The University of Guelph will hold its annual trial garden open house over two days this year — Aug. 15-16 — at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute, 328 Victoria Rd.
This free event will feature Guelph and Wellington County master gardeners answering gardening questions and the Guelph Healthy Landscape Team discussing natural pest control and wise water use. The open house will take place Friday, noon to 8 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We will have lots for people to see,” said Rodger Tschanz, a U of G plant agriculture technician who manages the trial garden. “Every year we show new flowers that will potentially be available to the public in upcoming years. This year, we will also have the Insect Art in the Garden competition, which the public can participate in.”
The trial garden draws about 400 people each year. Tschanz will discuss various cultivars and visitors may explore the garden on their own. Some perennials will be available for sale as well as gardening supplies and accessories.
“Last year we had the pumpkin-on-a stick. This year we have a zucchini squash called ‘Brice’ that looks like a pumpkin but is green,” said Tschanz.
“We have three colours of gerbera in the garden as well – ‘Sweet Sixteen,’ ‘Sweet Glow’ and ‘Sweet Honey.’ Normally these are house plants, but we are having success growing them in flowerbeds. They have long-lasting flowers and continuous bloom, and look different from a lot of the garden flowers we are used to.”
For details, visit the Trial Garden website.
Contact:
Rodger Tschanz
Trial garden manager
Department of Plant Agriculture
University of Guelph
rtschanz@uoguelph.ca