Urban garden tour set to enchant

The busy bees behind the Leaside Garden Society have been buzzing about to prepare a memorable Magical Urban Garden Tour in the neighbourhood.

Led by members Margaret Rousseau and Eileen Patchett, the organization has arranged for seven Leaside residents, most of them between Laird Drive and Bayview Avenue, to showcase their gardens during the self-guided tour on Saturday, June 20.

“Leaside is one of the most beautiful areas of the city, with some lovely gardens,” Rousseau said. “This is a way for people to see the beautiful gardens, and a way of getting people from outside Toronto to come visit the gardens as well.”

The Leaside Garden Society has run the annual tour for 20 years, relying on it to raise funds for charitable projects such as library, school and hospital gardens. Those showcased this year will include include a monkey puzzle tree, more than 40 Japanese maples, a needle palm, rare perennials, Ontario vegetables and even some tropical plants.

The event is expected to attract some 500 garden tourists, according to garden society publicist Beth Parker, who adds that interpretations by local volunteers will add to the “I could do that” experience of the home garden tour.

“If you go on a garden tour in the Bridle Path, what you’re seeing is far beyond what you could ever do,” Parker said. “When you go on this tour you go, ‘I could do that!’”

The Magical Urban Garden Tour will run 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Visitors will be given a map to each of the participating houses, which will be decorated with balloons. A separate flower show will take place 12–4 p.m. at Leaside Library, at 165 McRae Dr.

Tour tickets must be purchased in advance. They are available at Gentry Clothiers in Sunnybrook Plaza, Royal LePage at 1391 Bayview Ave. and Write Impressions at 1515 Bayview Ave., among other outlets.