Shaw Guild promises spectacular garden tour

This Niagara Boulevard garden on the tour was created to complement the colonial-style home, with stone pathways and steps, softened with geraniums and perennial grasses, ornamental trees to provide shade and colour, and a back garden freaturing Anna

The 16th Annual Garden Tour is featuring eight spectacular private gardens to view in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The June 11 event is a self-guided tour, with master gardeners on site to answer questions while participants enjoy creative and unique gardens.

Garden tour committee chair Jane Catcher, determined to make the event even more memorable, has ensured there will be something extra in each garden, with either a musician or artist on site.

“Like any event, we’re always looking for ways to tweak or change things up,” she says.

The 2021 garden tour was held late in the season due to the pandemic, so the twist was the beauty of fall gardens, as well as a little extra in the way of musicians or artists in each.

This year, there will again be a “special treat,” either a local artist, possibly painting the garden, or a musician providing some entertainment as guests stroll through. All are giving their time and talent to the event, says Catcher.

“This was one of my goals, something I’d wanted to do,” she says, and last year was so well-appreciated she wanted to do it again.

Last year, she added, was a “picture perfect day,” and hopefully will be again this year.

The guild looks for new and different gardens to feature each year, but will occasionally repeat one after a five-year span.

This year there is one repeat, but it was newly planted five years ago, and as gardens mature, they change. “It’s a completely different garden, and we didn’t hesitate to include it,” says Catcher.

New this year is a garden magazine, beautifully put together for the event, and something participants will be happy to keep. It’s free of charge for patrons who book before the day of the event, but donations will be welcome, with all money raised from the garden tour going to the Shaw Festival.

Last year’s proceeds sponsored the Christmas Carol production.

Tickets are on sale through EventBrite until June 10 for $30 per person.

On June 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., tickets will be available at any of the gardens for $30, cash only.

For more information, visit https://www.shawguild.ca/garden-tour/