Eight city gardens will be showcased in this year's Medicine Hat & District Horticultural Association Garden Tour. (Photo Courtesy Christian Savard)

By Chris Brown

Garden tour about sharing beauty and ideas

Jul 12, 2022 | 2:11 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Aspiring local greenthumbs can get inspiration and advice from those in the know this weekend.

On Sunday, the Medicine Hat & District Horticultural Association hosts its annual garden tour. There are eight beautiful lawns and gardens from Crescent Heights down to Somerside on the self-guided tour.

“The garden tour is to showcase beautiful yards in Medicine Hat first of all and then secondly to give people ideas you know in terms of what they might be doing,” explains Mel Deydey, the association’s newsletter editor and communications coordinator.

“A lot of new homeowners have a blank canvas and have no idea of what to do and if they go on the garden tour they get a lot of different ideas. Because we range from very small yards to pretty big yards and some are newer and some are very mature well-developed yards.”

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People on the tour can take photos and ask questions of the homeowners to learn what to plant and what will grow well in their area.

Deydey says different areas of the city are microclimates with different soil conditions, so what might grow well on the Southeast Hill won’t work the same in Ross Glen, for instance.

Homeowners become part of the tour in different ways. Sometimes they volunteers, sometimes they are nominated by neighbours or friends and sometimes committee members ask them directly after spotting their property.

Deydey says it can be like pulling teeth to get homeowners to sign on, but that changes on tour day.

“Once they’re on it they enjoy being here and meeting different people and showcasing what they’ve accomplished over the years,” he says.

Tickets are still available at Blondie’s Gift & Garden Center, Windmill Garden Centre, Tourism Medicine Hat, Redcliff Public Library and Suntaira Growers in Redcliff. With your ticket comes a brochure listing the homeowners and addresses. Deydey says you can choose where you start and finish, as long as you’re touring from noon to 5 p.m.