This year’s East Van Garden Tour is on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 16th, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be about fourteen excellent gardens on the tour.
Figaro’s already has tickets, and Britannia Centre people are ready to pre-register you.
We encourage you to get your tickets ahead of time. On tour day, there will only be a limited number of tickets (cash only!) available at our “home base”, Figaro’s Garden Centre.
Tickets are $12 per person.
The self-guided tour runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Lots of people tend to arrive right at 10:00 (or thereabouts), so there’s a big clump of people touring the gardens at the very start. Having bought your ticket ahead of time at Figaro’s or having preregistered at Britannia, if you come a bit later, say 11:00 (or noon, or 1:00, or even 2:00!!), you’ll have a more relaxing time and you’ll see exactly the same gardens without the press of a crowd!
Once you’ve bought your ticket ahead of time or pre-registered at Britannia, on the day of the tour you go to Figaro’s to pick up your map showing the locations and descriptions of the gardens on the tour. This year’s gardens are in the area just to the north of Figaro’s. Once you get to the starting spot shown on your tour map, the gardens are all within walking distance. We have some splendid gardens lined up for this year.
Note that June 16th is also Car Free Vancouver Day — especially Car Free Commercial Drive. Our tour loops down toward the Drive at about the halfway point, so you could plan to see half the tour, have lunch or a snack on the Drive, and then complete the tour.
Note that most gardens are not wheelchair- or stroller-accessible. Children must be either babes-in-arms or over 12. Pets are not allowed. Photos are allowed only with the garden owner’s permission.
We will need garden sitters! If you have time to do 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! Please let Pat Davitt know if you’re available (604-253-1885).
If you know of any extraordinary East Vancouver gardens you would like to nominate for future tours, e-mail us at britneighbours@gmail.com or contact Pat (604-253-1885).
Proceeds of the East Van Garden Tour go to support the work of Britannia Neighbours, which these days includes: the maintenance of the Napier Square Greenway; support for the summer Napier Greenway art fair “Artful Sundays”; sponsorship of a worker to water regularly throughout the summer and of another, from The Kettle, to pick up litter in the Greenway five days a week; monetary contributions to the upcoming new Britannia Community Centre sign, which will be installed in the Greenway sometime soon, and to Britannia Elementary to send a class on a field trip to the Museum of Anthropology; and a partnership with Drive Organics to make compost for the Greenway.
We thank the Green Streets program of the City of Vancouver Engineering Department for its ongoing support.
Feel free to forward this message to anyone you know who might enjoy this enjoyable, educational, and affordable community event.
See you on the tour!
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