We're back! East Vancouver Garden Tour for 2024! June 16th!

  

Hello Fellow Garden Lovers!

This year's East Vancouver Garden Tour is on Father's Day, Sunday, June 16th.  It's our one fundraiser for Britannia Neighbours, and 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.

This year’s tour will feature about a dozen wonderfully diverse home gardens, both well established and newer ones.

The gardens will be a mix of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees. There will either be home gardeners or Master Gardeners at each site to chat and answer questions.

To start the tour, you check in with us and pick up your map (indicating where all the gardens are, and including brief descriptions of each of them) at our usual home base at Figaro’s Garden (https://www.figarosgarden.ca) at 1896 Victoria Drive. The tour will be in an area close to Figaro's, so you will likely be able to walk to a starting spot ... and the tour itself should be comfortably walkable for most people.

Tickets are available until June 15th.

We won't have tickets available on the day of the tour. This year, there are only TWO ways to get tickets — online through Eventbrite or in person (cash only) at Figaro's Garden:

• After May 15th, click on the "buy tickets" link to get your tickets online. (Note that there's an Eventbrite service charge on top of the $20 for each ticket and that tickets are non-refundable.)
• Drop in to Figaro's Garden to buy tickets starting May 15th ($20 — in person and cash only).

(This year you'll need to get your tickets for the tour ahead of time. The tour is always really popular and this year we need to limit the number of tickets we sell so the gardeners whose gardens we visit are not overwhelmed.)

The tour is self-guided and runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This isn't 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 be sure to leave yourself enough time to see all the gardens! We don't recommend starting the tour after 2:00. Gardens close promptly at 4:00.)

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

Important notes:

• Tickets are non-refundable.
• 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, Penny Street
The East Van Garden Tour team

Finding Gardens for Future Tours!

As usual, for this year's tour, Sandy and Janet are scouting out good gardens in our target area.

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.

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.

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

The Garden Tour is put on 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.)