Summer Blog - Claire H.

July 16-20, 2018

     This week, the entire summer gardening crew made the trip out to Strathroy to prepare for a special summer garden tour hosted at the A.M. Mac Cuddy Gardens. On Wednesday morning we installed fresh mulch along the hatchery bed where a huge assortment of varieties of daylilies were in full, glorious bloom. By the afternoon (and after many, many, loads of mulch), all of the garden beds surrounding the Cuddy house looked crisp and picture-perfect. The dry and alpine gardens were refreshed with a thorough weeding and raking, and the hoop-house / plant sale center was sorted, organized and ready to go. After a final watering and weeding on Thursday, 50 Master Gardeners arrived from Peterborough making the Cuddy Gardens the honorary final stop on their tour of excellent southwestern Ontario gardens. As expected, Pam's and Lisa's tours of the gardens were adored by all of the Master Gardeners. Many guests requested plants that were featured in the gardens such as the showy daylilies, alpine poppies from the alpine garden, and hostas from the Louise Weekes hosta collection. Many of them expressed a new-found love for the rarely-seen Cuddy grounds. The tour was a huge success! Not only did it give the students a unique opportunity to learn from Masters in the field with decades of experience, but it was also commented many times by the Gardeners that they were thrilled to interact with students passionate about their discipline. Additionally, the plant sale grossed approximately five hundred dollars which will contribute to the Horticulture Program and help us to maintain the beautiful grounds.