I don’t know how June disappeared so quickly — we’re on the threshold of July, so if you were thinking about joining the Saskatchewan Horticultural Association 6th Annual bus tour, July 17 – 19,  please call Liz at 782-2830 for full details of how to register. This gardener’s getaway tours Saskatoon this year, where participants will see a variety of horticultural sights.  Your fee for the tour includes all transportation within Saskatoon, your hotel, and admission to all the sights on the tour! Everyone is welcome; you don’t have to be a member of the SHA.

I also have some information about the Yorkton in Bloom competition: entries will be accepted until July 20 at 4 p.m. The judging will be from July 23 to 25. There is a category for just about everyone: front and back yards, mobile home grounds, vegetable garden, senior housing unit, senior housing complex, senior housing deck or balcony, commercial planter, best residential street, and Golden Bloom categories for gardeners 75 years of age and older.  So consider taking part, gardeners! Yorkton residents should be so proud of how beautiful our city looks, and it is because of the pride you all take in your own yards! So don’t be shy; enter the contest this year! To register, you can call Darren Spelay  at 786-1776.

The other day, some very dear friends invited us over for supper, and of course, we had to tour their garden! What a beautiful yard, full of wonderful plantings, and teeming with birds and their sweet songs! It was a yard that was full of the love and personality of the two gardeners! Of the many things I loved in their garden, one of the best was the gentle sound of trickling water from their two fountains.  Could any sound be more soothing or relaxing?

Some day when you and I have time, I will tell you about our many misadventures in trying to get a water feature into our yard! I will sum it up by saying we still don’t have one; and even I, the eternal optimist, have pretty much given up hope! But seeing our friends’ yard, and looking in the book that you and I have been chatting about the last couple weeks, I am filled with a renewed eagerness for a water feature.

You and I can achieve this, no matter what size of yard we have. If you are very ambitious, you could build a small pond. Perhaps a more attainable goal is to add a small electric fountain to a corner of your yard.  Remember that you want to keep it close enough to your seating area so that you can hear the trickle of the water. And if your “yard” consists of a small patio or balcony, you can still add that ambience by introducing a small tabletop fountain to your surroundings.

Right now, our “water feature” is a beautiful Japanese-style birdbath that we added to our garden in memory of Mom; the shape and style of the birdbath is very pleasing and very serene. The bowl is large and quite flat, so the water reflects the sky in a very appealing way.  

I guess the lesson I learned about this is that our gardens are made up of so much more than just rows of plants. Gardens include the personal touches that are important to us, whether fountains or statuary or bird feeders. Another dear friend was visiting our garden, and he called it “an oasis”. That is what the garden is meant to be, fellow gardeners; a place for us to enjoy and relax.  So keep that in mind as you consider what to add next to your garden.

Have a great week, celebrate this great country we call home on July 1, and when you’re working outside, be sure to wear a hat!