Mystery solved

4 comments

by John Beaulieu (Bowl-you)

On most garden tours, you usually know where the gardens are, where you are going, or whose gardens they are. Not so with the local horticultural society Mystery Garden Tour. We meet at the Legion, arrange car pools and only then are we given driving instructions. I have never been on one of these mystery tours and thought it sounded fun… A bit like going on a fun car rally.

Our first stop was north-west of Elmvale in an area known as Tiny Beaches. Not because the beach is tiny, but because it is in Tiny Township. This is just north of Wasaga Beach (on Georgian Bay) which is the worlds longest freshwater beach. The garden was at a cottage on top of a sand dune overlooking the water. I was amazed at the plants thriving only in the amount of ‘soil’ that they came potted in.

Parking was tricky, as all the laneways were marked No Parking as I guess this can be a problem with non-residents coming to the beaches. We all took a chance and parked anyway, as we were not there for a long time. We had quite a convoy of cars, as this tour has proved very popular.

There was a lot of greenery and plant material for being in sand. There were no drainage problems in this garden!

It was not far to the second location. We headed east to the village of Wyevale.

The first thing I noticed, were all the hostas. I may specialize in hardy geraniums, but still grow a lot of hostas and daylilies. I love the larger varieties especially when mature and reaching full size.

You get great ideas from simple things sometimes. The saucer of glass marbles was very attractive glistening in the sunlight.

This garden had cement blocks that are for retaining walls, but you can plant in the blocks. I keep searching for a supplier of these. And, of course all the rocks (of all sizes) caught my attention. I was told stories about the gardener chasing trucks of stones and boulders to find out where they got them, and then getting the driver to dump them in her yard! I thought I was bad with my rock collecting!

I guess I’m lucky that I have never had Japanese Beetles. I could see the damage they can cause and also how well the traps work in controlling them. They had several traps around the yard and they were full of beetles.

It was a very short drive to the third and final garden which was on the same street in Wyevale.

There were photos on display of some really unique ‘farm themed’ table arrangement that club members had prepared for an anniversary gathering. Gwen, one of the tour planners, read a letter of thanks that the club had received and told us a bit about some of the designs such as this little mini-farm scene.

Our garden hosts had a perfect yard with a patio so we could gather and enjoy the many homemade treats and tea/coffee.

A big thank you to the garden hosts and to those that organize these tours. This was my first Mystery Tour, but not my last… This was such a fun time.