Pearl Lorentzen

Lakeside Leader

A Marten Beach pottery studio will be one of the stops on the Second Annual Garden Tour organized by the Lesser Slave Lake Regional Arts Council.

Also new will be a presentation at the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation about how to attract birds to your garden. This will be over lunch, with food made by The Fix in Slave Lake.

The Garden Tour is Saturday, July 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Participants meet in the parking lot behind The Fix.

The tour takes most of the day, “because it’s a fair bit of traveling out of town,” says Georgie Gauthier, one of the organizers.

However, both travel and lunch are included in the ticket price.

“We take a coach bus,” she adds, so everyone travels in one vehicle.

There is space for 30 people on the tour.

The tour will go to 12 gardens: seven in Marten Beach, two by Gilwood Country Club and Golf Course, and three in Slave Lake.

“We spend approximately 20 minutes at each yard,” says Gauthier, “which is plenty.”

The gardeners will be in each yard to answer any questions.

The event goes rain or shine.

Last year, it rained about half of it, says Gauthier. But that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the participants. They got off the bus and walked around the yards in the rain.

Last year, the tour was of Widewater and a bit of Slave Lake. This year, it goes north.

“We’ll try to make it an annual event,” says Gauthier. “We did sell out last year.”

Tickets are $40. People can buy them with cash at The Fix or email slregionalartscouncil@gmail.com and send the money by e-transfer.