With the 2015 Arts and Music in the Gardens right around the corner, we just had to share an update and let you be among the first to know what's new and exciting about HCP's most important fundraiser of the year!

So far more than 30 uniquely skilled artists are confirmed, and the roster of music talents is filling up quickly! With much gratitude, we thank many returning and some new participants. The event this year promises to have something for everyone.

New things on our 'menu' include new partnerships with de Vine Vineyards and Sea Cider. We are pleased to have them on site to offer visitors a Wine and Cider Tasting experience. As well, we are looking into expanding our food options, so stay tuned for updates!

As our memorable garden festival approaches (August 15th & 16th), we would like to encourage you to get involved. We need a great many volunteers and a great amount of word of mouth. Thank you in advance for sharing the event with your friends, family and colleagues - together we will ensure the 21st annual Arts & Music in the Gardens is something truly special for you and the greater community to enjoy.

Carol-Lynne Michaels
Event Coordinator

Now the hot weather has arrived the gardens are bursting into life, but I hope we will have some rain this summer because the soil is already very dry.  Meanwhile, the sunshine and the warmth have brought so much of the garden into flower!

The roses all down the Rose Allee are a wonderful sight - all those colours and flower types blooming practically at the same time. And we are making progress in training the climbers over the decorative arches; the central arch is now covered completely with an attractive pink variety.

There are some spectacular irises flowering now, and the Phlomis and Sisyrinchiums in the drought -tolerant garden show an excellent contrast between their yellow flowers and their blue-grey foliage.

The students have been planting annuals into the two large beds below the rotunda and in the semi-circular beds around the gathering place.  We have some attractive supports for climbers this year. They are constructed of Miscanthus stems and, hopefully, the annual climbers - Eccremocarpus and Mina Lobata - will make a great show. We also successfully propagated some Passion Flower vines this year, so they should also mix in well. 

And this is the moment to take a look at the Black Elders; there is one in the Hardy Plants garden. Their enormous umbel-like flowers look marvellous against the deep mauve foliage.  In short, all the plants are putting on a great show!

Our new garden shed is now complete. Thanks to Paul Frost for all the work that he put into it. . . with a bit of help from other volunteers. Making choices for finishing details by committee led to some amusing conversations, but we all are happy with the finished product.Having seed donated by West Coast seeds was a real bonus this year. Everything that we planted in the greenhouse germinated. The radishes came up and did very well. Some of the other outdoor plantings did not fare so well. Warm conditions, lack of rain, a watering system that still needs more tweaking....these are all issues that we are still dealing with.

Another big issue that we are dealing with is the soil. We revamped the entire veggie garden two years ago, and it is taking a long time to build the soil back up. We now have club root in many of the beds, so we are seriously limiting the planting of brassicas. Some beds seem to have a huge population of slugs. 

Having listed the problems, we should mention that we are taking several steps to improve the soil. This included adding llama fertilizer, steer manure, peat moss, loads of leaf mulch, sand, and compost. The llama fertilizer is a new experiment, so we will report later how beneficial it was. 

Other than making real efforts to improve the soil, there is not much new in our planting. We are again trying sweet potatoes and tromboncino squash. We cleaned up a spot near the compost and put raspberry canes in that area. We have several pots now, some growing miniature tomato plants and others with a variety of things that are on trial. Some contain flowers that are just for fun; some because they are edible. We have grown quinoa for a few years and have it planted this year as well, but it does not produce a large crop and is very labor intensive to harvest...however, the plant is very showy. Summer is nearly here. We anticipate plentiful harvesting, and we invite you to come and visit our garden at any time.