GWA Durham Garden Tour/Meeting
June 24-26, 2005

 

Group photo courtesy of Andrea and Jan from Durham Region

It may not seem like a long time, but one thing you will find when you are a member of the Garden Writers Association and you attend a meeting - you will see so much, eat great food, meet old friends and make new ones, plus network! These meetings are so important so I try to make as many as possible. Our region is Region 7 - that covers Canada and International. We have a huge diversity of places to meet and they are so much fun!

Veronica Sliva is one of our Directors - she not only puts together our meeting at Canada Blooms, but also put this weekend together. What a super time we all had - She worked very hard to put together a wonderful mix and I hope you enjoy this recap.

I left Edmonton early Friday morning and arrived into Toronto where my friend Wendy picked me up at the airport and off we set for Oshawa. Now I had never been to this part of Ontario before and was looking forward to seeing it. Half of us were in the Holiday Inn Express and the other half were in the Travelodge, a few minutes away from each other. Oshawa Transit Commission provided the bus for us this weekend and after getting settled into our rooms we headed to Tyrone Church to see their wonderful little garden before Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery for dessert and wine tasting.

Tyrone Church used to have a big shed behind it housing horses and carriages ... it was built in 1926 and was much needed at that time. Over the years it was used for other purposes like an ice skating rink, church suppers and dances and in 1952 the top part of it was sold. This left the concrete walls with the tie rings still in the cement walls where the horses were tied up. What a wonderful start to the enclosed 'Foundation' garden! What they then did was take it and divide it up into little seating areas, little gardens within a larger garden. There is one there for children as well, so they can have their tea parties. Delightful and people can come in little groups and sit and chat. This is truly a community garden as many hands and hearts went into its creation.

Our next stop was to the Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery ... we were toured around a bit of the orchard to see the various types of apples being grown, then we were treated to desert - wonderful deserts complemented with suitable wines for each one ... delicious! Of course many of us took the opportunity to purchase wines to take home ... including a wonderful apple cider perfect with savory cookies we had also tasted. All locally produced. http://www.archibalds-estatewinery.on.ca/ Thank you to Fred and Sandy Archibald and the Municipality of Clarington for this lovely evening.