The McCormick Garden Club recently welcomed residents and visitors alike to its annual “Petals and Paths” garden tour, showcasing a diverse collection of beautifully maintained home gardens throughout the area. From vibrant succulents and butterfly-friendly landscapes to charming hard scapes and seed-grown plantings, this year’s tour highlighted the creativity and dedication of local gardeners. Elaine Ross shares insight into the inspiration behind the event, the planning process, and the positive community response to one of McCormick’s most anticipated spring traditions.
Q. What inspired this year’s garden tour theme?
We asked all of our members to submit their suggestions for the title of the home garden tour. We had several entries and the garden club board members voted and selected the “Petals and Paths”. We thought it encompassed what the tour should be.
Q. Approximately how many homes or gardens participated this year?
Many of our garden club members suggested homes that might be interesting for others to see and experience. We narrowed it down to five home gardens. We felt that five gardens was a good number that allowed the public to tour and enjoy without being overwhelming. We needed to be cognizant too of the distance to travel between each garden so people weren’t having to spend a lot of time driving between gardens.
Q. Were there any standout features or trends in this year’s gardens?
Really each of the gardens were special and unique in their own way. I think that is what helped make the tour so successful. We had one garden with amazing succulents, one that attracted butterflies, one with a good variety with many of the plants started from seed and one that had more mature plantings with many beautiful hard scapes that enhanced their garden. We were pleased that we could showcase a wide variety of garden type and plantings.
Q. What kind of planning goes into organizing the tour?
It requires a lot of planning and organizing. We started planning our tour in October. It was important to get an early start to selecting a committee, reviewing potential gardens and connecting with garden owners so they could plan and prepare their gardens for the tour. Once we were set on these items we assigned committee members to serve as coordinators for each garden and be the home owners point of contact. Then we got photos of each garden and designed the ticket/flyer and an advertising poster. The committee distributed the posted to local businesses and all of the garden club members got tickets to sell.
The Thursday prior to the Saturday tour, we coordinated a pre-tour of the gardens with all of the garden tour homeowners and treated them to a casual dinner and appreciation gift afterwards.
Q. What feedback did you receive from attendees?
We have gotten all positive feedback from people who attended the tour. Some even said it was the best one they have attended here in the McCormick area.
Q. Are there any upcoming McCormick Garden Club events that SLV residents should keep an eye out for?
Well we are celebrating National Garden Week in June from the 7th-13th. We will be doing an Ask the Master Gardeners event at Thompson Hardware on June 13th. We build a float at Christmas and we provide a craft project for the Primetimers in December. We will also be selling holiday wreaths in October to help support the many charities we support in the McCormick area.
Q. How does one join the McCormick Garden Club?
All someone has to do is connect with one of our members and/or attend one of our monthly meetings and sign up. You can also send an email inquiry to mccormickgardenclub@gmail.com.