abundant snow on the ground.
That all changed rather quickly with the sudden switch to spring weather and gardens quickly became first and foremost on the minds of many.
Chemainus is having a Garden Tour again this year on Sunday, June 9, part of a big weekend in town that includes a Chemainus Business Improvement Association Classic Car Show the previous day on June 8.
Planning is well underway for both events.
A committee of Jan O’Neill, Gunnell Borge, Joy Stalinski and Donna Dorey is organizing the Garden Tour and it’s off to a great start, with seven gardens committed so far.
“In 2017, we did it for the first time,” said O’Neill. “Years prior to that, the three of us - not Gunnell - had been involved with the Chemainus Garden Club.”
That Garden Club disbanded several years ago.
After getting a tour going last year spearheaded by Borge, it simply fell by the wayside in 2018 but is back on track again and many people are looking forward to it.
“People kept saying to Gunnell (at Sandpiper Gardens), ‘I wish we still had a Garden Tour,’” noted O’Neill.
Well, those people are getting their wish and it’s shaping up to be a good one.
“In June ‘17, it was we thought a very good success,” O’Neill indicated. “We made $1,000 and we donated it to the (Harvest House) food bank. We’re doing the same this year.”
O’Neill conceded the early planning this year is paying off with the tour already only a couple of months away.
“We have seven gardens currently,” she said as of last week. “If we had a couple of more, we’d be thrilled.”
The tour is a week before Father’s Day, but seemed a good fit into a busy monthly schedule.
It runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The price of each ticket is $12, and the CBIA and Chemainus Theatre are providing sponsorship.
Patrons of the tour will have a chance to win two tickets to Mamma Mia! at the Chemainus Theatre.
There will be a good variety of gardens to see and different ones from the last tour.
“I think there’s only one that’s come back,” said O’Neill.
Sharon Greer was quick to have her fabulous garden in central Chemainus entered.
“I think I contacted Gunnell maybe the first week of January and said, ‘yes, we can do it this year,’” noted Greer.
The committee is interested in all types of gardens - container gardens, veggie gardens, flower gardens, you name it.
“I would imagine it’ll be typical June things - more rhodos and azaleas,” noted O’Neill. “There might still be a few bulbs around.”
There’s still time for interested persons to enter their garden on the tour. The committee hopes to have it all finalized by the third week of April.
O’Neill can be contacted at 250-246-5351 for more information.
The tour gardens will be centrally located to make it easier for people to see all or most of them within a reasonable time frame.
“It’s Chemainus so people could presumably walk it,” explained O’Neill.
“When we make up the tickets, the ticket will have the location of all the gardens on it.”
The combined Garden Tour and Classic Car Show, O’Neill added, will “make it a wonderful weekend for visitors to see our little town.”
