Saturday

We're back! East Vancouver Garden Tour for 2023! June 18th!

  

Hello Fellow Garden Lovers!

We're back! This year's East Vancouver Garden Tour will be on Father's Day, Sunday, June 18th.  It's our one fundraiser for Britannia Neighbours, and all the proceeds go to maintaining the Napier Square Greenway (at Napier and Commercial). We use the money we raise to buy plants and supplies and to pay people to water and pick up litter in the Greenway. We're lucky that we had a bit of cash in the bank as a cushion when Covid struck, so we managed to survive.

Like other years, this year's tour will be walkable (but won't be walking distance from Figaro's). It will be on the western edge of East Vancouver near Main Street and, once you get to the general area, it should be comfortably walkable for most people.

This year’s tour features 13 wonderfully diverse home gardens, both well established and newer ones, all hidden gems in the Main Street area, plus two unique public spaces. The tour area is generally between King Edward and 37th Avenue, extending from Main to St. George, west of Fraser.

The gardens are a mix of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees — a 30-year-old garden with rare plants and topiary, a secluded Japanese garden with a large pond, a property with a heritage outbuilding and a working riverbed, Tupper Secondary School’s extensive “rain garden,” an environment restoration and student education project, and more!

There will be home gardeners or Master Gardeners at each site to chat and answer questions.

There will be two places this year where you can check in with us and pick up your map (showing where all the gardens are, and including brief descriptions of each of them). One is our usual home base at Figaro’s Garden (https://www.figarosgarden.ca) at 1896 Victoria Drive, and the other is at Prince Edward Park, Prince Edward Street at 22nd, which is right within the tour area.

Ticket are available now and until June 17th.





There are THREE ways to get tickets — online through Eventbrite, at Britannia Community Centre, or at Figaro's Garden:

  • Click on the "buy tickets" link to get your tickets online. (Note that there's a small Eventbrite service charge on top of the $20 for each ticket).
  • Order your tickets for the tour at Britannia Centre's Info Centre, 1661 Napier, $20 either in person or by phone at 604-718-5800.
  • Drop in to Figaro's Garden to buy tickets starting May 3rd ($20 — in person and cash only).

(We recommend that you sign up for the tour ahead of time to avoid disappointment. It has been really popular in past years, and, although we will have some cash-only tickets available on the day of the tour, tickets are limited and we have been known to sell out.)

On the day of the tour, go to one of our two bases and pick up your tour map before you head off to the gardens.

The tour is self-guided and runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but this is not necessarily an event you need to come to right on time. We often get a big rush of eager beavers right at 10:00, but there's no need to hurry. You can come and go as you please. You'll see exactly the same gardens if you get started at 11:00 or noon or 1:00 or even as late as 2:00! (Do, however, make sure you leave yourself enough time to see all the gardens! We don't recommend starting the tour after 2:00.)

You could, for example, pick up your tour map at 11:00, go visit a few gardens, have a leisurely lunch somewhere nearby, and then return to see the rest of the gardens on the tour. Do, however, plan on being done by 4:00 when the gardens officially close!








Important: The gardens cannot accommodate wheelchairs or strollers. Children must be 9 years or older or babies in arms. Pets are not allowed. Please don't take photos unless you have the gardeners' permission.

If you attend the tour you will get a one-time 15% discount at Figaro's that you can use any time between the day of the tour and July 1st (Canada Day).

If you would like to get on the Figaro's e-mail list to be alerted to special seasonal discounts and sales for their regular customers, email info@figarosgarden.ca and let them know.

If you have questions about the tour, email us at britneighbours@gmail.com.


Cheers,
The East Van Garden Tour team

Wednesday

Finding Gardens for Future Tours!

As usual, for this year's tour, Sandy and Janet are scouting out good gardens in our target area. This year we're looking in the western-most part of East Vancouver.

We prefer to cluster our gardens in a relatively small area so that from the place you start, the whole tour is walkable, but we also like to save up suggestions of splendid East Vancouver gardens for future tours!

If you know of an East Vancouver garden that you think deserves to be featured on the Tour (or, for that matter, if you'd like to have your own garden on the Tour), please get in touch. Send an e-mail to britannianeighbours@gmail.com.

A couple of Commercial Drive "locals" enjoying the Napier Square Greenway... The Garden Tour is a fundraiser for Britannia Neighbours, the volunteer group that maintains the Greenway. Proceeds pay for someone to water the Greenway all summer and someone else to pick up litter just about every day all year long, and for gardening supplies and plants.




Sunday

Volunteering for the Garden Tour!

Let us know if you would like to help us organize the upcoming Tour ...

Or if you would like to volunteer to help with publicity just before the Tour ...

Also, we always need garden sitters on the day of the Tour!
If you have time to volunteer for a three-hour shift (10:00-1:00 or 1:00-4:00) as a garden-sitter in one of our beautiful gardens this year, you can take the rest of the tour for free! Plus, you get to meet all the people who go on the tour.

If you're available, please send an e-mail to britneighbours@gmail.com.

The self-guided tour runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.



Wednesday

Who organizes the East Vancouver Garden Tour? What happens to the proceeds?

The Garden Tour is organized by Britannia Neighbours. The Garden Tour is our only fund-raiser for the year and all proceeds go to support our activities, mostly maintenance of the Napier Greenway, which includes paying for someone from the Kettle Friendship Society to pick up litter almost every day all year ... and for someone to hand-water the Greenway and the big cement planters in the Britannia courtyard, as needed, all summer. And some of the money also goes to the purchase of plants and trees and hoses and tools and leaf bags and sea soil, etc.

Britannia Neighbours is a community-based volunteer group dedicated to the greening and beautification of our East Vancouver neighbourhood. Besides putting on the Garden Tour every year, we are also the group that started the Grandview Garden Club.

We work with the City of Vancouver Green Streets Program, which encourages community volunteers to beautify and maintain the City's greenways, boulevards, traffic circles, and corner bulges.

As well, Britannia Community Centre sponsors Britannia Neighbours and our various activities by providing storage, meeting space, and a snail-mail address (plus a mailbox at Brit). We also collaborate with other community organizations, including Britannia Elementary School, the Britannia Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, Figaro's Garden Centre, and the Kettle Friendship Society.

Join us! We always welcome new workers, members, and neighbours! Send us a message to volunteer with us in the Greenway — it's fun! — or to get on our e-mail list.

We have a Britannia Neighbours blog and our e-mail address is britneighbours@gmail.com. (That e-mail serves both Britannia Neighbours and the East Vancouver Garden Tour.)