Every two years, the Williams Lake Garden Club organizes a day showcasing the best gardens in the area, and the 2024 Garden and Art Tour did not disappoint.
Lemonade and shade were the order of the day on July 6, the day of the biennial highlight of the gardening season: the Williams Lake Garden Club Garden and Art Tour.
The event showcased the usual joys of gardening, from the giant purple clematis in the garden of Margaret Menzies, who has been gardening for almost 20 years, to the ingenious and clever chickens and chicks in the garden of Wanda and Phil Ranson. Menzies said that when she started gardening, it was just grass, but now her garden is full of colour and provides a cool refuge from the summer heat.
Graham and Aylie McCowry's garden introduces visitors to hugelculture, a method of layering different organic materials to create native flowerbeds perfect for vegetables.
Austin, Paola and Family’s Boulevard Gardens have also put together a themed garden display on mailbox public land, as well as a framed display of Williams Lake Tribune articles to tell the story of the garden space.
Ryona and Bunny Godin's garden is a testament to what years of hard work can achieve; with the help of their sons, they have created an incredible oasis out of blocks and stone.
The couple, who have lived on the property for 31 years, say when they first arrived the yard was on a steep slope and piled high with junk, but a single Fred & Jerry's Block gift certificate helped them start construction of a retaining wall that now features a stone waterfall.
The Tribune was not able to visit all eleven gardens, but all that it did visit were magnificent.
Art and musicians were on display in the gardens and visitors were invited to relax and enjoy the flowers. Many of the gardens also had bicycle themed artwork, including some of their own creations and a promotional art bike created by Streets for All Williams Lake for Go By Bike Week.
It's another great way to spend a summer Saturday, and the event was organized by volunteers from the Williams Lake Garden Club and open to the public by donation, with proceeds benefiting the Senior Recreation Centre's Garden Box Project.
