We’re celebrating local gardens
After a successful 20th anniversary Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week with 103 gardens last year, we can only hope for that sort of generosity and kindness from area gardeners this year.
Yes, it is time to call for entries for the 21st annual Open Garden Week, which begins Sunday, June 23 — Father’s Day — and runs until Tuesday, July 2. Given the vagaries of weather, it is impossible to predict whether gardens will be ahead, behind or spot on the seasonal curve. Either way, there will be spectacular gardens and wonderful gardeners sharing their accomplishments.
Open Garden Week is an intensely local, free event in which garden owners share their efforts with visitors on the days and times of their choice. Gardeners submit their information for publication and creation of an online, interactive map.
This year ’s listings will be published in a special section in a new, visitor-friendly format. Deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 23.
Open Garden Week also is a chance to visit dozens of private gardens. It began in 1993 as a national effort by a gardening magazine. It succeeded here like nowhere else and i n 1995 became Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week.
Gardens have been open in every community of Hamilton — Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Stoney Creek, Glanbrook and the old city — as well as Burlington, Haldimand, Brantford and Paris.
We don’t know of any event like it in Canada — free and self-sustaining. As a free event, it’s not about having a fabulous garden but about sharing your efforts, whether your garden is truly great or on its way to greatness.
If you want a lot of visitors — how about more than 200 in an afternoon? — open on a weekend. If you want fewer visitors, open for a few hours on a weekday or an evening.
Encourage other gardeners in your neighbourhood to open their gardens at the same time as visitors look for clusters so they can easily drive or even walk between gardens.
Participants discover it’s about more than the gardens. It’s meeting and being a part of the community of local gardeners. And the beginning of some beautiful friendships.
Send the following information in this order:
Address, including brief directions for out-of-city addresses Dates and hours open Name(s) and phone number to verify the information. The number will not be published.
Description of your garden in 20 words or less.
Deadline is May 23. Send to rhoward@thespec.com or mail or deliver to Open Garden Week, The Hamilton Spectator, 44 Frid St., Hamilton, L8N 3G3