Victoria Beach Area Garden Tour

This past Saturday, the Friends of Gardens Manitoba organized a garden tour of this area with support from their local garden club.  I had always heard that there were numerous beautiful gardens in this area, so I was very excited to see them being offered this year.  Every expectation I had was fulfilled!  The gardeners of these gardens are truly dedicated and can certainly grow everything.

Three of the gardens were on the shore of Lake Winnipeg. This I am sure is a challenge in itself with the sandy soil and winds.  It was nice to see the gardens incorporating local rocks and driftwood of the area.  A lovely wind sculpture made of driftwood was intriguing.  Mushrooms made from the local rocks.  One garden had an outdoor 'pizza' oven.  Its design was taken from the Ukrainian bake oven style.  I came too late for the pizza sampling!  This garden was also the home of a stained glass artist with beautiful examples of her work.

Most of these gardens were built and are maintained by husband/wife teams.  One husband had a glorious Hosta garden.  I had not seen such a beautiful and extensive Hosta garden as this one since a tour in England many years ago.  Plus, on the hot day it was noticeably cooler, and a nice peaceful respite.  Being thickly planted keeps the weeds away and as he says....'more time for a beer'!  The wife's part of the garden is huge and could quite well compete with Assiniboine Park's English Garden. 

On reading an English magazine and their Open Garden program they have, any of these gardens could well have qualified.  The magazine even spoke of  the best garden to have a refreshment, tea and cake.  I could say the same for one of these gardens, a wonderful cherry/coconut slice with fresh raspberries from their garden.  Thank you to the gardener who also shared her recipe.