Garden Tour to feature eight unique gardens of private homes open to the public

When coming around the corner of 56 Church St the whole backyard opens to reveal a peaceful and inviting area that is meant for private relaxation.

Garden Stratford and the Stratford and District Horticultural Society invites the public into private spaces to tour how others have approached their garden. This year, on Sunday July 5, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., eight gardens are featured, each with their own spin on the approach to gardening.

There are manicured gardens, natural pollinators, those that incorporate hardscape and those that beg for dinner parties and entertainment. The Garden Stratford’s Garden Tour Committee goes to great lengths to ensure that each year there are new and interesting gardens to tour. In fact, once featured, a garden is ineligible to participate again for 10 years.

Two gardens participating in the tour are different from each other, but both are inviting and appealing. First is 56 Church St. owned by Barb Shaughnessy and Tim Forster and the second is 103 Lightbourne Ave. owned by Debbie and Tim Cunningham.

In 2020, Shaughnessy and Forster moved into 56 Church St. and began renovations in the 1867 house and overgrown garden in 2022. The house renovation provided hardscape that was repurposed into the garden giving points of interest. As much of what was in the yard that could be saved was also incorporated into the garden.

“We got to pay homage to what was here and at the same time support the contemporary addition to the house. There was almost no back yard, it was mostly cedars and stuff that had grown up over about 40 years,” said Shaughnessy.

Now, as you come around to the right side of the house and follow the path to the back yard, the expansive yard opens with a water feature, seating areas to relax, a dining area, grass and gardens of soft lines.

Coming from the country, they have had to adjust to a city-sized lot but are coping tremendously. The garden started with some plants that were transplanted from the old country home to Church Street. Look for the phlox, Stella D’oro, black eyed Susans and perennial geranium that have travelled.

“So we have a little bit of Caledon here and things that make me happy and it’s been done very much to correspond to the contemporary back of the house. There are little hydrangeas that only grow 30 inches high. It’s very regimented but when we got to the back we thought let’s have some fun and let’s put in there what makes us happy. I’m not going to say it’s a perennial garden, it’s a modified perennial garden,” said Shaughnessy.

The fun is in the shaded corner of the yard with seating and a table for a bottle of wine to share surrounded by perennials overlooking the house from a different perspective.

On to 103 Lightbourne Ave., Debbie and Tim are pleased to welcome the public to their garden that has been in development since Tim was reassigned to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The front of the house was redesigned with a stamped concrete driveway and path to the front door. Raised beds of perennials and annuals border the path to the beautifully tiled front porch that must be seen as part of the tour.

The path on the right of the house, bordered by another raised bed, leads to the sectional backyard opening with a dining area placed on repurposed interlocking brick that used to surround the pool but is now stamped concrete.

“We have lived here 17 years. The pool was here, but we have done everything else. When we first moved in, they had a lot of trees and bushes that were overgrown, so we’ve sort of been transitioning into things that are not so high maintenance,” said Debbie.

It’s clear by all the garden renovations that the Cunninghams love to entertain. Their huge gazebo accommodates a sectional sofa in addition to other seating and a TV. It’s begging for a party back there.

“Our focus is to entertain. Tim built this gazebo last year, he designed and built this,” said Debbie.

“That was my first attempt at a structure and I’m happy to say it looks pretty much like it did in my head. I had to adjust a few things as I went along, but I got to buy new tools,” smiled Tim.

Their gardening style is all about colour and pollinating flowers to attract fauna and hope for hummingbirds. It was a hard winter but luckily, they didn’t lose anything, though things have been slow to come back this year. Low maintenance is their goal and have incorporated hard scape stone and mulch to achieve this.

The garden tour featuring not only these two gardens but six others takes place July 5 and tickets are $15 each. Tickets can be purchased for cash only at Cozyn’s Garden Gallery, Klomps Home and Garden and Sebringville Garden Centre. On the day of the tour, tickets are available at Cozyn’s until 1 p.m.