After a very long two-year absence, the Garden City Festival at Sacred Heart is back with a slate of displays, vendors, speakers, special events for children and the young at heart, and the always-fabulous garden tour.
If you’ve been in years past, just know that it’s for only two days this year, April 22-23. If you’ve never been and you love gardening or even thought, “Gee, that’s a cool plant,” you’ve got to come. You won’t be disappointed.
With the general admission you get to see the garden displays that are always so creative that notes and photographs can come in handy for duplicating designs at home. There are breath-taking floral exhibits, speakers and a vendors market at which you’ll be showing more self-control than most if you only leave with one or two new “must have.”
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The live butterfly house returns this year that will let you get up close with the beauties, as well as pop-up workshops and a special event for children is Seedling Saturday this year.
You can buy a ticket just for the festival and events at Sacred Heart, or go for the ticket for the festival and tour of private gardens. If you buy a ticket before April 21, you’ll save $5.
The festival kicks off early on Thursday, April 21, at 6 p.m. with the preview party. Party-goers will have food, drinks and music as well as the first look at exhibits and first shot at the goods for sale from the vendors. The event requires a separate ticket.
Friday night, April 22 from 6 to 9 p.m., features music, a seated dinner in the Sacred Heart courtyard garden and visits to the exhibits and vendors market. This event is co-sponsored with Pop-Up Augusta and also requires a separate ticket. Seating is limited, and tickets must be obtained through Pop-Up Augusta.
You won’t need separate tickets to hear from the speakers, however. Friday at 9:30 a.m. you can learn about foodscaping, and at 11 a.m. you can learn about native plants and luring birds to the garden. Saturday at 9:30 a.m., the topic is topiary; at 11 a.m., it’s sustainable gardening; and at 12:30 p.m., Campbell Vaughn, the Richmond County agent for agriculture and natural resources will talk about landscaping.
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Don’t miss out on the tour of the private gardens. There are six this year located across Summerville, Forest Hills and the Walnut Hill neighborhood in Columbia County. They are so special in different ways that at least one, if not all, will probably leave you rushing back to your own garden with more ideas. The generous homeowners who open their gardens may be on site, but if not, area master gardeners have volunteered to man the gardens and answer questions.
This year, in recognition of the theme of sustainability, patrons on the tour can use their phones to pull up the house history and plant list for each of the private gardens on tour. For those without smart phones or who prefer to read print, the same information will be available in print at each home, and it will be on the festival’s website.
You’ll find all the information you need as well as a site to purchase tickets at: sacredheartgardencityfestival.com.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
