Richmond Garden Club Members Only Garden Tour 2009

Every year the Richmond Garden Club puts on it's Members Only Garden Tour. I always look forward to this event. Usually this is in July, my garden was is full bloom so I got a little creative and fashioned a flower hat for the occasion.

Here is my flower hat, a simple wicker hat with water spikes wired into the had, there are 3 types of roses, Abraham Darby (2 peach coloured ones on either side), Black Magic (3 to the centre, 2 to the upper, dark red) Double Delight (pink & white centre, what a wonderful scent) there is also Lady's Mantle (yellow flowers on green), lavender stems and Rhododendron. I kept the hat in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Here I am with my flower hat, taking the time to smell the roses. If any group of people would appreciate such a hat, it would be amongst my fellow gardeners.
A really neat potting shed. What a great use of doors and windows. If only I were that handy.
A little art in the garden. How every day items, new and old can be put on display and add a little cents of whimsy.
A nice place to sit a relax in the garden, but as any gardener will attest, it is a rare scene to see one resting in the garden, the moment you sit down to admire your efforts, you see something else that needs fussing with, and off you go again.
I really like the natural look of this fence around the vegetable garden.
Beautiful combination.
Poppies.
This was a neat little piece of garden art, a stone frog in the bird bath.
Enough said.
This goes to show you that container gardening can still offer up a lot of texture and colour to your outdoor space.

I really like the look of Geraniums in clay pots. It leaves me with an old English, glasshouse kind of feeling.

A sunny south facing wall is a perfect spot for tomatoes, they just need a big enough pot and lots of water.

To end the tour we visited a more natural garden, I saw so many dragon flies flying about. It was easy to capture a great shot of one, they are so pretty.

I like to visit as many gardens as I can, they are always filled with great idea's and such inspiration.

Richmond's First Seedy Saturday at Terra Nova Rural Park

It was a crisp Saturday morning at the Terra Nova Rural Park. I was excited about attending Richmond's First Seedy Saturday. In years past I've been to the Vandusen event, but I was so pleased that we now have one of our own.

I had just been to the Terra Nova Barn last week when I attended the Backyard Chickens information session.

As I approached the familiar red barn, I found myself walking a little faster, wondering what kind of seed's I would find.

The barn was buzzing with activity already, it was 10:15 and things were just getting started.
There was so many things to see. The Richmond Garden Club http://www.richmondgardenclub.com/index.html had a table, they were selling seeds that they saved from the Paulik Gardens, and also some seeds that they had found in old mason jars, saved from the original property owner and caretaker.
There were mason bee houses for sale, honey, Heritage seeds from Harold Steves, as well as the Richmond Pesticide Awareness Coalition.

Then in the middle of the room there it was, the sharing table. This was for anyone who wishes to put down seeds that they had saved from their garden, or just extra seeds that they were willing to share. I placed my contribution on table and then jumped in to begin sorting through the seeds, seeing if there was anything that I could use for this years garden. I must have spent 20 minutes just going over everything. I pocketed a half dozen packets of seeds and then I proceeded outside.

There set up just outside the barn was Laurelle Oldford-Dawn from The Urban Fruitery selling a bunch of varieties of Blueberry bushes. I couldn't walk away without buying one, the variety I chose was Reki, a heavy producer of big blue berries, I can't wait.

Next I made my way over to get my pruners sharped by donation. After a few minutes they were good as new.

I finished off the morning with a walk through the community gardens. The fresh air, quite surroundings and sunshine made for a enjoyable walk.

The seeds I selected from the table, looking forward to growing and eating those.

Some of the other seeds I dug up from years past. I almost forgot I had them. Some seeds are anywhere from 2 to 6 years old. I hope that they will still grow, there is one way to tell.

To test seed germination, I sprayed down some paper towel strips, placed some seeds from each packet between the moist paper towels, my daughter helped me count out the big ones. I placed each strip in a small snack sized zipper bag and wrote the name and date on it.

I placed the bags next to a bright window, and waited to any signs of activity.

After a week, I checked the seeds and to my surprise, the majority of the seeds had germinated, the few that didn't might just need a little more time. My daughter was happy to see the little seed she had helped me with last week now looks so different. I'm sure she will have lots of fun with me in the Garden this year.