Organizer Glyn Violini gets ready to sell her heather plants at the 11th annual Nelson Garden Festival.

Organizer Glyn Violini gets ready to sell her heather plants at the 11th annual Nelson Garden Festival.

A garden education in Nelson

If gardens are good teachers, there will be lots to learn at the 11th annual Nelson Garden Festival on May 12

If gardens are good teachers, there will be lots to learn at the 11th annual Nelson Garden Festival on Saturday, May 12 on downtown Baker Street.

“We have more vendors than ever,” says one of the festival organizers, Glyn Violini. “Each year the festival grows and really, community agriculture prospers.”

Violini, a heather and rose vendor who helped start the first garden festival, has seen the event grow from a few tables in 2001, to more than 40 vendors and community groups today.

Sponsored by the EcoSociety, the garden festival will again feature a stunning array of perennials, annuals, veggies, herbs and flowers as well as garden accessories and custom furniture, manure and fertilizers.

“This is where you’ll find hardy local varieties for your garden from the region’s prime growers,” says Violini. “We always hold it on Mother’s Day weekend so you can find something for mom, too.”

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine, on the 200 Block of Baker Street and Kootenay Street. For more information call 250-354-1909 or visit ecosociety.ca.

 

Nelson Star