Kneeling down on a mound of dark, fertile soil and getting your finger nails a little bit dirty is every gardener’s dream.
But very few walk into a backyard and carefully map out the same dream; that’s what makes each home so unique in the Trail in Bloom 2012 Garden Contest.
This year’s annual garden contest in Trail lured roughly 100 garden enthusiasts to the Colombo Lodge Piazza for the 2012 awards ceremony on Tuesday night. It was a cool summer night framed with a sheet of dark grey clouds stretching across the sky.
“I’m just happy it didn’t rain,” said Annette Gallatin, chair of the Trail Garden Contest. “We had 75 chairs set up and they filled up right away, so that tells us that the event is an even bigger success than we thought.”
The event pulled people—young and old—to the piazza in their gardening best. People sauntered across the street and rooted into the grassy area when emcee Lana Rodlie began to speak at the event.
The attentive group of attendees gathered in a half circle to hear what each gardener had achieved this year, while enjoying a glass of wine and a piece of cake. But nobody was more surprised by the results this year than Cheryl Thorimbert.
“I thought I was going to win the first time entry,” Thorimbert exclaimed at the event, “not the best overall garden.”
But the award didn’t surprise people from the Trail in Bloom committee, and for good reason. Thorimbert has spent eight years toiling in her yard revitalizing an abandoned area, acting as her platform for stress relief.
“Working on my garden has been a labour of love since I bought the house in 2004,” she said. “It was like working with a clean slate because everything had grown over.”
Thorimbert added her own unique flavour to the garden by digging up weeds and planting flowerbeds through the yard.
“It was like doing a transplant,” she said.
Rodlie, also a garden committee representative for the contest, was ecstatic about Thorimbert’s success. In addition to creating an aesthetically pleasing garden, she was able to create a design that allowed each person’s eyes to move around the yard.
“Plus it’s nice to see somebody from East Trail win,” Rodley explained. “Usually somebody from Tadanac or Sunningdale wins, but this contest is about the best garden design, not the best house.”
To visit some of this year’s garden contest winners, stop by Ferraro Foods anytime during business hours today and Friday to purchase a tour map of the homes (by donation). The committee will also be selling maps at Ferraro Foods early on Saturday morning.
In addition, tickets to Teck’s Mad Hatter themed tea party in Tadanac on July 28 will be available in Ye Olde Flower Shoppe, Trail City Hall and Century 21 Kootenay Homes.